i3 6 COLBURN. COLBURN. late years taken him away from the plow and the scythe. Since 1872 he has held the office of selectman of the town, and for a number of years he has been chairman of the board, and during- most of the same period he has also been a member of the boards of assessors and overseers of the poor. He has also for a number of years been a deputy sheriff of Norfolk county. The confidence of his friends and neighbors in his integrity and ability is further attested by the fact that he is frequently called upon to act as trustee and executor of estates. He is one of the directors of the National Bank, and trustee of the Savings Bank, and a director in both the Norfolk and Dedham Mutual Fire Insurance companies, all in Dedham, and also the treasurer of the latter company. Mr. Colburn was never married, and has always resided at the old homestead in his native town. COLBURN, Jeremiah, son of Calvin and Catharine Sibyl (Lakin) Colburn, was born in Boston, January 12, 181 5. He received his education at the May- hew and Derne Street schools, from which he was graduated in 1830, to enter mercan- tile life. In 1840 he began business for himself as a dealer in hats, furs, etc., at Boston, where he continued till 1S52, when President Pierce appointed him an appraiser in the Boston custom house. Here he remained through two administrations. He has since been engaged in literary pursuits. At the age of fifteen he began the collection of rare coins — afterwards extending his field to that of medals, min- erals and shells, and subsequently to auto- graphs, manuscripts, portraits and engrav- ings, colonial and continental money, paper tokens, bank notes, and even coun- terfeits and bills of broken banks — this last at the suggestion of Jacob G. Morris of Phil- adelphia (1839), who was of the belief that the end of paper money was near, and as the representative of bills they would be a curiosity. In this department of arts Mr. Colburn has achieved a notable success, especially in Americana, wherein his coins and medals have been of the rarest, finest and earliest, and his pamphlets and books relating to American history, as well as his autographs and manuscripts, have been especially valuable. Important data relat- ing to historical events have been settled on the authority of this wreckage, saved from the ruin and remorseless decay of time Mr. Colburn was an early member of the New England Historic Genealogical So- ciety ; has served as chairman of its various committees, and is a member of the present committee of publication. In 1858 he was one of the founders of the Prince Society ; has served in its coun- cil and held the office of treasurer ; its first volume, " Wood's New England's Pros- pect," was issued under his supervision. In i860 he originated the Boston Numismatic Society, cf which he was vice-president till 1885, since which time he has been its president, also one of the editors of the " American Journal of Numismatics." He JEREMIAH COLBURN. was one of the founders of the Boston An- tiquarian Club, which in 1882 became the Bostonian Society, to which the city has entrusted the custody and control of the old state-house. Besides his contributions to various magazines and reviews, Mr. Colburn has compiled and published the bibliography of the local history of Massachusetts, which he proposes to re-issue with revision and extension to date of publication. In 1S69 Williams College conferred the degree of A. M. upon Mr. Colburn, who, in addition to the Boston societies named, is a member of the Essex Institute, and of the historical societies of New York, Vir-
