The Portland daily press., 1889-02-23
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
pedicates Its Quarters in the New
Baxter Building.
The Recent Donations made to the
Society.
address by President Bradbury and
Other Interesting Papers.

chair. The report of the librarian and
cabinet keeper, II. w. Bryant, was as fol-
lows:
LIBRARIANS REPORT.
Mr., President and Gentlemen:
Upon taking possession of the new home
provided for us by the generosity Of our
Vice President, we have to congratulate
ourselves upon the accessibility Of the
rooms, the shelf room, the space for pictures,
the good light and the large and commodious
vault for the storage of manuscripts. The
task of removing the library and cabinet
down three flights of stairs, carting and
unpacking, seemed at first formidable, but
aided by intelligent assistants, it has been
accomplished with little delay and the library
IS ready to be used about as. soon as the
building was completed and the electric
light introduced. Since the removal of the
library from Brunswick eight years ago 1t
has nearly doubled. Since our last meeting
we have received the following accessions:
n The Eastern Argus bound for the years 1929 to
1885 from w: s. Badger OF Augusta.
state Of Maine Registers from g. NJ Donham,
The history of Exeter, N. a., and 50 numbers
Of the Historical Magazine from Mrs. John T.
Gilman. Of Portland.
Denslow's Political Economy frem DIR. G. G..
SO miscellaneous pamphlets from Dea. Brown
The Stanley Family Genealogy from Rev. l. P.
The Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll
from Bishop Healey, Of Portland.
and the Rural Intellgencer, Augusta, 1855, from
The buccaneers Of America from Josiah Pierce,
Twenty volumes of Reports of the United
States Fisheries Commission; IRON the Hon. NJ.
The memorial tribute to s. ID. Warren OF Cum
berland Mills, from the publication committee.
History Of Eastport and Passamaquoddy, from
Tr6ate Il to the Rev IL storsr from the Rev.
Arthur Smith of Scarboro 81.
The Sth Gstsg & the Psi ups0n fraternity
The Lawrence and Bartlett Family Memorials,
from II. b, Lawrence.
Carthage and Tunls, past and present, ana the
Rhode Island State Census for 1885, from Hon.
Amos Perry OF Providence.
Vols. 3 and 4 of Suffolk Deeds, from William B.
Bancroft's History Of the United states, the
latest edition, in six volumes. half calf, from Hon.
John Marsh q Salem and his descendants from
Lucius B. Marsh.
from the author, Rev. II. s. Burrage, ID. d.
Album continuing memorabilia of the Longfel-
low statue Association, from Rev. II. S. Burrage,
Other contributors to the library are GenerallJ
Watts de Peyster, Professor Z. W. Hail. Charles
Pu1sfes H knse r. M ixsr barton Rev s Emery David
Howe, John F. Sprague. Cyrus Woodmsn. Profes.
ser W. + Sargent, Stepen Berry, the State of
eral State Societies all over the country.
Contributions to the cabinet are the cavalry cut
lass, knapsack and plume worn by John Johnson
OF Cornish, Me-, born 1896, the gift of Mrs. Ruth
johnson of Cornish; fax hatcheil used by Captain
Jotham johnson, born in 1851.
Nrssc NMsssscnusetts =, THANKSGIVING Proclamation.
Confederate notes and scrip and fragment of
s shell from Gettysburg, given by James A. SAT-
The original manuscript, bound, of the centen
mai history OF the Cumberland Association of
Daniels.
Chace's maps of Maine and Cumberland county
Charlotte 4. BaEer Of dpf' Portland LAM a''' nun MS
was IN 1894, from Pro-. E. W. Hail. - :
arrangements for the visit OF General Lafayette
June. 1928 Also other Portland documents all
A large scrap book containing a complete his
tory OF the Longfelow statue Association with
the circulars and photographs mounted and ar
ranged from the:compiler Rev. DIR. Burrage.
Our especial thanks are due to Prentice C.
Manning Esq, for his efficient services in
designing and arranging the new cabinet.
In response to call to the president. p.
n. Reed. Esq, Of Bath, president of the
Sagadahoc Historical Society, spoke Of the
proposed gift Of new accommodations to
that society by Mr.. Galen c. Moses of Bath.
A PIONEER OF NAMES ACCOUNT BOOK.
The paper of Mr.. Z. 81. Elwell was sug-
gested by an old account book of one Solomon
BragdeA Of Scarboro, covering short PEE
riod century and half ago. Ample evil
dence was found In this old book to show the
simple domestic lives the people lived, and
the sufferings they experienced from the con-
tinned assaults of the Indians.
MADAME WOOD.
Hon. William Goold read paper on
Madame Wood. (17601S55) The subject of
the sketch was the daughter of Nathanie
Barrett of York, and married as her second
husband General Abiel Wood Shortly after
his death in 1911, she moved to Portland and
lived for many years in the westerly half Of
the house on Free street. now occupied by
General s. j. Anderson. Mr.. Goold brought
with him an engraving of Madame Wood
from daguerreotype of 1916. when she was
"a years old. The face under the white cap
is soft, intellectual and pleasing, and it is not
surprising that Madame Wood was re-
markable conversationalist and fair au-
thor. Her novels, "The SpecuIator," "Ju-
lia," and. Ferdinand and Elmira," especial
ly the latter. are now very rare, principally
from the fact that, at the appearance Of the
Waverley Novels, she recalled her. own as
far as possible and had them destroyed.
This talented woman died at last at the age
Of So in Kennebunk, about the middle of the
present century.
AMOS TUCK.
1.-THE paper by DR.. ]. w. Dearborn of Par.
sonsfeld, was upon the life and character of
Amos Tuck of Parsonsfeld, and gave an in
teresting account II the just political promi-
nence he attained.
PAUL COFFIN AND EARLY MAINE BAP-
lists.
Mr.. Geo. F. Emery read paper entitled
paul Coffin and the Early Maine Paptists."
1t was suggested by reading the journal of
missionary towns in 1889 and 1900 in the
then central portions of Maine, found In the
fourth volume Of the publications of the
Maine Historical Society.
The Importance attached to 1t springs from
the eminence of DIR. Coffin as divine of the
standing order" VIII was the first settled
minister of Buxton, from the semi-endors e.
ment by such publication and perpetuati on
as veritable history, and from frequc MT cita-
tions found in town histories now in process
OF uuiLlpllcdtl0u as Oh ulBn autn0rlty. Hence
Mr.. Emery deemed the society to be the
proper tribunal for listening to the vindica-
tion he had prepared against few of many
entries der0gat0ry ito the teachings as well
as practice Of the early Baptists on the score
of actual piety and morality.
DR.. Coffin was too good a man to have in 1
tentionally wronged any man. But evident
ly he was influenced by the prevalent preiu-
dices of his times, and had, in many in
stances, noted gossip from unfriendly lips as
facts from which he drew very unfavorable
concessions, and made him groan in spirit.
The first part of the paper was devoted to
clearing up general charge of Quandery
and imposture by citing record evidence from
contemporaneous history, admitting of no
dispute or overthrow.
Then followed vindication Of
REV. ELISHA WILLIAMS,
who had been chivalrous officer of the
Revolution. the first literally educated Bap-
tist pastor in Maine Gan uncle by marriage Of
Elijah L. and Hannibal Hamlin) from
charge Of having wronged two men in GER
tain real estate transactions; This, 1t was
= j. q