108 



transmitting for safe-keeping the seal of the "Eastern Stage Com- 

 pany," and oifering some extracts from the records of the Company. 

 It was chartered in 1818 for twenty years. It ran coaches between 

 Boston, Portland, Essex, Gloucester, etc. When it expired, in 1838, 

 the Boston and Lowell Railroad had pushed out a spur towards Ando- 

 ver and Haverhill, and the Eastern Railroad was opened to Salem in 

 August of that year. The directors, with four or live hundred horses 

 on hand, and unable, up to the last moment, to reduce their stock be- 

 cause travel was increasing, were in a trying dilemma, but acquitted 

 themselves to general satisfaction. The safe, speedy, and cheap trans- 

 ]3ortation of persons and property was one of the great problems of 

 modern civilization. Commerce had heretofore enjoyed the sea freely. 

 Now a new inland commerce was springing up, which was necessarily 

 under restraints and controlled by few persons. They can create towns 

 and raise or depress real estate, and affect the price of commodities. 

 This raises an interesting problem, — one which is just now attracting 

 great and deserved attention. 



Hon. Allen W. Dodge hoped that a historj^ of the Stage Company 

 might be gleaned from its records. He remembered in his boyhood, 

 at Exeter, the entire confidence of the community in its financial and 

 practical management. Even the drivers were important characters. 

 He spoke highly of some of the corporators, and repeated verses writ- 

 ten by Miss Hannah F. Gould, on the passage of the mail-coach 

 through ISFewburyport, when the writer was anxiously awaiting news 

 from a sick relative. 



Mr. Rantoul, after some general remarks, then narrated several 

 facts relating to the historj^ of Chipman Hill, in Beverly, which he had 

 gleaned during his antiquarian researches. It was named for an emi- 

 nent and scholarly family. It was sold by General H. K. Oliver's father, 

 to ■' that notorious Hugh Hill," the terror of the commerce of the Brit- 

 ish channel during the Revolution. He captured and brought home 

 the library which, as Dr. Bowditch saj's in his will, formed the nucleus 

 of the Athenaeum, and excited the Dr.'s interest in the mathematical 

 sciences. The late Lieutenant John Hill, of Salem, in trying to trace 

 a relationship between himself and Hugh Hill, thought he had discov- 

 ered that Hugh Hill was a cousin of Andrew Jackson. Eacts were 

 stated bearing on this theory. — [Printed in full in the Historicax, 

 Collections, Vol. VIII.] 



Mr. Dodge presented two antique metallic spoons, one of which 

 was found in Hamilton, and the other, which he presented in the name 

 of Captain Samuel Day, was found at Ipswich Beach. On comparison 

 with other old spoons in the collections of the Institute, it was found 

 that there were several of the same kind as those presented, and that 



