87 



Joel's woods, where the botanists obtained many choice specimens 

 of our native flora (Joel, whose name is thus commemorated, was 

 not a wealthy land owner, but a colored personage, who attended to 

 such essential duties as devolve upon the village sexton) ; the Neck, 

 Head's Hill, and Cogswell's Hill, where were obtained fine views of 

 the windings of the Merrimac, the stirring and busy city of Haver- 

 hill, and the green meadows and picturesque slopes which rise from 

 the river banks; the great maple tree at the old ferry, a tree of 

 wonderful growth, with a trunk of eight feet in diameter; John 

 Day's mill in the Boxford limits, where bone fertilizers are prepared ; 

 and Chadwick's pond, a fine sheet of water, half in Bradford and half 

 in Boxford. 



Bradford is a town of about two thousand in population. It has 

 one church, the present house being the fourth since the estab- 

 lishment in 1682, in December of which year the Kev. Zachariah 

 Symmes was settled. Many of the people cross the bridge to attend 

 Sabbath worship in Haverhill, and the distance is less than many go 

 in our larger towns and cities. It may not be generally known that 

 the wholesale shoe business, now so successfully pursued at Haver- 

 hill, began originally at Bradford. About the year 1792, Messrs. 

 Dodge and Terry went to Georgetown, D. C., where they sold Brad* 

 ford-made shoes on commission; and this trade was subsequently 

 kept up for thirty or forty years. 



At 1 P.M. the various parties reassembled to partake of a bountiful 

 collation arranged under the trees on the common by the spirited and 

 hospitable citizens ; after which they repaired to the New Bradford 

 Academy, and assembled in the hall of that institution for the after- 

 noon exercises. 



At 2 P.M. the meeting was called to order by the President, who, 

 in his opening remarks, alluded to the pleasure of visiting this old 

 town of Bradford, which in the early settlemeet, was included within 

 the limits of Kowley, and was known as Merrimack, and Kowley vil- 

 lage on the Merrimack, and in 1672 was incorporated as a distinct 

 township under the present name. This academy, in whose hall we 

 now meet, is one of the oldest of this class of institutions, having 

 been organized in 1803, and is one of the few that has survived the 

 vicissitudes of the times. It has recently been enabled, by the liber- 

 ality of its friends, to erect this beautiful and convenient structure. 

 After noticing some of the incidents in the early history of the Insti- 

 tute, and specifying a few of its objects and aims, the President called 

 for the reading t)f the records of the last meeting by the Secretary. 



The Secretary announced the following correspondence : 



From Die Naturforschende Gesellschaft Des Osterlandes, Altenburg, Dec. 26; 



Armstrong, J. F., Cleveland, O., May 13; Akklimatisations-Verein, Berlin, Feb. 8; 



Die Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde, Berlin, January 24; Boston Public 



