University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

We are well aware that it is considered by critics
to be an act of unpardonable impertinence to obtrude an
imperfect work upon the notice of the public, and then
apologize for its imperfections. But we beg leave to assure
their cynical Lordships that this is no meat for them,
and of course they need not whet their beaks at our announcement
of its imperfections. Our apology is not
made to deprecate their wrath, but in deference to a generous
public, which will be thankful to the enterprize
which gives it a mass of information which was not possessed
before, and not cavil because every fact is not given
which exists, or those which are given are not in the very
best form in which they could have been presented.

The publisher of this work lays claim to no literary attainment
whatever: he only claims the merit due to boldness
in enterprize and unconquerable perseverance in
execution. He has been upwards of two years collecting
the materials for this work, from individuals residing
in every quarter of the state, expending much
money in the acquisition of his matter, at a time when he
was scarcely able to support his family. But this method
of collecting matter, although it produced considerable
delay, ensured the most recent and authentic information
which could be procured. The almost innumerable
contributions when received had to be examined and arranged,
and such parts as were thought either useful or interesting,
culled from the mass of unnecessary matter
which sometimes encumbered the communications.—
When this was done, and the publisher thought he had
obtained such an amount of information as would be highly
useful, although it would not form a perfect Gazetteer of

Virginia, he resolved to publish and rely upon subsequent
editions to make-up the deficiencies. But here a
new difficulty occurred:—without credit and without capital,
it seemed impossible to find an individual to print, or
one to edit the book.

The huge mass of undigested manuscript was presented
to several literary gentlemen, who shrunk from the task
of arranging so voluminous a collection of ill-written manuscript,
upon the contingency of being paid by the sale
of the work. At length, however, a young man who had
no experience in such matters was induced to undertake
it, but his occasional absence and necessary attention to
other business, added to a most illegible chirography
caused many errors of the press which it was out of his
power to correct. The printers also were new in their
business, and not prepared for conducting it with that attention
to neatness and accuracy which was desirable.
But although there are many glaring typographical errors,
which the editor could not correct, because he did
not see the proof sheets, it is believed that very few of
them effect the sense, and still fewer falsify statements of
fact.

The publisher has at length struggled through difficulties,
which often seemed insuperable to less persevering
men, and now presents the work to the public, if not as
perfect as it might be, yet certainly as perfect as he could
at this time make it.

The publisher feels it his duty to render the most
grateful acknowledgments to the many individuals who
have rendered him assistance in the collection of materials;
and begs leave to mention the names of a few literary
gentlemen to whose kindness he is under especial
obligation,—among these are Messrs. James E. Heath of
Richmond, Lewis Summers of Kanawha, Lucien Minor of
Louisa, J. R. W. Dunbar of Winchester, Thomas S. Pleasants
of Goochland, W. G. Minor of Caroline, J. R. Fitzhugh
of Stafford, R. L. Cook of Augusta, Archibald Stuart
of Patrick, Linn Banks, of Madison, William Shultice
of Mathews, A. Sparks of Southampton, F. Mallory of
Norfolk, H. L. Hopkins of Powhatan, J. Minor of Spottsylvania,
J. H. Lee of Orange, Wm. Green of Culpeper,

Wm. A. Harris of Page, R. B. Semple of King & Queen,
Yeardley Taylor of Loudoun, Isaac Flesher of Jackson,
Wm. Burk of Monroe, S. Philips of Bedford, J. D. McGill
of Middlesex, N. M. Taliaferro of Franklin, G. W.
G. Browne of Wythe, J. J. Williams of Frederick
Wm. J. Williams of Charlotte, Joseph Jenney of Prince
William, James P. Carrell of Russell, B. F. Dabney of
King William, Joseph Duff of Lee, James Garland of
Nelson, Wm. Wilson of Bath; and Edgar Snowden of
Alexandria. Many more have sent in contributions well
worthy of special notice, who have been perhaps as liberal
as these gentlemen in the extent of their communications,
and the trouble they seem to have taken, but it
would be difficult to know where to stop, if he was to
publish the names of all to whom he is under obligations.
Such portions of the Gazetteer as are not original
have been compiled from the Encyclopœdia Americana,
the Gazetteer of the United States, Elliott's District of
Columbia, or Official Documents.

Apology is due for publishing the hasty composition
which is called rather from its length than its character, a
History of Virginia. The publisher promised in his prospectus
between six and seven hundred pages, and all who
saw his manuscript volumes supposed they would, unless
very extensively curtailed overrun a thousand, but when
the matter came to be edited and printed, it did not hold
out as well as was supposed. This unfortunately could
not be ascertained until the Gazetteer was through the
press, and then it was necessary to fill it up with a more
extensive, instead of the concise, history which had been
promised.

The time was of course too limited, being written as
fast as three active compositors could print, for the author
to have an opportunity to pay any attention whatever to
his language or style, or to digress upon the many topics
which so invitingly offered, or turn his eyes for a moment
to other colonies or countries. He was compelled to proceed
with the single isolated narrative of Virginia history,
and he trusts that the subject itself is so interesting that it
will be read even in his hasty sketch. Were he and his
work not both infinitely too humble for criticism to hawk

at, he would expect to be torn in pieces for the audacity
of dignifying the hasty composition of little more than a
fortnight, with the noble name of history; but he feels perfectly
secure in his insignificance, and if the insent swarin
of little critics should be inclined to inflict their venomous
stings upon him, he can throw around himself a shield,
which even their utmost fury cannot penetrate, and that
is the consciousness that his hasty sketch was not written
with the expectation of meeting with approbation as a
philosophic treatise upon the history of Virginia, but
merely with the hope of presenting a succinct and faithful
narrative of the early events of the colony. This he has
labored assiduously to effect, consulting every authority
which it was possible to examine in so short a time; and if
on any subject, all is not said which might have been said,
or all which is said is not true, he at least feels sure that
he has respectable authority for every word he utters, and
that he believes all to be true.

All the circumstances of the case, we doubt not with a
liberal public, will ensure this first attempt to describe
Virginia as it exists at the present day, a favorable reception;
and it will respect the disposition and the enterprize
which has given them so much, rather than blame
the stern poverty which would not allow the publisher to
wait longer, without receiving some emolument. With
the proceeds of this edition he expects to be able to subsist,
until he can prepare a work more worthy of the noble
state whose moral and physical attributes he delineates.

It will be perceived that a new plan has been adopted
in the arrangement. Instead of giving a continuous alphabetical
list of subjects and places, from the beginning
to the end of the volume, by which means much repetition
must occur, and frequent references have to be made
in order to obtain an account of any county or section of
country; the work is divided into three parts, first a general
description of the moral and physical character of the
whole state is given, and then of the two great portions,
eastern and western Virginia separately, and under these
latter heads a general description is given of each county,
in alphabetical order, and under each county an alphabetical
list of the most remarkable places it contains; a general

alphabetical index at the end completes the system.
The object of this arrangement was to present to the mind
each separate portion of country at once, in a connected
view, so that the reader at a distance might form as good
an idea of the state of improvement in each county, as if he
were on the spot, which it would be impossible to do, if
each little place was seattered through the book in a general
alphabetical arrangement, whilst it was thought that
the general index would make it as convenient for purposes
of mere reference as it would be under the old system.

The same wish to present a connected view, and the different
characteristics which distinguish Eastern and Western
Virginia, produced the division of the state into these
two portions.

It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the necessity which
existed for such a work, it has been felt by every traveller,
man of business, and literary man in the community; and
the information here collected, existed for the most part
only in the minds of those who have contributed it. The
desideratum is not yet however fully supplied, as no individual
has been found willing to contribute the information,
which was wanting with regard to many of the counties;
but this it is hoped may be obtained in time for
another edition. With a hope that what is already accomplished
will meet the expectations and approbation of
those who have so liberally patronized him, the work is
for the present dismissed.