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Preface
THE labor of
preparing and bringing out a new Gazetteer of the United States has become
great and difficult. A considerable number
of years have elapsed since any work of this
kind has been given to the public as the fruit of original research. These
have embraced a period of extraordinary progress and development in the
whole economy of the country; during which our
new settlements have been multiplied
and extended with unexampled rapidity, and most
of the districts, towns, and cities of an earlier date have
made advances in
population, wealth, and internal improvements,
which have given to some of the older states a character and an aspect
almost entirely new. Numerous nourishing places at the west,
now the marts of an extensive trade,
and seats of civil jurisdiction, have sprung up
within that period; while great numbers of our maritime ports, and
manufacturing towns and cities, in the Atlantic States, have seen their
population, and every element of their prosperity, wonderfully augmented.
Hence the necessity of going
over the whole ground, as far as possible, with
new and careful
investigation; questioning and doubting the old
authorities at every step, and obtaining accurate information from the most
recent and authentic sources. In the endeavor to accomplish this, the author
has spared no labor nor expense which it was in his power to command. Having
devoted himself almost exclusively to the pursuit of information in this
department for many years, during which
time his Gazetteers of New England, and of the states of Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, and Vermont, have been given
to the public, and having, for this purpose, travelled somewhat extensively,
and made himself personally familiar with the physical and social
characteristics of the country, he has endeavored to pass an intelligent
judgment upon the genuineness and accuracy of all the materials incorporated
in the work. Yet perfect accuracy, in a work of this extent, is unattainable
by any human
diligence; and the author claims, on this score, nothing
further than to have employed his best exertions, under some peculiar
advantages, for the successful accomplishment of his object.
The most competent and able assistance
has been freely employed, in the preparation and revision of the materials
embodied in the work. Many of the papers on particular subjects, such as
those on the higher educational institutions, the banks, the currency, the
population, &c., have been prepared by gentlemen distinguished for their
acquaintance with the several departments of learning to which they pertain;
and a large number of the roost elaborate articles in the descriptive
portions of the work were written by persons familiar with the places and
the scenes described. To these, and to other individuals, who have been
steadily employed upon the undertaking, for a longer or shorter time, the
author is happy to acknowledge himself indebted for a large amount of what
is valuable in the subject matter, and
much that is attractive in the literary execution
of the work. He
would specially acknowledge his obligations to the public
officers of the several states and of the United States, to whom he has been
indebted for many valuable documents; to the Rev. WILLIAM JENKS, D. D., for
his articles on the New England States; to JESSE CIIICKERING, M. D., for his
assistance in the population tables; to CALEB STETSON, Esq., for his
valuable article on banks; and especially to the Rev. SAMUEL II. RIDDEL.
late secretary of the American Education Society, for his assistance in the
preparation of the entire work.
The standard authorities which have
been consulted are, the general and local gazetteers of former dates,
numerous county and town histories, that valuable series of volumes
known as Historical
Collections of several of the states, the American Almanac, congressional
and state documents, reports of corporations, topical and coast surveys,
journals of the most intelligent tourists, guide books, maps, and other
works, geographical, geological, and statistical, from which appropriate
information could be derived. The substance .of all which
may be considered as
of real value, in reference to the legitimate purpose of a gazetteer of the
country, has been made
to contribute to the completeness of the present work; to
the exclusion, however, of a large class of unimportant details, with which
the pages of works of this kind have frequently been encumbered. Statistics
which are comparatively trifling and unessential in themselves, or such as
must cease to be of any value after the changes of one or two years, have
been usually omitted ; and the space they would have occupied has been
redeemed for matter of more general interest, and for such material facts as
are wanted to satisfy the intelligent inquiries of persons interested in
obtaining a knowledge of any portion of the country, for ends important to
themselves.
The interest and convenience of the
reader have also been consulted, in regard to the facility of such casual
references as a work of this kind is chiefly intended to supply, by breaking
up the mass of its materials into several distinct sections, as indicated by
a natural principle of distribution and arrangement. The general
descriptions of the states and territories; the grand physical features of
the country; the great body of its inhabited places, whether denominated
cities, boroughs, towns, or villages; its chief localities of fashionable
resort, and of curious interest to the traveller; the smaller post villages,
which are only of consequence as such ; the population, colleges, banks, and
various statistical tables, are severally placed by themselves, under
distinct and appropriate titles, instead of being all embodied, as has been
more commonly the case, in one promiscuous and indistinguishable series.
Thus the person consulting this Gazetteer will be saved
much of the perplexity
and hinderance of running his eye over pages of a long and crowded alphabet,
to find the subject of his inquiry; while, at the same time, important
portions of the work are thus presented, in a much more interesting and
instructive form, to the general reader.
The failure of Congress, hitherto, to
provide for the publication of the seventh national census, has necessarily
occasioned a postponement in the issuing of this work, from the time
contemplated in the original prospectus, and has required a laborious and
expensive resort to other methods of obtaining the information which that
public document was expected to supply. This delay, however, has been
diligently improved in more carefully elaborating and perfecting important
portions of the work, and in bringing the whole down to a much later date
than was at first intended.
In all the toil of this arduous and
protracted undertaking, the author has been
much sustained and
animated by the hope of offering an acceptable and useful service to his
countrymen, and of contributing, in no small degree, to illustrate the
prosperity and glory of a people, whose advancement, in all the elements of
a free, Christian civilization, is becoming, more and more, the admiration
of the world. In the confidence that neither of these good ends will be
entirely lost, the labor of years is now
submitted to a liberal and enlightened public, to
meet with such approval only as its merits may deserve.
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