Author: Isaac Newton Bassett

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-04

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9781332176151

Excerpt from Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, Vol. 1 In the latter part of 1912 the editor of the Aledo Democrat requested me to write a historical sketch or reminiscences of what I knew in regard to the history of Mercer County. For some seven or eight months I contributed articles to the paper and on account of illness had to suspend writing further for the time being. In the latter part of 1913 The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company of Chicago sent one of their agents and writers here to procure some one to edit a history of the county, and I was engaged to undertake the authorship of such a work. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company agreed to furnish some competent author to write the history of the county under my direction and furnished me with Professor W. A. Goodspeed, who is a thoroughly educated and experienced man, having written the history of a number of counties and states heretofore, and I am indebted to him for his labor, intelligence and experience in compiling and writing this history of the county. I have collected a great many facts in addition to what have come under my own observation, and submitted the same to Professor Goodspeed. I have had also the benefit of advice from Messrs. F. S. Burgett of Keithsburg, Richard H. Roberts of New Boston, William B. Frew and Justice George A. Cooke of Aledo, Maj. Dan W. Sedwick of Suez Township, and Charles Kinsey of Richland Grove Township, and have received from various persons throughout the county valuable information and assistance in preparing this work. It is useless to say that this or any other history is absolutely complete and correct. I have endeavored, however, to be correct in regard to all matters stated in the work and have tried to incorporate all essential facts that ought to be preserved in a history, but it is a very difficult matter to determine what is of importance enough to be preserved as history, and what should be omitted. I hope, however, that with the assistance of Professor Goodspeed and others, who have given me aid in publishing this history, that all has been preserved that is essential to a good history of the county. The work is in two volumes, the first being a volume of the general history, of which I am the author, and the second a volume composed of biographies, which have been written under the direction of the respective individuals whose biographies appear. Of this part of the work neither Professor Goodspeed nor I are responsible. 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.