The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 643
flitting memorials of our history. As the result of
the consultation then held, an association was instituted, having for its object the collection and preservation of books, pamphlets, manuscripts and curiosities, bearing on the biography and history of men
and things in the United States, from the earliest
period. A constitution was immediately adopted,
and a Society was organized by the name of the
DORCHESTER ANTIQUARIAN AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY.
Hon. Edmund P. Tileston was elected President;
Edmund J. Baker, William D. Swan, and Henry M.
Leeds, Curators; Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., Corresponding Secretary; and Edward Holden, Librarian.
Pursuant to the original design of the association,
a large library of books, pamphlets and manuscripts
has already been collected, special efforts being made
in regard to mementos of Dorchester, of which the
Society already has a well-filled casket; and yet there
is room for large additions, which they hope to receive from their fellow citizens-so that not nothing
which may form a record or an illustration of our
history, may fail of permanent preservation.
The Society early appointed a special committee,
consisting of James M. Robbins, Edmund J. Baker,
Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., William D. Swan, Edward
Holden, Edmund P. Tileston, and William B. Trask,
to collect and publish a general history of Dorchester. How well the commission has been executed,
it ill becomes the Society to declare. Judgment
upon that matter is reserved for the candid reader.