PREFATORY   NOTES.
 

A,
 

>^ The auttior of this book was engao;ed io newspaper work in Hagerstown as Editor of
.jTiiE Hagerstown Mail for about 17 years. He came into possession of numerous files of
^Hagerstown newspapers. From these this History is principally compiled. It is not intended
to be a book of reference ; it does not profess to be free from inaccuracies. The sources from
which the incidents related have been taken are many of them fallable. That part which re¬
lates to the Civil AVar does not profess to be a military history and in the exciting times of
the War, while Washington County was the scene of great events, there were doubtless
thousands of happenings which I have not recorded. Daring a coasiderable period of the
War the newspapers were suspended I have made free use of documents and facts recorded
in Scliarff's History of Washington County which is now out of print and cannot be obtained.
I have felt free to do this because I gave to Mr. Scharff a large amount of the material which
he used. Samuel Kerclieval's history, together with articles in the newspapers about tlie
pioneers and Indian Warfare are the autliorities used for the colonial period and the manner
of life of the early settlers. These chronicles are written without taking any thought of the
" dignity of history." Many incidents are recorded which appear to be trivial. But they
give a better understanding of the character of our people. If I have failed to make this
history interesting it is not because of lack of abundant material, for Washington County
has been the scene of great events and the dwelling place of many famous and interesting
men and women.

In all my work, which began many years ago, I have received the aid and sympathy of
my former partner in publishing The Mail and my close personal friend for the third of a
century, Edwin Bell, an actor in many of the scenes that I have described and one who as an
Editor and a public spirited and patriotic citizen has contributed greatly to the advancement
and prosperity of his native county.

T. J. C. W.
 

A work such as we are now pleased to present to our many patrons, in wliich we have
collected and placed in permanent form the annals of an interesting section of Maryland, has
two sources of value. One of these is its historic utility as a memorial of the progress and
development of the community, from the earliest period with which we could become ac¬
quainted through family records and traditions to the present day. The preservation of
these Bata affords tbe means of illustrating and confirming or correcting and amending extant
histories, and supplies material for the compilation of future ones The second source of
value is the personal interest attaching to the biographical and genealogical records compris¬
ing our portion of this work, either as studies of life and character, or as memoirs of individ
uals connected with the reader as relatives or fellow citizens.

On both these accounts, a ooUeation of biographical records is a useful contribution to