168 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



Meimbers. It is with a profound sense of the losses 

 which have occurred to the Institute, since its last aiinual 

 meeting, that we refer to the deaths of several of its 

 members, some of whom have been widely known as 

 holdii)g Ol- haviiig held official relations, or as contributoi's 

 of papers to the publications, of books to the library, 

 of maimscripts of various kinds to its archives, specimeiis 

 to the cabinets, portraits and other paintings to the art 

 department. These have left blanks in oiir fellowship it 

 seems impossible to fill. 



Eleazer Austin died on Sunday, March 10, 1889, at 

 his residence, 58 Lafayette street, Salem; son of Richard 

 and Isabella (Symonds) Austin, and was born in Salem 

 May 14, 1804. In early llfe he was a shoe manufocturer, 

 having his faetory on Hamilton street; subsequently, for 

 fifty years, in the lumber business, having a wharf on the 

 South river and his ofBce near South bridge. He was 

 the United States assessor of internal revenue for ten 

 years. In 1877 he was elected an assessor of the city 

 and served continuously in that office until 1886, when 

 he retired on account of ill health. He was also an alder- 

 man in 1854 and 1855, and a member of the first board 

 of trustees of the Plummer Farm School for boys. Mr. 

 Austin was a worthy man in every relation of life, pos- 

 sessed of good judgment, and was highly esteemed. 



Admitted to membership May 21, 1856. 



George Francis Choate, of Salem, judge of probate 

 and insolvency for the county of Essex, Mass., died at 

 Sharon Springs, in New York, on the llth of July, 1888. 

 He was the son of William and Lucretia (Burnham) 

 Choate, was born in the town of Essex, Feb. 9, 1822, 

 and was descended from one of the oldest and most re- 



