ngfield _Republican_ said of the town:--

"In 1832 the population was 1300, but by the census just taken the town
shows but 568 inhabitants. This decadence is attributable to emigration
and the railroads. Its wealth has consisted chiefly in the men and women
who have here been reared and educated for lives of usefulness. Indeed
few towns of equal population have sent out so many who have honored
themselves and their native town as Heath. Its Puritan characteristics
have lingered like a sweet fragrance, and their influences are still
felt. From this little hamlet have gone out into other fields a member
of Congress, two judges, ten lawyers, thirteen ministers, twenty-nine
physicians and many teachers; twenty-three natives have been college
graduates, and thirty-eight, not natives have also been collegians. If
the women have not occupied as public position as the men, they have
been no less useful. Forty-five have graduated from various seminaries
and several have become well known missionaries and teachers. It was in
this town, too, that Dr. Holland spent his early life."

* * * * *

August 19.--Twelfth annual gathering of the Needham family, descendants
of John Needham, who built the Needham homestead at the cross-roads
known as Needham's Corner on the Lynnfield road at South Peabody, Mass.
John Needham was famous in his day and generation as the builder of the
solid old stone jail in Salem in 1813, the same massive structure which
has just been remodeled. Back of him in the time of the Puritans, there
were George Needham and his three brothers and a sister, who came to
Salem very early in its infancy, and whose lineal descendants scattered
all over New England, John Needham died in 1831 at the age of
seventy-three. At the family gathering six generations were represented,
and a large number of the branches of the family as well--the Needhams,
the Newhalls, the Browns, the Stones, the Nourses, the Galencias and
others.

* * * * *

August 26.--Centennial celebration of Rowe, Franklin County, Mass. Like
Heath, the town was incorporated in February, 1785. The historical
address was by Hon. Silas Bullard of Menasha, Wis.

* * * * *

W.T. Spear has just finished a history of North Adams which he has spent
a long time in compiling. He has written the history of the town from
the time of its settlement in 1749 to the present tim