Legacies have been received under the wills of John M. Bryans, Laban E. Borden, John Wilkinson, Mrs. Mary H. Sumner, and Mrs. Ellen Ball.

The Beneficent Society has been remembered by John Wilkinson, Mrs. Caroline S. Borden (Philip D.), George W. Smith, and Mrs. Ellen Ball.

The Central Congregational Society was the beneficiary under the will of Miss Mary Craig.

The Sunday school was a beneficiary under the will of Miss Sarah R. Stillwell.

[NOTE. No part of the income from these legacies has ever been used for the payment of the current expenses of the Society.]

Central Congregational Society

THE annual payments of the Central Congregational Society for salaries, music, fuel, insurance, sextons, etc., require an appropriation of about ten thousand dollars.

This amount is raised annually by the rental of pews, supplemented by private gifts and subscriptions, mostly paid through the system of weekly offerings.

All pews are owned by the Society, there having been no private ownership since the construction and dedication of the New Church edifice (1875).

There has been no debt on the Society property (except such as was provided for), since the year 1883, when the final payments were made under the "Pledges to Pay the Debt," secured February 1, 1880.

Sketches of Foreign Missionaries

Miss Lois W. Hall

Missionary to the Indian Territory

MISS LOIS W. HALL was the first missionary representative of our church sent out under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. She was a woman of great strength of character, firm, steadfast and faithful in all positions of trust to which she was called. She was a teacher in our public schools, in the old "Green Schoolhouse," on Franklin Street; there were no private schools in Fall River in those days, now long gone by (184647). The old town records speak of her as a successful teacher.

In the first years of our church life, collectors were chosen from our members to go from house to house to solicit and collect funds for our different benevolences. Miss Hall filled this position with the assistance of Miss Ellen Seabury (now Mrs. Ball) for the cause of foreign missions. In the early part of the year 1851, Miss Hall was given an appointment from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as teacher at Park Hill, Indian Territory, among the Choctaw Indians. After much prayer and deliberation, she accepted the appointment.

Miss Hall left Fall River the same year of her appointment. The Sabbath evening prior to her departure, she received her letter of dismission from our Church, and at the close of that service, the members were requested to remain after the benediction. A season of prayer was held, after which, commending her to the grace of God, we bade her an affectionate farewell.

While with us, she had a Bible class of young ladies, a few of whom are still living. They parted from her with regret,

but the interchange of letters kept alive their appreciation, affection, and sympathy. Some of the letters of Miss Hall are preserved to this day. The young ladies each sent their daguerreotype to Miss Hall, and in return she sent one of her own, which has been reproduced on an accompanying page, together with those of our later foreign missionaries. This picture was passed around the class, each one keeping it two weeks and then passing it on to another of the group.

Miss Hall remained with the Choctaws a number of years in teaching and missionary labors, and then, having already passed middle age, she returned to the East to her friends, where she spent her declining days in peace and comfort.

Miss Harriet Seymour

Missionary to Turkey

MISS HARRIET SEYMOUR was born in Rochester, N. Y., January 5, 1831, and resided there until she was sixteen years of

age, when she removed to Michigan. For nineteen years, Michigan was her home, - five years being devoted to teaching. She did not unite with the church until she was twentynine years old, having had a long religious experience previous to this time. When she first became a christian, she had a strong desire to be wholly consecrated to God's service, and this desire never left her. She hoped that all her powers, with all their might, would be joyfully employed in doing just the work God might set before her.

She applied to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for appointment as a missionary, and having been accepted, she sailed for Harpoot, Turkey, early in the spring of 1867. She was older than most young missionary ladies, when she began the study of a new language; but her prayer that God would enlarge her mind, and quicken her intellect, seems to have been answered liberally.