an acre, while a cow was worth five pounds.  In 1672, the rate of taxation on unimproved land was a half penny per acre, and, for land on which labor had been expended, a penny per acre.  In 1685 it was taxed at the rates of three shillings for a hundred acres of wild land, and one penny an acre for “land within fence.”  The relative value of improved land constantly increased with the length of time it had been under culture.  It may be said that labor added two-thirds to the value of land, and that he who by the sweat of his brow added those two-thirds, to that extent owned the land.  An industrious young man went out into his father’s woods, cut down the trees, cleared the ground, fenced it in, and prepared it for cultivation.  All that was thus added to its value was his creation, and he its rightful owner.  The right was recognized, and full possession given him, by deed, as soon as he had opened a farm, and built a house, and brought a wife into it.

The effect of this was to anchor a family, from generation to generation, fast to its ancestral acres.  It strengthened the ties that bound them to their native fields.  Its moral effect was beyond calculation.  When a young man was thus enabled to start in life on an independent footing, it made a man of him while he was young.  It invested him with the dignity of a citizen by making him feel his share of responsibility for the security and welfare of society.  It gave scope for enterprise, and inspiration to industry, at home.  It led to early marriages, under circumstances that justified them.  Joseph Putnam, the youngest son of Thomas, at the age of twenty years and seven months, took as his bride Elizabeth, daughter of Israel Porter, and grand-daughter of William Hathorne, when she was sixteen years and six months old.  We shall see what a valuable citizen he became; and she was worthy of him.  A large and noble family of children grew up to honor them, one of the youngest of whom was Israel Putnam, of illustrious Revolutionary fame.

Though there were descendants of this family in every company of emigrants that went forth from Salem Village, in all directions, in every generation, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, and all parts of the New England, Middle, Western, and Pacific States, there is about as large a proportionate representation of the name within the precincts of Salem Village to-day, as there ever was.  Fifty Putnams are at present voters in Danvers, on a list of eight hundred names,—­one-sixteenth of the whole number.  The rate-schedule of 1712 shows almost precisely the same proportion.