of
trustees was originally sixteen, but Mr. Akin early yielded to legal
advice in concentrating authority in five persons; while continuing the
remaining eleven as a quasi-public to whom the five report their doings,
and with whom they regularly confer. The annual meeting of the
Association is upon the birthday of the founder, August 14th. At that
time the trustees assemble at two p. m. for the transaction of business,
election of members and of officers; and at 3 p. m. the members' meeting
is called to order, the officers of the trustees being officers of the
whole body. Members are permitted and expected to inquire as to
activities of the Association, its funds and its work in general, and to
vote on all matters coming before the body for its action. Only no
action involving the expenditure of money, or the election of trustees,
shall be valid without the concurrence in majority opinion of a majority
of the trustees.

The chief interest of the trustees has always been the care of the
property of the Association, which includes invested funds, and the
following buildings, with about thirty acres of land: a hotel, having
rooms for two hundred guests, a stone library, a chapel, and seven
cottages. The hotel is usually rented to a "proprietor," and the duties
of the library and church are laid upon a minister, the earliest of
whom, Mr. Chas. Ryder, was called the "Agent."

The Akin Free Library, consisting of about three thousand books,
selected with uncommon wisdom by committees of ladies through about
twenty-five years, was originally established by the ladies of the Hill,
in the early eighties, through a popular fund. It has ever since been
funded by the Akin Hall Association, who have also given it quarters,
and care, in the Chapel known as Akin Hall. It will soon be moved into
the stone Library, erected in 1898, but only finished in 1906, and it is
reasonable to suppose that it will there have a wider scope and an
increasing use.

The Library has been managed primarily for the use of "the Summer
people," and the books have the excellence of their selection, as well
as the proportion of certain kinds of books, determined by the
preferences of the Summer residents. No adequate records are kept of the
books used; so that it is impossible to give statistics of the specific
utility of the library. But it occupies a real place in the community,
and is drawn upon by families from every section of the population.

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