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."