Book Description

Excerpt from A History of the Plantation of Menunkatuck and of the Original Town of Guilford, Connecticut: Comprising the Present Towns of Guilford and Madison, Written Largely From the Manuscripts of the Hon. Ralph Dunning Smyth Among my grandfather's papers were considerable collections of materials he had intended to use for a history of the town of Guilford. Among these was a fragment of a complete history of the town, written by Mr. Smyth shortly before his death. This forms, with some changes, the first four chapters of the present work and a part of the fifth. It is probable that I should have written part of it somewhat differently, but it seemed best to permit this record of his ripened knowledge of Guilford history to remain without essential change. The rest of the book was prepared from Mr. Smyth's manuscript collections, the Town Records, and other available sources. Owing to the extensive materials at hand, it is believed the work is, to a considerable degree, exhaustive and complete. I desire to return thanks to Mr. Chas. H. Post for courtesies shown while examining the Town, Records, and to the Rev. W. G. Andrews for generous sympathy. Among those who have rendered especial assistance in the compilation of this work are Rev. Frederick E. Snow, Dr. Ellsworth Eliot, Mr. Samuel H. Chittenden, Mr. Frederick C. Norton. This history of Guilford has had three predecessors. The Rev. Thomas Ruggles, Jr., prepared a sketch of the history of the town over a century ago, which has been twice published. In 1827 Dr. David Dudley Field prepared a sketch of the history of Guilford and Madison for the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, using Mr. Ruggles work as a basis. In 1832 he revised it. About 1840 this sketch was revised and enlarged by R. D. Smyth. After Mr. Smyth's death this manuscript was found among his papers by his son-in-law, the Hon. Lewis H. Steiner, edited by him and published by Munsell in 1877. All the important statements therein are embodied in this work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.