Long before this work, here in an edition containing three volumes, two of them of biographical nature, was first published, the authors cherished the hope that it could be a genuine narrative history of the county and wanted to be personally instrumental in achieving so important a result. Their attention was especially directed to the matter by their observations during their connection with the schools, from which they became convinced of the extremely elementary character of the general knowledge of this county's history, even in relation to the Revolution, whereof, indeed, anything like a well-coordinated understanding is most exceptional among the people, and quite incapable of being taught to the young because of the unsuitability for that purpose of all books heretofore published that bear on the subject. In formulating the plan for the present work they had fundamentally in view a lucid continuous narrative, thorough in its treatment of the outlines of the subject and reasonably attentive to local details without extending to minuteness. These lines have been followed throughout. This is volume one out of three, containing the history from the county's earliest settlement to the year 1900.