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The Whitney Tablet
No. 72 — Annual Meeting
Held at Chipman Hall, 88 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass.
April 23-24, 1902
THE SECRETARY’S REPORT
THE WHITNEY TABLET.
At the Pan-American meeting [held at Niagara Falls, Sept. 26, 1901], the Association acted on the recommendation of the Board of Government approving of the proposition of Mr. M. F. FOSTER in a paper * which he read at the Montreal meeting by recommending the erection of a tablet to the memory of ELI WHITNEY on the house of the ELI WHITNEY Country Club to be built at Rocky Creek near Augusta, Ga., and the vote of the meeting authorized the Chair to appoint a committee of five to solicit subscriptions from the members and to attend to the matter of the installation of the tablet under the direction of the Board of Government. The subscriptions reached so nearly to the amount estimated for the purpose that the members of the committee individually guaranteed any deficiency, and the commission was given to Mr. CYRUS E. DALLIN, of Boston, an eminent sculptor who had received a gold medal for works at the World's Exposition at Paris in 1900, and was also a medalist at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893.
The tablet will bear a bronze alto relievo of ELI WHITNEY supported by bolls of cotton, and the following inscription:
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ELI WHITNEY, FOR THE INVENTION OF THE AMERICAN COTTON GIN, OF CIVILIZATION AND THE MATERIAL WELFARE OF THE UNITED STATES. THE NEW ENGLAND COTTON MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION. |
At the lower left hand the seal of the Association forms a die, while on the corresponding right side of the tablet a similar disc contains a representation of the original model.
In order to provide for the continual care of this tablet as a public monument, its title has been vested in the care of a perpetual board of trustees under the provisions of the following:
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The New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association, an organization duly incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, desiring to perpetuate the memory of ELI WHITNEY, the Inventor of the American cotton gin, as a tribute to the great worth of this device and also in approval of the purposes of the Eli Whitney Country Club of Augusta, Georgia, an organization duly incorporated by the State of Georgia, have by a committee duly appointed for the purpose at a legal meeting of the said New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association held at Niagara Falls, New York, September 25 and 26, 1901, consisting of the following persons: M.F. FOSTER, Chairman, Milford, N.H., D.A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N.C., W.B. SMITH WHALEY, Columbia, S.C., CHARLES H, FISH, Dover, N.H., and C.J.H. WOODBURY, Secretary, Lynn, Mass, caused to be made a certain bronze memorial tablet with suitable inscriptions, to be placed upon the house to be erected by the said Eli Whitney Country Club at Rocky Creek, near Augusta, Georgia, and for the purpose of holding the said tablet in perpetuity, its title is vested in the following Trustees: His Honor JACOB PHINIZY, the Mayor of the city of Augusta, Georgia; The Honorable ALEXANDER R, WALTON, Ordinary of Richmond County, Georgia; The Honorable WILLIAM F. EVE, Judge of the City Court, Richmond County, Georgia; and their successors in the several offices shall ex officiis occupy their positions as these members of the Board of Trustees. This deed of trust confers on the above Trustees and their successors the powers and immunities conferred upon trustees under the law and without prejudice to the above, the following powers and immunities, they shall keep the said tablet on the building of the said Eli Whitney Country Club as long as may be desired by that corporation if it continues its existence as an active organization devoted, among other purposes, to the perpetuation of the memory of ELI WHITNEY, but if the said Eli Whitney Country Club shall cease to maintain its active organization from any cause whatsoever, then the said Trustees shall cause said tablet to be removed from the said Club building and placed in some public building or position they may direct in the City of Augusta, Georgia. Furthermore, the Trustees are relieved from all personal responsibility, in case of the damage of this tablet by fire or from other cause and they are endowed with the full privilege of their discretion in administering the above conditions of the trust according to their own judgment. In witness whereof the said New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association by its President and Secretary, duly authorized, have caused the same to be signed and its corporate seal affixed, and the said Eli Wbitney Country Club, by its President and Secretary, duly authorized, have caused the same to be signed and its corporate seal affixed, and the said Trustees as above mentioned have signed and sealed this instrument in acceptation of the said trust this the nineteenth day of April, A.D. 1902. L.S. NEW ENGLAND COTTON MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION,
L.S. ELI WHITNEY COUNTRY CLUB,
L.S. JACOB PHINIZY, Mayor of Augusta, Georgia. ALEXANDER R. WALTON, Ordinary of Richmond County, Georgia. L.S. WILLIAM F. EVE, Judge of City Court, Richmond County, Georgia. |
No. 76 — Annual Meeting
Held at Huntington Hall, Roger's Building, Institute of Technology, Boston.
April 27-28, 1904
THE SECRETARY’S REPORT
THE WHITNEY TABLET.
The ELI WHITNEY Tablet which was prepared for the purpose of presentation to the ELI WHITNEY Country Club at Rocky Creek, near Augusta, Georgia, has been placed on the walls of the corridor of the Richmond County Court House at Augusta, Georgia, in accordance with the alternative provisions in the deed of trust, as the ELI WHITNEY Country Club has not been able to carry out its plans for the construction of a club house.
This tablet which is conceded by all to be a beautiful work of art in mural bronze, as well as a suitable memorial to the work of the illustrious inventor which it commemorates, is now in a prominent position at the nearest point to the scenes of the first practical operation of the saw gin, and is, therefore, to that extent more advantageously situated to meet the gaze of people than would have been the case at the site originally proposed.
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* Transactions New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association, Vol. 67, page 152.