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Published: 2015-08-09

Total Pages: 768

ISBN-13: 9781332521418

Excerpt from Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley: Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Perry, Pennsylvania, Containing Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers Every neighborhood is a world in miniature. As the natural phenomena which may be observed within any limited area furnish abundant illustration of the grand laws that govern the physical universe, so the virtues that build up nations and the passions that wreck them are all exemplified, in even the smallest community. There is profound truth in Gray's intimation, that each hamlet possesses its "mute, inglorious Milton," its "Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood." And as nothing, surely, more nearly concerns all human beings than the character and actions of their fellowmen, it follows, that a work which in any degree mirrors the life of a community must be of interest, not only to those whom relationship or neighborhood has made sharers in that life, but to all thoughtful minds. The annals of the quietest neighborhood are as attractive, in their way, and as profitable a study, as the history of a nation. The nature of the interest they inspire will of course vary with the point of view of the reader. If he be given to philosophy, a student of social or political economy, or of psychology, he will seek to construct or to support some theory. If he be in search of statistics, a collection of biographies, drawn from all walks of life, will be rich in material for him. If, on the contrary, he be imaginative and sympathetic, many pictures of tranquil domestic happiness, many instances of heroism, many tender and thrilling stories of love or of war, will rise before him. Even amid dry details, one who can "read between the lines" will catch frequent glimpses of the tragedy and even of some of the comedy of life; for the shifting scenes of human existence cannot fail to afford gratification to the sense of humor. In early and simple times, when the as yet unorganized nations were only an aggregation of small communities, or tribes, more or less effectually separated by natural boundaries, the main occupation of each small group of families was determined by the nature of their locality, and there was but little intercourse between different parts of the country. In those days, the lives of the individual members of a community presented few outward points of difference, and a collection of their biographies would have been only a monotonous series of repetitions. Now, through the mingling of races and peoples and the changes perpetually taking place, all is variety; from one we can no longer learn all, as to any civilized people or even any small division of such nation. Threads of connection bind the dwellers in every secluded village to the past and the present of the whole world. This is especially the case in America. To form our nation, the best nations of Europe were, as Cotton Mather expressed it, "sifted." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.