PREFACE.
An examination of the records of the county for some information,
awakened curiosity in regard to its early settlement,
and gradually led to a more extensive search. The
fruits of this labor, it was thought, might be worthy of notice,
and productive of pleasure, on a wider scale.
There is a strong desire in most men to know who were
their forefathers, whence they came, where they lived, and
how they were occupied during their earthly sojourn. This
desire is natural, apart from the requirements of business, or
the promptings of vanity. The same inquisitiveness is felt
in regard to places. Who first entered the farms that checker
the surrounding landscape, cut down the forests that ofice
covered it, and built the habitations scattered over its bosom?
With the young, who are absorbed in the engagements of
the present and the hopes of the future, this feeling may not act
with much energy; but as they advance in life, their thoughts
turn back with growing persistency to the past, and they
begin to start questions which perhaps there is no means of
answering. How many there are who long to ascertain the
name of some ancestor, or some family connection, but the
only person in whose breast the coveted knowledge was
lodged, has gone beyond the reach of all inquiry. How many
interesting facts of personal or domestic concern could have
been communicated by a parent or grandparent, but their
story not being told at the opportune season, they have gone
down irrecoverably in the gulf of oblivion.
Public affairs are abundantly recorded. Not only are they
set forth in the countless journals of the day, but scores of
ready pens are waiting to embody them in more permanent
form in histories of our own times. Private events—those
connected with individuals and families—are less frequently
committed to writing. They may descend by tradition
through one or two generations, and then perish forever
from the memory of mankind. Some general facts may be
found in local records; but memorials of this kind are dry
and monotonous in their nature, and never resorted to by
ordinary readers. Their contents are soon lost sight of
except by the antiquarian, or by those who are compelled
by professional duty to unearth them from the forgotten past.
Such considerations induced the collection of the facts
compiled in this volume. They were taken mainly from the
county archives; in cases where they were derived from tradition,
or where suggestions were made from conjecture, it is
generally so stated. Except in a few particulars, the narrative
was not designed to extend to the present generation.
Some matters that may be of interest to many, may be
found in the appendix. To some now living in the county,
and to others descended from those who once lived in it, the
long list of names therein inscribed may show in some measure
how their ancestors were employed, whither their wanderings
led, or at what time they passed away from the present
scene of action.
