THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



A FEW remarks, more personal and confidential than would be 

 appropriate in the body of this book, ou(i;ht to be made. Be- 

 fore this attempt to give the story of our town's life, almost no histor- 

 ical account had been undertaken. Rev. Jacob Flint's " Two Century 

 Discourses" had been written in the year 1821 ; but the nature of a 

 sermon could scarcely permit the introduction of much matter of his- 

 torical value. Fifty years later, 1870, at the celebration of the first 

 century of town life, Hon. Thomas Russell, of Boston, delivered an 

 oration remarkably full of picturesque events gathered from the public 

 records; but a single address was of course inadequate for a town his- 

 tory. Of late years a number of towns have indulged the instinct for 

 reminiscing by publishing their own biographies, but this town for 

 many years has had no one willing to become its historian, and even 

 ROW, but for the urgency of Samuel T. Snow, this writing would not 

 have been commenced. 



The hand of an alien might well hesitate to record the private affairs 

 of a conservative New England town, but it is hoped that a spirit of 

 fairness and his admiration for the town may be relied upon to make 

 up his deficiency in blood connection. Coming to this picturesque 

 village from the outside world, it has been the writer's fortune to be 

 received into the inside confidence of many hearts. It has been a 

 labor of love to learn from those who have had the experience of living 

 some of the deep f.icts of life, and to narrate some of the circumstances 

 of former lives in this community. 



While the pleasure of this has been constant, the labor has been 

 heavy and continuous for two or three years. No pathway into the 

 mass of historical documents had ever been opened. In fact, only the 

 meagerest collection of manuscripts could be found in the town's 

 archives, while private diaries and stories and other such memorials 

 were almost wholly wanting. It is regretted that no larger amount of 

 literary or historic bent has ever been shown by the inhabitants of 

 Cohasset, but some valuable docuinentary work has been done. New- 

 comb B. Tower a number of years ago copied many items from the 

 town records of Hingham which concerned Cohasset in the early days 

 when both were one. Many years ago Elisha Doane and his son, 

 James C. Doane, gathered some interesting documents which they 

 preserved. The late Joseph Osgood, d.d., kept an ancient map and a 

 copy of Parson Hobart's diary. Alexander Williams, some twenty 



