that he was ranked among the chief citizens of the town.  The austere manners of the age, among communities like that established here; the exclusion, at that time, by inexorable laws, of many forms of amusement; and the general sombre aspect of society, kept down the natural exhilaration of life to such a degree, that, when the pressure was occasionally removed, the whole people bounded into the liveliest outbursts of glad excitement.  It was no doubt a gala day.  Ceremony, sport, and festivity, in all their forms, took full effect.  The surveyors performed their functions with the utmost display of authority, examined the canoes with the gravest scrutiny, and affixed their marks with all due formality.  A light, graceful, and most picturesque fleet swarmed, from all directions, to the appointed rendezvous.  The harbor glittered with the flashing paddles, and was the scene of swift races and rival feats of skill, displaying manly strength and agility.  It must have been an aquatic spectacle of rare gayety and beauty, not surpassed nor equalled in some respects, when, more than a century afterwards, the “Grand Turk” or the “Essex” frigate was launched, or when Commodore Forbes, still later, swept into our peaceful waters with his boat flotilla.  It was the first Fourth of July ever celebrated in America.

Thomas Scruggs was an early inhabitant of Salem; often represented the town as deputy in the General Court; was one of the judges of the local court, and always recognized among the rulers of the town.  In January, 1636, he received a grant of three hundred acres on the south-west limits of its territory.  The next month, an exchange took place, which is thus recorded in the town-book of grants:  “It was ordered, that, whereas Mr. Scruggs had a farm of three hundred acres beyond Forest River, and that Captain Trask had one of two hundred acres beyond Bass River, and Captain Trask freely relinquishing his farm of two hundred acres, it was granted unto Mr. Thomas Scruggs, and he thereupon freely relinquished his farm of three hundred acres.”  This brought Scruggs upon the Salem Farms, between Bass River and the great pond, Wenham Lake.  The real object in making this arrangement was to advance a project which the leading people of Salem at that time had much at heart.  They were very desirous to have the college established on the tract relinquished by Scruggs.  What would have been the effect of placing it there, in the immediate neighborhood of the sea-shore, in full view of the spacious bay, its promontories, islands, and navigation, is a question on which we may speculate at our leisure.  The effort failed:  Captain Trask and Mr. Scruggs had done all they could to accomplish it, and gave their energies to the welfare of the community in other directions.  From the little that is recorded of Scruggs, it is quite evident that he was an intelligent and valuable citizen.  The event that brought his career as a public man to a close proves that his