VI    PREFACE.

ideas constantly in view, and to give as much general information
pertaining to the industry of New Hampshire as we possibly could
in a brief manner. Our readers will find that brevity has been
our aim through the book. But still we have intended to furnish
as much useful information in less than seven hundred pages as
many writers, years ago, would have required two thousand to im¬
part the same amount of knowledge. Figures in a tabular form
have assisted us much in this respect, there being nearly one hund¬
red pages in tables. We have intended to show more of the
present standing of the State than of the past; consequently we
have given but a brief history of the first settlements, and no bi¬
ographies of eminent men who were natives of the State. It would
require volumes to do justice to the sons and daughters of New-
Hampshire who have left their native homes to seek their fortunes
on life’s broad ocean, and we have reserved that task for some
future biographer.

In preparing a work like this, but very little can be original.
Nearly all is a compilation, and, in order to obtain the necessary
information, we have been obliged to claim the assistance of many
people in various sections of the State.

fri preparing a book of this character, many errors must natural¬
ly creep in, that are beyond all human power to obviate. Every
town will have its critics, and they may see some things in the book
that should be different, in some respect, relative to their own section
of the State. Although we feel obliged to persons in many towns
for their kindness in assisting us to many facts, still, that co-opera¬
tion throughout the State has not been all we could have desired,
and in some instances, we have been obliged to rely on the manu¬
script census of 1870, for many statistical facts relative to manu¬
factories. If a few of our many friends see some errors in this
respect, they may rest assured that they were correct in 1870. All
the cities and large towns in the State, we have personally visited,
and gathered such information as to their industries, etc., as the
citizens have seen fit to give us.