174 THE RETROSPECT OF THE TEAR. 



historical materials ; though dead, yet he will be in the fu- 

 ture contributing material aid in the promotion of historical 

 studies and research. 



Dr. Emmerton's interest in libraries and library systems, 

 his familiarity with books, having had a large and valuable 

 library of his own, his taste for literature and the fine arts, 

 his interest in local history, also the leisure to attend to the 

 duties, rendered him a very suitable person to occupy a 

 place on the board of trustees of the new public library, 

 to which he was called by a vote of the city council on the 

 evening of February 27, 1888 (the board of trustees con- 

 sists of six persons originally elected by the city council, 

 with the mayors of the city, ex-offieio, chairmen ; vacan- 

 cies by death or resignation to be filled by the remaining 

 members). We cannot conclude this notice of Dr. Emmer- 

 ton without alluding to the assiduous care and attention 

 that he bestowed upon his aged father during the declining 

 years of his life, and even to its close which occurred on 

 March 22, 1877. l 



Admitted to membership, January 14, 1856. 



WILLIAM H. FOSTER, the oldest bank officer in the Uni- 

 ted States, and cashier emeritus of the Asiatic National 

 Bank of Salem, died at his home in that city, on Friday 



'Captain Ephraim Emmerton was a son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (New- 

 hall) Enimevton, born in Salem, July 6, 1791. married June 8, 1826. Mary Ann, 

 daughter Of Daniel and Deborah (Silsbee) Sage, [b. April 1, 1815. d. March 22, 1879.] 

 Commercial pursuits were his life's business; in the early part following the seas, 

 captain or supercargo, or both, of vessels engaged principally in the East India 

 trade and after his marriage, employing his capital in the familiar Calcutta chan- 

 nels, and afterwards in the Zanzibar trade, in which he was one of the first to en- 

 gage. He was one of the original members of the Institute, joining the Natural 

 History Society in 1834, holding a position on some of the important committees, 

 and early sharing the awakened interest in Pomology which made the gardens of 

 Salem so famous forty or fifty years ago, he pushed to its utmost the capacity of 

 his little city-garden. In the Institute exhibitions of those times he was a liberal 

 contributor, displaying pears in sixty odd varieties unexcelled in their waxen 

 comeliness. 



See Hist. Coll. Vol. xiv, p. 277. 



