George Gustavus Dyer came to Plymouth with Mr. Blake from Abington, and after serving as bookkeeper for his company, was elected cashier of the Old Colony Bank. Mr. Dyer was the son of Christopher and Mary (Porter) Dyer of Abington, and married in 1852 Mary Ann Bartlett, daughter of Schuyler Sampson. After some years’ service as cashier of the Old Colony Bank, he was chosen President, and died January 9, 1891. The shoe business in the days to which I have referred was conducted very differently from the methods in vogue today. The headquarters not necessarily extensive, were used for the reception of stock, the cutting of the leather, the shipment of shoes and the business office. When the leather was cut shoemakers would call periodically for packages of uppers, and linings and heels, and making the shoes at home would bring them to the office and carry home a new supply. They would furnish their own tools and thread and nails and pegs, and consequently the need existed of local stores, such as that which was kept on Main street by Harrison Finney for shoe kit and findings. These shoemakers did their work at home, and there was scarcely a house in the smaller towns which did not have its small shop on the premises where the cut material was converted into shoes for the more or less distant manufacturer. In consequence of the change above mentioned, the local kit stores were abandoned, and there was a gradual flow of population from the farming towns where the little workshops were located to the large towns, Abington, Brockton, Rockland, Plymouth and Whitman, where the factories were built. This is one of the causes of the falling off of population in the smaller towns, and of the rapid growth of the larger ones. There are indications now of a reflex tide, as a result of the facilities afforded by trolley cars for workmen to seek distant homes where the cost of living is moderate, and where in dull seasons farming can be carried on with profit. The building which stood on the corner of Court and North streets, which was taken down and replaced by the Howland building in 1888, was occupied as long ago as I can remember by Dr. Rossiter Cotton. He was the son of John and Hannah (Sturtevant) Cotton, and was born in 1758. He married in 1783 Priscilla, daughter of Thomas Jackson, and had nine children, of whom I only remember two, Charles, born in 1788, and Rowland Edwin, born in 1802.