VI INTRODUCTION. 



familiar with most of the early settlers embraced within 

 the limits of our County ; where they lived, how they 

 lived, and from whence they came. This gave rise to the 

 idea of the map that exhibits the County as it was at the 

 time of its first settlement, or shortly afterwards, and also 

 suggested the biographical notices which form an impor- 

 tant feature of the woi'k. This arrangement has had the 

 effect of freeing the history of the County proper from 

 much personal narrative and local description, and will, it 

 is hoped, be a source of some satisfaction to many old 

 families of the County, and to many who reside beyond 

 our limits, but who can justly claim kindred here, and 

 " have their claims allowed." Much labor has been ex- 

 pended on this j)art of the work, and it is trusted not 

 without a reasonable degree of success. Still the author 

 has to regret, that in respect to some of the early immi- 

 grant settlers, he has been able to learn little or nothing. 

 This will account for the briefness and imperfection of 

 some of the notices, and the entire omission of any notice 

 of other pioneers in the settlement of the County. 



The multitude of local facts and circumstances that it 

 appeared necessary to give in the language in which they 

 are recorded, has given to a considerable portion of the 

 work, very much the character of Annals. It hence be- 

 came important to place at the head of each page, the date, 

 as nearly as possible, of the events recorded on it, and on 

 that account the formality of dividing the work into 

 chapters has been dispensed with. 



The Geology of the County, and the Catalogue of its 

 Flowering Plants and Ferns would have been contributed 

 to the work by the present author, had the historical part 

 of it been completed by Mr. Edwards. The Catalogue of 

 our Mosses was kindly prepared by Dr. Thomas P. James, 

 and that of the Quadrupeds and of the Birds by John 

 Cassin, Esq., both natives of Delaware County, and both 

 unsurpassed in the branches of the natural sciences to 

 which their contributions respectively belong. 



To his long tried friend, Minshall Painter, the author 

 is largely indebted for liberal and constant aid in the ex- 

 amination of voluminous manuscripts, and for the contri- 



