BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

THE LEADING CITIZENS OF MADISON COUNTY

CONTENTS

Title Page

Names Index
Portrait Index

Contact

PREFACE.

THE pleasant, absorbing task of many months has drawn to a close; and we offer to our patrons to-day the BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW of Madison County. We tender sincere thanks to all who have encouraged and otherwise aided us in our undertaking. We have taken pains to make the best use of the material kindly furnished us, carefully transcribing names and dates of long lines of ancestry, when these have happily been preserved, and preparing succinct, readable narratives. In some instances, owing to the incompleteness of the data at our command, the pen of the writer has necessarily been restricted to giving the sketch but in outline. The subjects of these brief biographies have been selected from the world's busy workers--tillers of the soil, mechanics, manufacturers, tradesmen, journalists, members of the learned professions, civil engineers, and so forth, representative men and women of the county, useful and honored in their day and generation. In these pages are amply illustrated the "private virtues of economy, prudence, and industry," esteemed by Washington not less admirable in civil life than "the more splendid qualities of valor, perseverance, and enterprise in public life." Here, too, are eminent examples of patriotism, of enthusiasm for education and for social improvement, and zeal for reform. A backward look has yielded traces of the deerslayers and pathfinders of long ago, has brought to view the toils and privations of the log-cabin builders, who were the pioneers of civilization in the woodland wastes. In this connection the eloquent words of Daniel Webster bring forcibly to mind the desirability of preserving memorials of past generations, to the end that the grace of gratitude and of reverence may not be lacking to the present and the coming.
"It did not happen to me," said Mr. Webster, "to be born in a log cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised among the snowdrifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that, when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man 's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early. affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode. I weep to think that none of those who inhabited it are now among the living; and if ever I am ashamed of it, or if ever I fail in affectionate veneration for him who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and through the fire and blood of a seven years' revolutionary war shrunk from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his country, and to raise his children to a condition better than his own, may my name, and the name of my posterity, be blotted forever from the memory of mankind! "
Readers of this REVIEW will hardly need to be reminded of the aptness of the Hebrew proverb, which styles "children's children the crown of old men, and the glory of children their fathers. "

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY.

March, 1894.