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August 19.—­Third annual meeting of the American Boynton Association held in Worcester, Mass.  The Secretary said that he had been able to trace over three hundred families back to William and John Boynton, who settled in Rowley, Mass., in 1638.  They came from Yorkshire, England, and the family there is traced back through thirty generations, to 1067, when their estate was confirmed to them by William, the Conqueror.  It was reported that work is being pushed in the preparation of the family memorial to be published.

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August 19.—­Centennial of Heath, Franklin County, Mass, incorporated February 14, 1785.  The celebration had been postponed to August for the sake of convenience.  About 2,500 people attended the exercises.  The principal addresses were by John H. Thompson, Esq., of Chicago, and Rev. C.E.  Dickinson of Marietta, Ohio.

In describing these the Springfield 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.”

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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.