PREFACE
Our history of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties, after months of persistent, conscientious labor, is now completed. Every important field of research has been minutely scanned by those engaged in its preparation, and no subject of universal public value has been omitted save where protracted effort failed to secure trustworthy results. The impossibility of ingrafting upon the pages of this volume the vast fund of the county’s historic information, and the proper omission of many valueless details, have compelled the publishers to select such matters as are deemed of the greatest importance. Fully aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents, inaccurate private correspondence, and numberless conflicting traditions, we make no pretension of having prepared a work devoid of blemish. Through the courtesy and the generous assistance met with everywhere, we have been enabled to rescue from oblivion the greater portion of important events that have transpired in past years. We feel assured that all thoughtful people in the counties, at present and in future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the undertaking and the great public benefit that has been accomplished.
It will be observed that a dry statement of fact has been avoided, and that the rich romance of border incident has been woven with statistical details, thus forming an attractive and graphic narrative, and lending beauty to the mechanical execution of the volume and additional value to it as a work for perusal. We claim superior excellence in our systematic manner of collecting material by workers in specialties; in the division of the subject matter into distinct and appropriate chapters; in the subdivision of the individual chapters into sub-heads, and in the ample and comprehensive index. We also, with pride, call the attention of the public to the superb mechanical execution of the volume. While we acknowledge the existence of unavoidable errors, we have prepared a work fully up to the standard of our promises, and as accurate and comprehensive as could be expected under the circumstances.
November, 1884 THE PUBLISHERS