Pastor's Memorial Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Installation of George W. Blagden, D. D. as Pastor of the Old South Church and Society in Boston.

Boston: Published for the Use of the Members (Printed by Alfred Mudge and Son). Near Fine. 1862. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. 118 pages; Publisher's dark green diced cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with a gilt stamped decorative depiction of the Old South Church, Boston on the front cover. Chocolate brown endpapers, all edges gilt. Printed in black and red throughout. Fine copy, showing just a faint trace of rubbing at the corners and spine ends, and a portion of binding cloth missing along the top border of the front cover -- (the size of a grain of rice). A superb copy, with an inscription from the subject of this memorial on the front free endpaper: "Francis Mohun / with the kind regards of / his friend / [signed] Geo. W. Blagden." George Washington Blagden (October 3, 1802 – December 17, 1884) -- was born in Washington DC, educated at Yale and Andover Theological Seminary. After two previous pastoral postings in Boston, he was installed at the Old South Church in September 1836. Blagden stayed on at the Church for another ten years after this handsome memorial volume was printed, with the assistance of a "junior Pastor" Jacob M. Manning, from 1857 through 1872. As is confirmed by the familiar profile in gilt on the front cover of this volume, what is referred to here as the "Old South Church" is now called the Old South Meeting House -- at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets -- built in 1729. The 183 foot tall steeple is unmistakable. This is not to be confused by what we now call the (new) "Old South Church" at Copley Square. The congregation was nearly 100 years old when the 1729 structure was built. It is probably best known as the meeting and organizing place for the so-called Boston Tea Party, in 1773. As payback for this, British troops led by Lt Col Samuel Birch of the 17th Dragoons occupied the Meeting House in 1775. The interior was gutted, filled it with dirt, and then used as a riding ring for horses. Speaking of military matters, the Meeting House at Milk and Washington Streets functioned as a recruiting center for the Union Army in the Civil War -- organized by Blagden's assistant, Jacob Manning. The Old South Meeting House narrowly avoided destruction in the Great Boston fire of 1872. Both Pastors Blagden and Manning retired in that year, and the congregation moved to a splendid new Church in Back Bay at Copley Square in 1875. Blagden remained connected to the Church as "pastor emeritus" until his death at the end of 1884, at which time he had outlived his colleagial assistant Manning by two years. This beautifully preserved copy is a fine memorial both to the worthy Dr. George Blagden, and the Old South Meeting House, called by some the second oldest establishment existent in the United States. .