[
28]
Honorary member of this society, was born in
Cambridge, Mass., November 10, 1821, and died there December 5, 1901.
He was descended from
Martin Saunders, who came from
England to
Boston in 1635, and also, from
John Hicks, a member of the Boston Tea Party, who was killed in the
battle of Lexington.
He was educated in the public schools of
Cambridge, and in the Hopkins Classical School.
He early became connected with the Suffolk Bank of Boston, soon after entering into business on his own account, from which he retired at the age of forty-two.
He was an alderman in 1861 and 1862, and was active in his efforts for the soldiers of the
Civil War.
In 1868 and 1869 he was chosen with great unanimity mayor of
Cambridge, and held public offices and honorary positions in that city for many years.
As local historian he had few, if any, superiors.
It was through his efforts that the many historic spots of
Cambridge were marked with appropriate tablets.
He was first president of the Sons of the
American Revolution, and for many years of the
Cambridge Lyceum.
He was a member of the
Bunker Hill Monument Association, of the Shepard Memorial Society, of the Cambridge Club, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and honorary member of the Somerville Historical Society.
He married, September 18, 1849, Mary Brooks Ball, who, with four children, survives; him, among them
Charles R. Saunders, chairman of the election commissioners of
Boston.
Mr. Saunders' tastes were not alone antiquarian; he was equally interested in the events of to-day, and the questions of the coming century; as he once said to the writer, he ‘enjoyed living in the past, the present, and the future.’
Of the past he has been a faithful recorder, in the present an honored actor, and the future will respect him as a true man, a faithful official, and a model citizen.
