ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1904.

    THE Annual Meeting was held at the University Club, No. 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Monday, 21 November, 1904, at six o’clock in the afternoon, the President, George Lyman Kittredge, LL.D., in the chair.

    The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved.

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by Mr. Albert Matthews.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

    Since the Annual Meeting in November last, the usual five Stated Meetings of the Society have been held in the building of the American Unitarian Association. For the courtesy which has been so liberally extended, the Council has already expressed to the Association the thanks of the Society.

    During the year we have lost by death two Resident Members,

    • Henry Dwight Sedgwick,
    • Henry Walbridge Taft;

    and one Corresponding Member,

    • John Andrew Peters.

    There have been added to our Rolls four Resident Members,

    • Augustus Peabody Loring,
    • Francis Blake, Thornton
    • Marshall Ware.
    • Adams Sherman Hill;

    and one Corresponding Member,

    • Herbert Putnam.

    The papers communicated at our meetings have, as usual, covered a wide range both in time and subject, and have provoked interesting discussions and comments.

    Volume VI. of our Publications has been completed and is now in the hands of the members.

    The Treasurer’s Report will show in detail the financial condition of the Society, but the Council wishes to call particular attention to one gift. Mrs. Sarah Moody Toppan has presented to the Society Five Thousand Dollars, to be added to the publication fund, as a memorial to her husband, our late associate, Robert Noxon Toppan. The nature and the object of this gift are peculiarly gratifying.

    It gives the Council great pleasure to make to the Society the important announcement that the sum of Five Thousand Dollars has been subscribed to provide for the salary of an Editor of Publications; and the Council will at this meeting ask the Society to take such measures as are necessary to make this sum available for its special purpose. This amount has been generously contributed by the following members:

    • George Vasmer Leverett,
    • Henry Winchester Cunningham,
    • Frederick Lewis Gay,
    • George Nixon Black,
    • Charles Goddard Weld,
    • Joshua Montgomery Sears,
    • Charles Francis Choate,
    • Gardiner Martin Lane,
    • Henry Lee Higginson,
    • Thomas Minns,
    • Walter Cabot Baylies.

    For the next five years, therefore, the salary of the Editor of Publications is assured; and it is hoped that at the end of that period, through gifts which shall meanwhile be presented to the Society, it will not again be necessary to appeal for a special subscription.

    The Treasurer submitted his Annual Report, as follows:

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

    The By-Laws require of the Treasurer, at the Annual Meeting, a statement of his financial transactions during the preceding year, of the amount and condition of the Funds, and of the character of the investments. In obedience to this provision, I have the honor to submit the following Report.

    CASH ACCOUNT.

    receipts.

    Balance, 19 November, 1903

     

    $1,063.12

    Admission Fees

    $40.00

     

    Annual Assessments

    700.00

     

    Commutation of the Annual Assessment of two members

    200.00

     

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    2.80

     

    Interest—

    2,151.35

     

    Mortgages assigned or discharged

    16,300.00

     

    Withdrawn from Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank for investment

    300.00

     

    Subscriptions towards the salary of an Editor of Publications

    1,200.00

     

    Sarah Moody Toppan, to constitute a permanent publication Fund in memory of her husband

    5,000.00

    25,891.15

       

    $26,957.27

    expenditures and investments.

    University Press: printing and paper

    $1,234.45

     

    A. W. Elson & Co.: photogravure plates and plate printing

    168.40

     

    Index of Volume VI

    100.00

     

    Clerk hire

    55.10

     

    William H. Hart, auditing

    5.00

     

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    284.84

     

    Deposited in Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    304.86

     

    Mortgages on improved Real Estate in Boston

    22,800.00

     

    Interest in adjustment

    310.85

    25,263.50

    Balance on deposit in State Street Trust Company of Boston, 15 November, 1904

     

    1,693.77

       

    $26,957.27

    The Funds of the Society are invested as follows:

    $42,200.00

    in First Mortgages, payable in gold coin, on improved property in Boston and Cambridge; and

    30.50

    deposited in the Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank.

    $42,230.50

     

    TRIAL BALANCE.

    debits.

    Cash

     

    $1,693.77

    Mortgages

    $42,200.00

     

    Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    30.50

    42,230.50

       

    $43,924.27

    credits.

    Income

     

    $1,693.77

    Editor’s Salary Fund

    $1,200.00

     

    Publication Fund

    1,100.00

     

    General Fund

    4,930.50

     

    Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Edward Wheelwright Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Robert Charles Billings Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Robert Noxon Toppan Fund

    5,000.00

    42,230.50

       

    $43,924.27

    Henry H. Edes,

    Treasurer.

    Boston, 15 November, 1904.

    The Committee, consisting of Messrs. Francis Blake and John Noble, Jr., appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer for the year ending 15 November, 1904, reported, through Mr. Noble, that the accounts had been accurately kept and were properly vouched, that the Cash Balance had been verified, and that the evidences of the Investments had been examined.

    The several Reports were accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication.

    Mr. S. Lothrop Thorndike, on behalf of the Committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year, presented the following list of candidates; and, a ballot being taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected:

    PRESIDENT.

    • GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE.

    VICE-PRESIDENTS.

    • WILLIAM WATSON GOODWIN.
    • MARCUS PERRIN KNOWLTON.

    RECORDING SECRETARY.

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM.

    CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

    • JOHN NOBLE.

    TREASURER.

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES.

    REGISTRAR.

    • FREDERICK LEWIS GAY.

    MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS.

    • THORNTON KIRKLAND LOTHROP.

    The following votes, recommended by the Council, were offered by Mr. Henry H. Edes, and unanimously adopted:

    Voted, That the Society gratefully accepts the gift of Five Thousand Dollars from Mrs. Sarah Moody Toppan, to be added to the permanent publication funds of the Society as a Memorial of her husband, and that it be forever called the Robert Noxon Toppan Fund, the income only of which shall be used.

    In accepting this gift, the Society wishes to place on record an expression of its appreciation of Mr. Toppan’s active and devoted interest in its work, his generous gifts of money, his learning, and the charm of his fellowship.

    Voted, That an attested copy of the foregoing vote be sent to Mrs. Toppan.

    Voted, That the name of the Gould Memorial Fund be changed to the Benjamin Apthorp Gould Memorial Fund.

    On the recommendation of the Council, Mr. George V. Leverett offered the following Amendments to the By-Laws for the purpose of creating the office of Editor of Publications, and permitting the incumbent thereof to receive a salary and to have a seat in the Council:

    Voted, That the By-Laws be, and they hereby are, amended as follows:

    In Chapter IV, Article 1, after “named,” insert “and an Editor of Publications, who shall be annually elected by the Council.”

    In Chapter IV, Article 4, after “Society,” insert, “except the Editor of Publications.”

    In Chapter XI, Article 2, after the first “shall,” insert “elect annually an Editor of Publications, and”.

    These amendments were unanimously adopted.

    The name of Mr. Worthington Chauncey Ford was transferred from the Roll of Resident Members to that of Corresponding Members, since he has removed his permanent residence from Massachusetts to Washington, D. C.

    After the Annual Meeting had been dissolved, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were Dr. Aksel Andersson, Dr. Henry P. Bowditch, Rear-Admiral Francis T. Bowles, Dr. James R. Chadwick, the Rev. Dr. James De Normandie, the Rev. Dr. Samuel A. Eliot, Dr. Henry P. Walcott, and Messrs. Melville M. Bigelow, Solomon Lincoln, and Charles Card Smith. President Kittredge presided.