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patriarch, did the work of both of- ficers for a time and helped very much to restore order. The following year Mr. J. J. Chappel, being grand scribe, put to- gether all the minutes he could find and through Mr. Bentley, then grand worthy pa- triarch, and his efforts, they paid off the debt leaving a balance of funds on hand. From that date forward the order prospered both in membership and financially.

The writer purposed inserting in this pa- per a full list of the grand officers from in- ception to date, but found it impossible to do so, the records being incomplete. Some of the first officers were as follows: Grand worthy patriarch, Charles Young; grand worthy associate, John Arbuckle; grand sentinel, John Williams; grand chaplain, Silas Tertius Rand; grand conductor, John Pidwell.

The grand scribes were as follows: John Williams, Peter DesBrisay, 1848; Samuel Prowse, October 29, 1857, to April 29, 1858; James J. Bovan, April 29, 1858, to October; James J. Rice, 1858; W. C. Tro- wan, 1859; John Scott, 1868; \V. C. Tro- wan, 1869 to 1873; J. J. Chappell. 1874; J. B. Cooper, 1875 to 1880; J. J. Chappell, 1881 to 1882;]esse S. Burns, 1883 to 1891; William Brown, 1892 to 1893; Jesse S.

I’AST AND PRESENT OF

Burns. 1894 to 1896; John Anderson, 1897. The minutes of the Grand Division are lost up to 1857, then complete to 1880, when that year's minutes were not transcribed. Again in 1892 minutes of their session are lost. .

The first half a century closed in 1898,. leaving no legacy of disputes, quarrels or appeals to be settled. there being nothing of that kind for two years previously. There were then forty-one divisions and a mem- ' bership of two thousand; two district divi- sions and four companies of Loyal Cru- saders with a membership of three hundred twenty. The funds then in the hands of subdivisions were five hundred seventy-five dollars, and in the grand divisions three hundred and fifty dollars, making nine hun- dred twenty-five dollars in all. Instead of the licensed taverns the whole Island prov- ince is now under a Prohibition law, and in- stead of the drinking habit being general and the social glass being looked upon as a necessity, there is now general sobriety and drunkenness reduced to a minimum. The Sons have done their share to bring this about and are still active and vigilant to “hold what they have" and also to educate the young in the views of the society on this question.

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF FORESTERS.

BY LOUIS URQUHART FOWLER.

The “Royal Order of Foresters” from which in 1874 the Independent Order sprang, had its origin in 1745 in Knars- borough, England. In 1834, in a conven- tion at Roachdale, the name was changed to that of “The Ancient Order of Foresters,”

the title still borne by this great society in Europe and its many subordinate courts in America.

In 1864. Court Brooklyn, No. 4421, of Brooklyn, New York, the first court of the Ancient Order of Foresters in Amer-