Book Description

Excerpt from History of Putnam County, New York: With Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men N the summer of 1885, the writer of this work was called from his home, at Southampton, L. I., to undertake the task of preparing a History of Putnam County, for the Publishers, W. W. And L. E. Preston. Upon arriving at the scene of his labors, the grandeur of the mountain scenery impressed his mind, with the contrast, so great, between the High Hills of the Highlands and the ocean shore, which had been within his View from earliest childhood. 'a more extended acquaint ance began to demonstrate, not only the difference in physi cal, but in historical matters, and he found increasing interest in searching for the sources of information upon which the historian must rely. The little knowledge that is left of that aboriginal race whose origin is unknown and whose end is oblivion; the coming of another race, and their conquest of the soil; the settlements they made and the towns they founded; with the endless diversity found in family history, and the change of events in political affairs; the history of that family, who were once lords and owners of all the land around; the banishment and the death in a foreign land of some of their number; all these soon became the subjects of search after knowledge, which became the more fascinat ing from its being laborious. If the author has succeeded in throwing any light upon the darkness which hides the past; it he has recorded information which otherwise would have been lost, and if the researches he has made shall ln duce others to follow the path he has marked out, he will feel that his labors have not been in vain. It only remains to express our sincere thanks for the valu able assistance received from those who have sympathized with the work, and especially to John De wvitt W'arner, Esq. 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.