174 THE RETROSrECT OF TUE YEAR. 



hiötoi'ical mater'nils ; thoiigh dead, yet he will be in the fu- 

 ture c()iitril)uting mnterial iiiel in the promotioii of historical 

 studies and research. 



Dr. Emmerton'rf 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 pei'son to occupy a 

 place on the board of trustees ot" the nevv pnblic library, 

 to which he was called by a vote of the eity 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-officio, chairmen ; vacan- 

 cies by death or resignation to be fiUed by the remaining 

 members). We cainiot conclude this notice of Dr. Ennner- 

 ton without alluding to the assiduous care und attention 

 that he bestowed upon his aged fatherdnring thedeclining 

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

 March 22, 1877. i 



Admitted to membership, January 14, 1856. 



William H. Foster, the oldest bank ofEcer 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 Emnierton was a son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (New- 

 hail) Emnierton, born in Salem, July 6, 1791, married Jnne 8, 182(i. Mary Ann, 

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

 Commercial pur^uits were his life's business; in the early i)ait foUowing 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 familiär Calcutta Chan- 

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

 gage. lle 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 sliaving 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 iie was a liberal 

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

 conieliness. 



See Hist. Coli. Vol. XIV, p. 277. 



