[p. 57] the Salem-street Church in Boston. The church consisted of sixty members.
July 29 Nathaniel Jaquith, Galen James, Jotham Stetson and John Stetson were chosen deacons. All of them had held the same office in the mother church, and the last named, who had served in that church for eight years, continued faithfully to discharge the duties of the office till his death, in 1899, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
The Mystic Society was legally organized Aug. 13, 1847. The land on which the building now stands on Salem street was soon purchased, and a house capable of seating about five hundred persons was erected, and dedicated to the worship of God Feb. 14, 1849. The house contained seventy-three pews, whose appraised value ranged from ninety to two hundred and fifty dollars. About half of the pews were sold to individuals and the rest were held as ‘stock’ by five persons and rented at eight per cent. of their appraised value. Two-fifths of that stock was purchased later by Mr. William Haskins and by his will donated to the society, in addition to four thousand dollars in cash, which is now invested in the parsonage.
Mr. Haskins, though not a member of the church, was deeply interested in its welfare. He died in 1871.
For many years the annual expenses of the society were met by assessing a tax upon the members of the church according to their town valuation, and by the voluntary contributions of those who were not members.
This method was discontinued after 1871, and since the union of the two churches, in 1874, the pew rental system has been employed.
On the twentieth of September, 1847, by a hearty, unanimous vote, the Rev. A. B. Warner (a nephew of the first pastor of the mother church) was called to the pastorate, at a salary of $800.
