23 



many, may be considered as the first professional gardener in this 

 vicinity. He came from Amsterdam to this country in 1780, bringing 

 professional diplomas and recommendations. Soon after his arrival 

 he commenced his horticultural pursuits in the employment of John 

 Tracy of Newburyport, where he married. In 1790 he removed with 

 his family to Salem, and continued the same avocation on the farm of 

 E. Haskett Derby, in Danvers (now Peabody), and in many of the 

 gardens of Salem, Danvers, and other towns of the county, until 

 nearly the time of his decease, which occurred April 3, 1817, at the 

 age of 66 years. He was highly esteemed as an intelligent, upright, 

 kind hearted and religious man ; and to him our people are indebted 

 for the introduction of many valuable fruits, and for largely develop- 

 ing a taste for an occupation which has, from that time to the present, 

 received much attention. 



Ezekiel Hersey Derby was the third son of E. Haskett Derby, above 

 mentioned, a name distinguished in the commercial annals of jSalern 

 as pioneers in the trade to the East Indies, which has contributed so 

 largely to the wealth of this place, and opened a new field to the ever 

 ready enterprise of its citizens* He was a graduate of Harvard, ofc 

 1791, and not having the family love of adventure on the ocean, 

 marked out a new path for himself on land, in the pursuits of agricul- 

 ture. Inheriting an ample fortune, he took possession of the family 

 estate in South Salem, and about the year 1802, began to trans- 

 form it, under his improving hand, into a delightful residence ; the 

 extensive garden and grounds, with the ponds, green-houses, borders 

 of flowers, shrubbery, orchards and belts of forest trees, many of 

 choice imported varieties, soon became one of the most agreeable 

 features in our landscape, and will be pleasantly remembered long 

 after the waves of an increasing population have destroyed every ves- 

 tige. Here he passed the greater part of his active years in advancing 

 his favorite studies and the objects of the Massachusetts Society for 

 the Promotion of Agriculture, haying been one of the founders and 

 for many years a trastee. In our own County of Essex, his name 

 holds a permanent and honorable place. 

 He died October 31, 1852, aged fourscore years less one day.* 

 The Salem Gazette of Friday, July 13, 1810, contains an interesting 

 account of the opening of a flower of the Night Blooming Cereus 

 (Cereus grandifiora) in the garden of E. H. Derby, on the Monday 

 evening previous, and that several of the* citizens were gratified with 

 a sight of this rare, beautiful and magnificent flower, undoubtedly its 

 first appearance in Salem. The next flowering of this plant which we 



*8ee obituary notice in Salem Gazette, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1852. Genealogy of 

 Derby Family in Essex Institute Historical Collections, Vol. iii, page 287. 



