DEAR SIR:—For some twelve years and more I have been doing some work in looking up the records of our people here in New England, especially the records of their church building. During that time I felt the great need of some such society as you now have in intention, and I hail your work as most opportune and useful. Make me one of you and kindly tell me what is to be done to have active participation in the society’s work.
The second meeting of the society was held in accordance with the following invitation:
DEAR SIR:—You are hereby notified that the second meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society will be held at the Revere House in Boston, Mass., Monday evening, April 19, 1897 (the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Concord, and Cambridge).
There will be a business session of the society at 6.30 P.M., followed, at 7 o’clock, by a dinner and post-prandial exercises appropriate to the anniversary.
At the business session, action will be taken on the completion of the constitution and by-laws, the admission of new members, and on such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
The price of dinner tickets has been placed at $1.50 each. They are now ready.
(1) A reading, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” by Mr. Thomas A. Santry, of Lawrence, Mass.
(2) A paper by the Secretary-General on “The Irish Bacons who Settled at Dedham, Mass., in 1640,” one of whose descendants, John Bacon, was killed April 19, 1775, in the fight at West Cambridge (battle of Lexington).
(3) An address by the Treasurer-General, Hon. John C. Linehan, of New Hampshire, on “The Seizure of the Powder at Fort William and Mary,” by Maj. John Sullivan and his associates, some of which powder was later dealt out to the patriots at Bunker Hill.
(4) Address by Mr. Edward J. Brandon, city clerk of Cambridge, Mass., during which he will read a list of Irish names borne by minutemen or militia in the battle of the nineteenth of April, when the shot was fired “Heard Round the World.”
(5) A brief essay by Mr. Joseph Smith, of Lowell, Mass., on “The Irishman, Ethnologically Considered.”
Invitations to attend the dinner have been sent to the town clerks and selectmen of Lexington and Concord; also to descendants of the patriots who stood on the green at Lexington when Captain Parker exclaimed, “Don’t fire unless fired upon.”