And now a tardy and, perhaps, needless word or two in revealment of the purpose of this volume.

To rescue a valuable miscellany of facts and occurrences from an impending oblivion; to gather and fix certain ephemeral incidents before they had passed out of remembrance; to render some account of the County’s vast resources and capabilities; to trace its geography and analyze its soils and geology; to follow the tortuous windings of its numerous streams; to chronicle the multitudinous deeds of sacrifice and daring performed by her citizens and soldiery—­such has been the purpose of this work, such its object and design.

But the idea as originally evolved contemplated only a chronology of events from the establishment of the County to the present day.  Not until the work was well under way was the matter appearing under the several descriptive heads supplemented.

From start to finish this self-appointed task has been prosecuted with conscientious zeal and persistency of purpose, although with frequent interruptions, and more often than not amid circumstances least favorable to literary composition.  At the same time my hands have been filled with laborious avocations of another kind.

What the philosopher Johnson said of his great Dictionary and himself could as well be said of this humble volume and its author: 

“In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.”

If further digression be allowable I might say that in the preparation of this work I have observed few of the restrictive rules of literary sequence and have not infrequently gone beyond the prescribed limits of conventional diction.  To these transgressions I make willing confession.  I have striven to present these sketches in the most lucid and concise form compatible with readableness; to compress the greatest possible amount of useful information into the smallest compass.  Indeed, had I been competent, I doubt that I would have attempted a more elaborate rendition, or drawn more freely upon the language and the coloring of poetry and the imagination.  I have therefore to apprehend that the average reader will find them too statistical and laconic, too much abbreviated and void of detail.

However, a disinterested historian I have not been, and should such a charge be preferred I shall look for speedy exculpation from the discerning mass of my readers.