Book Description

Excerpt from Old and New Westmoreland, Vol. 1 It is without trepidation that the publishers lay before their patrons the following work, Old and New Westmoreland. Its title embraces the territory in Westmoreland County at its formation in 1773, a region now generally known as Southwestern Pennsylvania. The work includes a complete history of Westmoreland County as it formerly existed, up until Washington, Fayette and Allegheny counties were carved from it. Indeed, the author has devoted more space to the formative period of this section than any previous writer, and we believe he has thoroughly laid the interesting features of its history before the reader. For a third of a century after the first settlements were made in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the history of this section is made up of a strange commingling of tragedy and romance on the one hand, and of privations and exertions on the other. Though the reader may be sometimes taken away from the immediate locality of which the work treats, he will always find that the subject under consideration is one which deeply concerns Westmoreland history. The narrative as told here is made as nearly chronological as is possible. The publishers feel confident that Mr. Boucher has placed before the readers in a pleasing and forceful manner the salient facts of the long and interesting story, and that he has included much of that purely antiquarian lore, which is to many the most instructive and delightful feature in history. Formed, as the County of Westmoreland was, before the Revolution, the story of its patriotism in that struggle is and must ever remain, one of its brightest pages. The reader will find that the author has delved deeply into the biography of the makers of Westmoreland, giving of all of the prominent men of the past all of the authentic information that can be gathered concerning them. The work in two volumes relates entirely to the past, it being seldom, indeed, that the author has even mentioned the name of any one now living. He wishes us to state that he has been entirely untrammelled in this matter, and if he has omitted entirely, or given too much prominence to any event, or hero of the past, it is entirely a mistake in judgment, and is not due to any obligation on the part of the writer. In view of the foregoing, the publishers feel confident in reasserting that the two volumes of Old and New Westmoreland, being practically a history of Southwestern Pennsylvania, will, when carefully considered, meet with the approval of the intelligent and public-spirited people. 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.