Preface

AFTER surmounting many unlooked-for obstacles and overcoming unexpected difficulties, the publishers are enabled to present to the public the History of the County of Brant, which has been in preparation for the past ten months. To procure the materials for its compilation, many hundred pages of manuscript and written records have been explored, and every other avenue of reliable information has been diligently searched. He who expects to find the work entirely free from errors or defects has little knowledge of the difficulties attending the preparation of a work of this kind. So numerous are the sources from which the facts have been drawn, that no attempt has been made to indicate them in the foot-notes. The data has been culled, item by item, from sources widely scattered—-in books, pamphlets, periodicals and newspaper files; in manuscripts, church records, court records and justice’s dockets; in local laws; the charters, manuals and minutes of societies; in private letters, journals and diaries, especially of intelligent observers; in funeral sermons, obituary notices and inscriptions on tombstones; in the memory of living persons, of what they have themselves witnessed; and last, and least valuable of all, traditions where they could not be supported by some record or contemporaneous document; these have been received with the utmost caution. In matters of doubtful authenticity, the writers have assumed as a guiding principle that the record of a false statement as the truth would be a greater evil than the loss of a true statement.

The publishers have been fortunate in securing the services of efficient and painstaking historians, who have been greatly assisted by many citizens of the county. The Dominion History was prepared by Dr. C; P. Mulvaney, of Toronto. The history of the county and county seat was prepared by the publishers’ staff of historians, with local assistance. The township histories were prepared by Dr C. P. Mulvaney, John Bingham, Esq., George A. Baker,. Esq., and G. A. Graham, Esq. The biographical sketches were prepared by efficient writers from notes collected by the solicitors, and a copy of each biography has been sent by mail to the several subjects, giving to each an opportunity to correct any errors that might have crept into their sketches. Where the copies were not returned, the publishers were obliged to print the originals.

Acknowledgments tor valuable services rendered are due to M. J. Kelly, LL.B., M.D., Wm T. Harris, M.D., Prof. A. H. Dymond, T. S. Shenston, James. Wilkes, A. Robertson, of the Bank of British North America, Rev. William Cochrane, D.D., James Woodyatt, City Clerk, Rev. F. R. Beattie, B.D.; to the editors of the Expositor, Courier and Telegram for the use of their tiles, and to the city and county officials, and to other citizens, all of whom most generously assisted to the full extent of their ability.

In submitting their work to the public, the publishers trust that it will be received in that generous spirit which is gratified at honest and conscientious efforts, and not in that captious spirit which refuses to be satisfied short of unattainable perfection.

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