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310 number of years treasurer of the Homeopathic hospital. He has been a member of the Washington Board of Trade for many years, and twice has been its president.

Mr. Edson has served in many other civic capacities. He was chairman of the Washington citizens' executive committee during the encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in that city in 1892. He served on the executive committee, and was chairman of the auditing committee, at the inauguration of President Harrison, in 1889, and at the inauguration of President Cleveland four years later. He was treasurer of the executive committee at the first inauguration of President McKinley, and chairman during his second inauguration in 1901. In 1893 President Harrison tendered him the position of commissioner of the District of Columbia, and, in 1901, he was again offered the position by President McKinley. He is a member of the Columbian Historical Society, of the Cosmos club and of the National Geographic Society, all of Washington. He is a man of great energy and vigor of character, marked executive ability and public spirit, and belongs in the front rank of those persistent, far-sighted business men who have grown up with the expanding interests of the nation's capital and have helped to shape the life and the ideals of Washington.