Continuation of the account begun in the March 1998 issue. Reprinted in part from the March 1973 NUCLEUS, written by the late Robert D. Eddy. (Material which was covered in the articles "Founding of the Section" by Myron S. Simon and "The First Seventy-Five Years" by Edward R. Atkinson has been omitted, as indicated by "·"and/or by a summary in italics)

The Early Years of the Northeastern Section
(1898-1930) Once the organization meeting had adjourned, it was up to the newly elected Executive Committee to act. The Committee's records have been kept in a separate book which, for the most part, summarizes the efforts of the groups to arrange attractive programs. It also gives the names and addresses (not always business connections) of the first members. This record is all the more interesting, because it lists proposals for possible speakers with their topics, as well as those which were actually scheduled. These reflect the wide scientific concerns of the group and, in themselves, provide a valuable record of the new chemical theories and industrial processes which were then uppermost in everyone's mind. For example, we learn that at this first Executive Committee Meeting, held on February 25, 1898, L.P. Kinnicutt asked for permission to withdraw his paper "Some New Methods of Sewage Treatment Now Being Tried in New England" because it would be published before the next meeting. Also, Arthur D. Little asked for permission to postpone his paper on "Viscose" because he was having difficulty in getting samples for demonstration. These two papers must have been the ones announced for the first meeting and were postponed, because the Committee minutes go on to say that Arthur A. Noyes and John Alden were asked to substitute. There follows an account of the papers at the next several meetings, summarized in the 1998 Centennial Issue)

In returning to the first Executive Committee meting, we note that it voted to suggest to the Committee on By-Laws, that regular meetings should be held on Fridays, from October to May, inclusive. Apparently the body could not make an unequivocal decision about the name, for, after rejecting a proposal that the name be either "the Boston Section", the Committee voted to propose to the membership that the name be either the "Massachusetts Section" or the "North Eastern Section"·

In the minutes of the second regular meeting, the same Secretary twice writes "Northeastern" as one word·the name finally chosen by the members·

One might have supposed the name would have been defined by the Charter. Perhaps it was,·but we do not possess this Charter; it is known to have been lost some time before our Fifty-Year Celebration, for at that time an extensive effort was made to find it. There is nothing in the minutes to indicate its date, other than the fact that it was granted sometime between the first and second regular meetings. However, published dates from many different later sources all refer to the chartering of the Section on March 7, 1898. Either this date was faithfully copied while the Charter was still at hand, or some records in the National Office have kept the date available for us. It was Monday, more than two weeks before the Friday, March 25, 1898 date of the second regular meeting.

There are other lapses in the records, undoubtedly because they were written by busy people, who did not expect them to be so carefully scrutinized seventy-five years later. Another instance, is the fact that neither the secretary nor the treasurer considered it necessary to sign their reports. We would not have been so sure of who they were if the secretary had not listed the results of the first election in his report, and the treasurer had not verified this list with the note that Check #7 was paid to "Willis R. Whitney for Sundries as Secretary" and that Check #20 was paid to " F. Davenport, Treas."

The treasurer's book is full of names, names of people who contributed money in support of the approaching General Meeting, and the names of people who were being reimbursed for their out-of-pocket expenses. But if you are looking for a genuine signature, you have to turn all the way back to page 7. Prophetically enough, the first one is the signature of James Flack Norris. On November 23, 1898, we find his name, followed by that of William H. Walker, subscribed to the statement: "The above accounts examined by the auditing committee, and found to be correctly cast and properly vouched". Norris was only 27 years old at the time, an Instructor of Organic Chemistry at M.I.T., with his Ph.D. but three years old. Yet, here at the very beginning, we find him taking a responsible part in the affairs of the Section. Not only that, he revealed more than a casual interest in our financial well-being.

To complete our discussion of the events of that first spring, we find a lot that is worthy of our attention. Quoting some of the entries at random may be as effective a way as any to establish their significance. Reflect on the following:

From the Executive Committee's Minutes:

Feb. 25: "The meetings are to begin at 8 o'clock, sharp·"

March 25: "The President reported a letter from the Membership Committee of the Society stating that the custom to admit undergraduate students to associate membership only·. He (the President) was directed to continue his efforts to attempt to have 4th year students as members."

April 27: "Prof. Kinnicut invited the Section to hold its May meeting in Worcester, and it was decided to accept the invitation, subject to the approval of the Section."

May 21: "The Executive Committee requested the following members of the Section to serve as a Committee on Arrangements for the August meeting of the American Chemical Society, the same to have power to increase its membership." There follows a list of twenty-four names.

From the minutes of the Regular Meetings:

April 29: "Mr. H.P. Clark, Chemist of the Mass. State Board of Health, Dept. of Water Supply and Sewage, presented a paper on "Sewage and Sewage Purification"· Dr. S.P. Mulliken

Then presented a paper on the "Qualitative Detection of the Elements in Organic Compounds."·The invitation to hold the May meeting at Worcester, was received by the Section and was accepted."

Then follows a detailed account of the May 17 meeting, which has been described in Simon's February 1998 article.

The only solid information we have concerning the General Meeting of August 22,23, 1898 is obtained from the treasurer's reports. The minutes of the executive Committee list the 24 members of the committee as we have already noted, but they say nothing further. Page 15 of the minutes of the Regular Meetings is bravely titled "Report of Secy. of Committee of Arrangements for the Summer Meeting of the American
Chemical Society" but the remainder of the page is left completely blank. The minutes of the regular meeting of October 21, 1898 tell us that such a report was read and accepted, so it was undoubtedly kept on a separate sheet of paper which was subsequently lost. The same minutes also refer to separate votes extending thanks to the secretaries of subcommittees for their summer's work, to those Corporations which permitted plant visits, to those who donated funds and to Dr. Thorp for his work during the Summer. These remarks are far too general to be of any help.

Part of page 2 and all of page 4 of the treasurer's records give us the names, with amounts subscribed, of those who contributed to the Entertainment Fund for the General Meeting. Most of these were members who furnished amounts varying from $ 5.00 to $15.00. A few interested businesses donated amounts up to $25.00. A summary states that $509.20 had been given (by about 30 donors and $115.00 had been received as the proceeds from the sale of 46 dinner tickets) so we can see that the expenses for the meeting were paid for almost entirely by the generosity of the most active Section members. · All of the meeting expenses added up to $614.87, ·netting a profit to the Section of $9.33·Our treasurer notes that ·he paid Check 314 $7.70 to Henry P. Talbot for "Sundries as Sect. Of Local Comm." If it hadn't been for the generosity of the Secretary of the Committee who returned the check, that General Meeting would have been carried out with an excess of income over outgo of exactly $1.63.

Now that the Section has been established and has attracted nationwide attention, we must hurry through the next years of action, merely hinting at some of the more significant items. Then follows a listing of speakers and topics, some of which were recounted in Myron Simon's article.

At first it was thought that there might have been a predecessor to the NUCLEUS, but we are set straight by the Executive Committee Minutes for its meeting of December 17, 1901.

" It was decided that reports of the monthly meetings be inserted in Science and in the Journal of the Society.

These printed minutes differ from the earlier hand-written ones, in that they describe quite fully, the substance of the papers presented. By an unexpected coincidence, the first such printed report was on a paper by the man who had been so instrumental in getting things started more than twenty-five years earlier; Prof. Charles F. Chandler of Columbia College. He talked on "The Electro-Chemical Industries at Niagara Falls." [See also, The NUCLEUS, 1998, 76 (7, April), 19]

Then follows a recounting of votes taken on financial matters, recommendation to adopt the metric system, etc., which have been recounted in Edward R. Atkinson's article in the Centennial Issue.

And so the records go. There is evidence of hard times and of easy times, of busy times and relaxed times, of serious thought and utter frivolity. Our present concerns with the economic plight of the chemist, [remember, this was written in 1973] with ethics, with licensing, with the effects of our stresses on the environment, with the application and mis-application of scientific knowledge÷these have all been foreshadowed. One can wish for the time to pore over these pages carefully, to extract from them, and from the loose newspaper clippings and the accompanying song sheets, the many messages they contain. The years these pages cover, represent, among others, the years of World War I, and we find our group worrying about potash and the dyestuff industry and about war gases and gas masks.

In conclusion, Eddy recounts the occasion of the speaker of the evening being greeted with a rousing song of Charlie Parson's Song, quoted in Atkinson's Centennial Issue article, p. 10.