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open to all in printed volumes; but much of what is now
within every one's reach had been furnished in MS. to me, and
still more is from the same hands, in many cases, given first to
the light on my pages. Our town histories are crowding forward,
and sometimes in less compact space than might be
wished. Windsor, though its History is large, has not equalled
ancient Woodbury in bulk, yet seems to contain all, with three-fold
of the interest, that might have contented us in the other.
The point of research may occupy long time, and be expressed
at last in brief phrase, so that no comparison can be made
between the result in different parts of the same field of battle
from taking only the numbers engaged in each. One initial
letter in this dictionary required a year and a quarter for its
complete preparation, more than three months were given to
each of several names, like Hall or Williams, and the progress
of a page has often demanded a week. It seemed my duty to
expose every error in our genealogy that has got imbedded in
any reputable book; and the suspicion of any such may lead
to a long train of inquiries before the refutation can be reached.
If my success has been less than my ambition, it has not been
owing to lack of industry, or to hurried operation. Printing of
the first volume began in Dec. 1858, and was prosecuted without
interruption of a day to this time; while for the next
volume the careful amanuensis has ready for the compositor
two hundred pages, a part of which will be given to the press
to-morrow. For the access of new information that reaches us
almost every month, a constant watch is kept; and life and
health being continued, my contract with the community may
be decently discharged in the autumn of 1861.
A very extensive catalogue of gentlemen, that might be
graced by one of more than half a dozen ladies, could here be
supplied, were it useful to mention the smaller as well as the
greater contributors to these sheets. To Goodwin, Bond, Harris,
father and son, Kingsley, Abbot, Day, Shattuck, Lunt, and
Kilbourne, of the respectable file who have passed out of
active service, it would not be easy to state the respective proportions
of indebtedness; nor could I specify the ratio of
benefit derived in my pages from benevolence of the living
Babson, Boltwood, Brayton, Budington, Clapp, Day, Edwards,
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