Book Description

Excerpt from The History of Canaan New Hampshire My father at his death in 1893 left in manuscript a partially finished history of the Town of Canaan. It has been my intention since that time to print it. I remember of my mother saying that my father had said the history would all have to be rewritten before it was printed. I did not realize then, and not until within a few years, how true that was. Every year since 1893 I have spent more or less time in getting the material into shape, every year realizing how little I knew and how incompetant I was to perform the task. The mass of material, and the condition in which it was, seemed to me stupendous. Not in the slightest degree familiar with any of the past of the town, being absent from it from the time I was thirteen years old, with only periodical visits at home during vacation. During these times I took no interest in my fathers work. For thirty years he had been accumulating the material. A good part of it was from personal observation but much of it was obtained from the reminiscences of old people, indefatigable search in old garrets for letters, books, deeds, diaries, scraps, anything that would lead to a clew on some forgotten incident. My father says of himself: "I grew up to strong youth on the shores of the beautiful pond that fronts our street. It was a pleasant resort for thoughtful people. Old and young used to linger about there, and many confidences were imparted, some of which I shall never reveal. I was very near, and was conscious of much that was said and done in society, in politics, and in religion. Opinions were freely expressed before me, because, being merely a duplex tree, no one supposed my ears might ever give tongue to my voice. I made note of many things and treasured them up. Some of these events occurred so long ago that it is safe to write of them. They had an interest for those who took part in them as similar events have today, and formed epochs in men's lives." In my youth I spent days riding over the hills with him in search of anything about Canaan, visiting the old graveyards. 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.