BI-CENTENNIAL BOOK

OF

MALDEN.

CONTAINING THE

ORATION AND POEM

DELIVERED ON THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN,

MAY 23, 1849;

WITH OTHER PROCEEDINGS ON THAT DAY; AND MATTERS PERTAINING
TO THE HISTORY OF THE PLACE.

Children's children are the crown of old men;
And the glory of children are their fathers.

PROV. xvii. 6.

PUBLISHED FOR THE CITIZENS OF MALDEN.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY GEO. C. RAND & CO.

NO. 3 CORNHILL.

1850.

PREFACE.

It is now "a year and a day" since the celebration, whose happy memories this book is designed to commemorate, was held amid enthusiastic festivities. Had the duty of preparing this "Bi-Centennial Book" been assigned to gentlemen of leisure, it would have remained at least nine years in embryo; — but as the task was exacted of men notoriously oppressed with other and professional duties, they were obliged to obtain as speedy a deliverance as they could. Though the delay may seem long to such as are not acquainted with the perplexities and difficulties which attend the collection, decyphering, explaining, reconciling, arranging and transcribing a mass of old, scattered and defective documents, it is hoped that the "benevolent reader," so called, will own, on perusal, that

patient waiters are no losers." Had the Committee of Publication been indulged with more time and money, they could have made the work more complete and satisfactory to the critical antiquarian, ever greedy of names and dates, and ever ravenous for musty documents. It is scarcely to be expected that such formidable censors