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HISTORY

OF

WORCESTER,

MASSACHUSETTS,

FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO SEPTEMBER, 1836:

WITH

VARIOUS NOTICES RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF

WORCESTER COUNTY.

BY WILLIAM LINCOLN.


'These local annals are full of little things; names, dates, and facts: and rumors of
every sort, which seem, at first sight, almost too trifling to be noticed: and yet, not only
is it true, that the general historian must essentially depend on the local, to a very con-
siderable extent, for the mass of loose seeds from which the spirit of his narrative should
be laboriously distilled: but it is also true, that there is almost always a good deal of
that spirit already made in such materials at his hand. Many of these little things which
we speak of, are little only in size and name. They are full of rich meaning. They
are graphic and characteristic in a high degree. They suggest far more than they say.
They illustrate classes of men, and ages of time. They are small but brilliant lights
on the walls of the past, pouring floods of splendor from their little niches on the vast
abysses around them.'
AMERICAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, June, 1836.

WORCESTER:

MOSES D. PHILLIPS AND COMPANY.

1837.

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Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1836, by WILLIAM LINCOLN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

PRINTED BY HENRY J. HOWLAND,

WORCESTER.

TO THE REV. AARON BANCROFT, D. D.

Except for your warm encouragement of the general design of this history, without knowledge of the manner of its execution, it would have perished. If there is any merit in the preservation of the facts it contains, it is yours: the errors and mistakes are those of the compiler. On the completion of the work, his highest gratification is derived, from the opportunity of expressing veneration for the character of the beloved pastor, and gratitude for the communications, which, rightly used, would have given value to the volume now respectfully dedicated to you, who have contributed more than all others to perpetuate the memory of the events and men of Worcester in past times.

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