PREFACE. It is now about seventeen years since the Gazetteer of New England, which forms the basis of the present volume, was given to the public. In the preparation of a work of this character, embracing a section of the country of so great historical, social and moral interest, it was the design of the author to present, in a compact, but at the same time an instructive and attractive form, whatever might be deemed essential to an accurate knowledge of the geographical and other physical features, together with the commercial, industrial, and educational resources, of these states; and, to such an extent as the compass of the volume would allow, to enrich its pages with historical and authentic traditional notices, illustrative of—what has come to be a pretty well-defined idea, the world over-the New England character and institutions. It will be perceived that a plan of this elevated and comprehensive scope could be carried out in a work embracing all the objects of a Gazetteer, only in application to some limited portion of the country. We have Universal Gazetteers, and Gazetteers of the United States,-new and excellent emissions of which have followed each other, in rapid succession, within the last five years, which are works of indispensable value, as geographical and topical dictionaries, to answer inquiries continually occurring in the exigencies of business, reading, and correspondence, in reference to names and places, and numerous facts of statistical importance. But, while these general Gazetteers aim to convey information as to a few prominent facts respecting every place in the country or the world, they occupy so wide a field that it is impossible for them to give a thousand local details, which lend a charm to the geography and statistics of our homes and neighborhoods, the haunts of our childhood, and the wider opening scenes with which the associations of our maturer years are indissolubly blended. Such particulars would make the general Gazetteer too unwieldy, costly, and inconvenient. Many volumes would be required for the United States alone, if the work pretended to embrace much more than a dry list of names and figures with regard to the great majority of the places mentioned. Countries and regions, therefore, of any special interest and importance, require separate and local Gazetteers. And what portion of the country more emphatically demands this than New England? Her limits constitute the natural and sufficient boundaries of such a field; her people are eminently a homogeneous and peculiar people; a kind of patriarchal and moral alliance binds in one her little family of commonwealths; a hoary antiquity is beginning to settle on her religious, educational, and civil institutions; and so long and so freely has she been sending out her sons to subdue the wilderness and people new territories, that she is extensively loved and honored in all the newer States as the old hive and homestead of the nation. To do any justice to her constantly developing resources requires a good-sized volume. Her enterprise is continually bringing about changes and improvements, which need to be chronicled almost from year to year. No New Englander, whether happily settled amid the companions and scenes of his early days, or having taken up his home in the West or South, far or near, but feels a desire to be fully informed of the progress and prospects, the actual condition and probable future, of his native town or region. PREFACE. And he requires, to this end, local details of greater particularity and variety than he can expect to find in any general Gazetteer of the entire country, however large the volume. Influenced by these considerations, the author, after years of devotion to the subject, in the publication of his several Gazetteers of the separate States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, at length undertook the preparation of a New England Gazetteer, to be somewhat more condensed than those separate works, and yet of a proper size to admit, in addition to the usual dry details, local histories, anecdotes, short biographies, descriptions of scenery, surface, soils, edifices, institutions, pursuits, manufactures, quarries, mines, curiosities, and, in fine, memorable incidents and particulars of all kinds. Such details, founded on authentic data, laboriously and faithfully collected, were given in this work, when first published, more than sixteen years ago; and upon its character and value, as thus conceived and executed, the public long since pronounced a most flattering verdict, by the eager reception which was given to it. It has become necessary, however, in the lapse of time, from the rapid progress of improvement, and the development of some new elements of social advancement among us, that in all these points the work should be carefully revised, and that numerous additions to its stock of materials should be made. Since the period of its first publication new vil lages, towns, and even cities, have sprung up in New England; new avenues of intercourse have been opened; new resources of wealth and luxury developed, and new appliances of industry and art brought into successful operation. In this eminently prosperous and happy community everything is proverbially active and progressive; and, so long as this characteristic of our people lasts, new editions of such a work as this will be required, at no very distant intervals, to record the results of their enterprise and advancement. The progress of agricultural science and of the mechanic arts, the advancement of commerce both at home and abroad, and the determination of the heavy capitalists of these States to connect the trade of the West with our Atlantic ports by adequate facilities of railroad communication, which frosts and snows, or other changes of climate, cannot seriously impede, are among the features of New England enterprise and prosperity, which evince that the most diligent geographical and statistical writers must be satisfied with following, rather than with keeping even pace with, the car of our improvement. The editor cannot claim that his work is perfect, nor presume that it can ever be made to approach near to such a standard. After all the pains bestowed upon it, many deficiencies will appear, as unavoidably pertaining to an undertaking of this nature. He trusts, however, that a degree of completeness has been attained which will render the work in no small measure acceptable and useful to those for whose benefit it has been prepared; and to such the work is now respectfully committed, in the confidence that it will receive that generous patronage which Yankees, both at home and. abroad, invariably bestow on every effort whose obvious design is USEFULNESS. |