other historian has the interior, the foundation, the people who work,
who suffer and who wait ... Have these historians of hearts and souls
lesser duties than the historian of exterior facts?"

There is much unwritten history of the Bay State: of the exterior, much
is recorded; of the interior, far less. Both are valuable to posterity.
It is believed that succeeding ages will hold of far greater value, and
the youth of our day be benefitted more by the study of the underlying
principles and causes of those events which are given a conspicuous
place in history, rather than by the mere record of the surface facts.

It is profitable to study the habits and methods of individuals who
stand out in bold relief in history. To derive the greatest interest and
value from such lives it is well to follow them from early childhood.
Indeed it is profitable to trace back the ancestry and lineage from
which the man has descended, to study the characteristics peculiar to
each generation, and to note the result of racial mixtures tending to
the typical and representative American of to-day.

Many prominent men received their first incentive to ambition and
industry and perseverence by reading--when their minds were immature,
but fresh and retentive--of the life and achievements of Benjamin
Franklin and such other grand models for the young.

No history of a country or state is complete without studies of the
lives of those men who have made and are making history.

William Gaston comes from an honored and distinguished ancestry on both
his paternal and maternal side as will be seen by the succeeding
genealogical notes.