Book Description

Excerpt from Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee County In many cases the response was at once generous and sympathetic: friends caught up the spirit of the enterprise and gave us papers that will delight you as they have us; others equally willing did not realize that stories of pioneer women were most desired, (r, perhaps, thought with the good old deacon, that "the brethren always embraced the sisters;" or feared, as another deacon did in regard to heaven "that there'd be so many more women than men, that it wouldn't be interesting," but they wrote delightful papers in the masculinegender, and they, too, will give you pleasure. But alas! many others equally willing and anxious for our success "would gladly aid us but it was so long ago they had forgotten, etc., etc." One of our best contributors says: "Sometimes I gave up, here; sometimes I followed them up with a "Columbian Shorter Catechism," and in this way I became possessed of some interesting and picturesque incidents. At one time about all I could get was 'the way they heated the water to scald the hogs.1 I thought if our book lived and should ever reach those whom we shall never live to see, my part of it would be those hot rocks a thunderin' down the ages!" Others wrote more formal particulars, but all have been preserved and all are of interest. When we were obliged to abandon our hope of the window, it was too late to attempt any other project, so we decided to collect all this material at once, and publish it as a book for our exhibit. Not that it is as desirable an exhibit as the window would have been, or as it might have been made had we known the end from the beginning but we had no better resource. So, whether you see it among the varied exhibits at the great exposition or place it among your household treasures, this is its history, and it is yours as well as ours. It is not all we wished or hoped, probably not all that you expect, but if you are inclined tocriticise the omission of any matter remember that the omission is your own. If you say," why did you not put in this, or that?" we shall address the question to you, in reply. Such as has been given us, we give you, wishing no less than you that it was more complete. Look upon its failings then, with allowance, drop a tear on the sad pages, and laugh with your children over the merry ones. Teach them how true it is, and that it was written for them. Then we shall feel that the mission of our little book has been fulfilled, for as Webster says: "Those who do not look upon themselves as a link connecting the past with the present, do not perform their duty to the world." 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.