Dr. Dana of Newburyport

After ordination, communion. officiated. About 700 communicants.

July 21, 1819. Went to Salem to attend the installment of Mr. Elias Cornelius. Mr. Abram Patch my delegate. Met with the council at 9 o'clock in the vestry. Went to the Tabernacle church at 11 o'clock. Mr. Codman, 1st prayer: Dr. Beecher preached; Mr. Smith. ordaining prayer; Dr. Worcester, charge; Mr. Emerson, Right-hand; Mr. Blackford, last prayer.

[In 1820 Dr. Cutler sent in his resignation as President of the Bible Society on account of his ill-health.

In June, 1820, his portrait was painted in Salem, by Mr. Frothingham. He was in his 79th year at that time.

Dr. Cutler was himself a remarkably neat and successful farmer. He made many careful experiments in the tillage of his land, and used the most improved implements in his labors, and sought to promote the best methods among his people. The following letter to Benj. Guild shows a plan to extend these benefits more widely. It may have prompted the action of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, who at their next meeting, November 6, 1785, passed the following vote: That a Committee be appointed, whose special Business shall be to attend to the several branches of husbandry; to make experiments, and to endeavor improvements therein; to pursue such methods as they shall judge proper to engage others in promoting the same design; to connect any gentlemen, whether Fellows or not, with themselves, in prosecuting and perfecting the end of their appointment; to publish from time to time such observations as they may de termine to be beneficial to the community at large; and from time to time report their proceedings. A Committee was accordingly appointed, which consists of the following gentlemen: Hon. John Bacon, Esq., Loammi Baldwin, Esq., David Cobb, Esq., Hon. Richard Cranch, Esq., Rev. Manasseh Cut

among the heathen in Ceylon and Madras. He married Harriet Lathrop, eldest daughter of Charles Lathrop, Esq., of Norwich, Connecticut. Memoir of C. L. Winslow, by Mrs. Hutchins.

ler, Hon. Francis Dana, Esq., Hon. Timothy Danielson, Esq., Rev. Samuel Dean, Dr. Aaron Dexter, Hon. Timothy Edwards, Esq., William Erving, Esq., Dr. Joshua Fisher, Dr. Ebenezer Hunt, Rev. Simeon Howard, D.D., Hon. Jonathan Jackson, Esq., Hon. Benjamin Lincoln, Esq., Hon. Levi Lincoln, Esq., Rev. David Little, Hon. Samuel Osgood, Esq., Hon. R. T. Paine, Esq., Hon. George Partridge, Esq., Rev. Phillips Payson, Hon. Samuel Phillips, Esq., Hon. Oliver Prescott, Esq., Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., Hon. William Sever, Esq., Hon. David Sewall, Esq., Hon. John Sprague, Esq., Hon. Nathaniel Tracy, Esq., Hon. Cotton Tufts, Esq., Hon. James Warren, Esq." This Committee met, and a number of Regulations were agreed upon, one of which was: "That the attention of all the members of the Committee shall, as much as possible, be applied to agriculture in its various branches and connections, particularly for promoting a greater increase of the products of this State."

"The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture," was formed, and Dr. Cutler's certificate of membership is still preserved.]

[To Benjamin Guild, Esq.]

IPSWICH, September 21, 1785. Sir-Agreeable to the proposal of the Committee, that the members give in their respective plans for promoting Agriculture, in writing, I beg leave to suggest my ideas respecting such a plan, which you will find in the paper inclosed. My reasons for proposing an incorporation from Government are, that our object appears to me of such magnitude as can not be successfully pursued without their countenance and aid, and that it is evidently of so much importance to the interest. and prosperity of the state that it can not fail of meeting their approbation. The plan of the Massachusetts Society is proposed, that gentlemen of more distinguished characters. may take the lead, correspond with foreign Societies or members, have the principal management of premiums and communications, render the institution more respectable, and that there may be a general depository for every thing worthy being preserved.

The County Societies I must think of singular importance, because the success of such a design will eventually depend on the spirit and exertions of the yeomanry at large; that there is a necessity for many to be invited to take an active part who will be exceedingly useful in carrying on the design, but would be improper persons to have the principal management. Besides, their number and distance would be too great to expect any advantages from their being incorporated in one body. But, as the members of the County Societies will probably be taken from nearly every town, and consist of men who will have influence with their neighbors, in this way a very general attention may at once be excited. By meeting in Societies where they will have an opportunity of hearing the subjects of Agriculture canvassed, a spirit of ambition and inquiry can not fail of being excited, and diffused among others.

With respect to premiums, they will doubtless be useful, and in some instances of great importance; but I am fully of opinion if they are made the basis of our plan, the main design must fail. The operation of premiums must be partial; they may excite extraordinary exertions in a few instances, but can never call forth a general attention to all the branches of Husbandry. The most effectual premium, I conceive, that can be offered, will be information of what can and ought to be done. The present almost total ignorance of the people, and the little pains they will ever take, merely of themselves, to get information, render it highly necessary that special pains be taken to make them acquainted with what improvements have been and may be made. I have, therefore, great expectations from a course of publications in the public newspapers, under the direction of the societies and their committees. In this way, extracts from all the best writers on Husbandry, especially such parts as may be adapted to the soils and circumstances of the people in this state, improvements already made, and experiments not yet tried, the advantages to be expected, etc., may be made to circulate among them. The mode will be ready and cheap. Newspapers have now a considerable, and would probably have a greater circulation. But I would not depend only on Newspapers. Communications to the Mas

sachusetts Society, and collections they may make, I should hope would afford a fund for a periodical publication, perhaps once a month; and what had been published worthy preserving might be again published by them in a volume or pamphlets, with other matters.

I have had opportunity of conversing with a considerable number of farmers in this county since I was in Boston, and find they discover dispositions to engage in experiments and improvements in agriculture, beyond my most sanguine expectations, did they know what to do. I would not wish to be, but confess I am enthusiastic in this matter, could we be so happy as to concert a good plan.

Is it possible the General Court can object to a corporation which is designed to excite the industry and activity of the whole state in a matter upon which their very existence almost depends, in which the whole community is jointly concerned? No member can receive the smallest emolument to himself, only in common with the whole community; but, on the other hand, imposes a voluntary tax on himself for the public good. Do they fear combinations that may affect government? If so, why may there not be some saving clause in the incorporating act? I wish the Society to be as abstract as possible from every thing but the design of its institution. But, on the whole, should the committee disapprove such a plan, I shall cheerfully join in any other that may tend to promote so important a design. When a plan is agreed on, pray be so kind as to inform me by a line.

I am, with the highest esteem,

Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

M. CUTLER.

P. S. Would it not be worth while to avail ourselves of the sentiments of some of the principal characters in Government respecting some kind of plan similar to the inclosed?

[Some extracts from a sketch written by Mrs. Eliza Poole Wheeler, for a young brother, give us pleasant memories of Dr. Cutler and his home. She says:

"You ask for any knowlodge I have of our venerable grandfather, Rev. Dr. Cutler, of Hamilton. I shall enjoy com

municating any reminiscences that still linger in my memory, or facts received from others.

"Dr. Cutler's benevolent, genial, and handsome face, his. tall, well-proportioned, portly figure, dressed in a black velvet suit of coat and small clothes, black silk stockings, and silver knee and shoe buckles, was very grand to my childish eyes. His manner was of the old style, courtly type, so rare in these days. His courtesy, though dignified, was affable and alluring. His fine social nature was enlarged and cultivated by his free hospitality, that seldom left a vacant seat at his table; and which, he used to say, should be extended to an equally liberal horse-pitality.

"He married, early in life, Miss Mary Balch, daughter of Rev. Thomas Balch, of Dedham, who possessed a not less amiable and hospitable disposition. Her figure was small and her manner graceful; her complexion a clear brune, while his was a pure blond, with ruddy cheeks.

Unambitiously settling in a small village, in 1771, called Ipswich Hamlet, not even incorporated, his salary was proportionally limited. I think it never exceeded $450, as the annual amount, with perquisites of wood and other favors, as was the custom; but a handsome income was the result of boarding and teaching candidates for college, and pupils in bookkeeping and navigation from Newburyport, Salem, Ipswich, and other towns in the county. Social and genial, he was a lover of good cheer; his table never lacked abundance or variety, and this was the time when the flow of soul was swiftest, and the dessert was enlivened with a hoarded anecdote, or the relation of a droll incident, or experience. This habit he encouraged as a sanitary measure to create the laugh that waits on appetite, for a merry laugh was his delight.

"It was always a joyful anticipation to us (the children of Dr. Joseph Torrey, and of our father, Deacon Fitch Poole, who married Dr. Cutler's daughters, and the families were near neighbors in Danvers, now Peabody) when we were al lowed permission to go to Hamilton, a drive of nine miles, and we always claimed the privilege on the old election day for the Governor, which was the last Wednesday in May. The five boys of the Doctor, the eldest of whom was Rev. Dr. Joseph Torrey,