Records of Meetings 



Meetings of the Association 



regular meeting, october 21, i916 



The meeting was held in the assembly hall of the Museum, 154 Stuy- 

 vesant Place, New Brighton. 



First vice-president William T. Davis in the chair and sixteen persons 

 present. 



The minutes of the regular meeting of April 15, and of the annual meet- 

 ing of May 20, 1916, were read and approved. 



Mr. Ira K. Morris exhibited an old wooden ballot box and read the fol- 

 lowing memorandum in connection with it : 



From the commencement of the use of this old ballot box, some time 

 prior to 1766 and up to about 1820, perhaps later, there were three voting 

 precincts in the town of Castleton. The first was in the vicinity of the 

 locality now known as Tompkinsville, the second was on the North Shore 

 at the present West New Brighton, and the third at Four Corners, now 

 known as Castleton Corners. 



Voting would commence at Tompkinsville and continue from sunrise 

 to sunset. This program would be repeated on the second day on the 

 North Shore, and on the third day at Four Corners. I have conversed 

 with a number of old men who have placed their ballots in this box. 



Captain Richard S. Cary, grandfather of the late Thomas S. Cary, of 

 West New Brighton, was clerk of election in the town of Castleton for 

 many years. When the election was over, the clerk was always expected 

 to keep and care for the ballot box and " fixtures," also documents, etc., 

 until the next election. When larger boxes were needed this one was con- 

 sidered valueless and for many years it has been a mute relic of the past 

 in some secluded nook of the Cary homestead. 



Mrs. Emily Keyes, daughter of the late Thomas S. Cary, with her 

 brothers, Messrs. Elmer and Frederick Cary, 'have recently come into pos- 

 session of their father's personal property and have cheerfully given the 

 old ballot box to the writer, in order that it may be preserved by our as- 

 sociation, and in their name I present it. 



This is, in all probability, the oldest ballot box preserved intact in the 

 United States. Could the interesting incidents in which it has mingled be 

 written in full it would form a new history of the old town of Castleton. 



Dr. Arthur Hollick exhibited and read extracts from the original manu- 

 script diary of Robert G. Livingston, Jr., written during the period from 



