143 



FIELD MEETING AT DANVERS CENTRE, FRIDAY, 

 SEPT. 5, 1873. 



THE fourth field meeting, the present season, was held 

 at Danvers Centre, this day, postponed from the day pre- 

 ceding on account of unfavorable weather. The 9.25 

 train from Salem took the party to the Plains, where 

 carriages were soon in readiness for conveyance to the 

 meeting house, which was the place of gathering for the 

 day. A somewhat informal meeting was then held, and 

 the various points of interest designated, and then the 

 party separated into groups and went in vapious direc- 

 tions, as inclination dictated ; the botanists repaired to 

 the woods ; the larger portion, however, under the lead 

 of very instructive guidance, visited several of the old 

 houses that are invested with an historic interest ; or the 

 sites of others that had long since crumbled into dust, 

 marked by a depression of the earth, with a few loose 

 stones lying around. 



The meeting house in which the party assembled is the 

 one which accommodates the church and society that 

 began in the year 1G71, having been set off from the 

 First Church in Salem at that time, and known in our 

 early records as the Salem Village Church. The first 

 house was built in 1671, and was connected with the 

 witchcraft delusion and witnessed many of its trials. The 

 second one was erected in 1700 upon the site of the pres- 

 ent house, and stood until 1785, when it was voted to 

 build another upon the same spot. This third house was 

 destroyed by fire, Sept. 24, 1805. The society decided 

 to have a new meeting house, which was built upon the 

 same spot that the last house stood upon. This fourth 

 house was of brick and was known as the "Brick Meeting 



