Memorial Of The Reunion Of The Natives Of Westhampton Mass September 5 1866

A record of the reunion of the residents of Westhampton, Massachusetts in 1866, including historical information and biographical sketches of the participants. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Memorial of the Reunion of the Natives of Westhampton, Mass: September 5, 1866 Centennial celebrations, and Reunions of the natives of given towns, are modern features of our New England history. Our country is yet in its youth. None of our municipal communities have existed long enough to admit of more than two centennial jubilees, and many of them have had but one. Such occasions are replete with the deepest interest to the living descendants of generations which have passed away. They afford an opportunity to gather up, and put upon record, the memories of the past, to pay our dutiful respects to parents, grandparents and still more distant progenitors, and to preserve green in our recollections their household fidelity, their social worth, their unfaltering patriotism, and their consecrated piety. A want of proper respect for antiquity is said to be one of the grand defects of our national taste. If it is a blemish in our character, much should be pardoned to the stern necessities of pilgrim and frontier life, to the incessant struggle of the first settlers for existence, surrounded by hostile savages and a frowning wilderness, under inclement skies, and, more than all, with an almost total want of sympathy in the land that gave them birth. The fathers of New England had little time to spend in communion with the past. The necessities of the present were all engrossing; and yet, such is the testimony of all contemporary and impartial history, that, in addition to their unquenchable love of civil and religious liberty, they had more taste for institutions which were hoary with time, more love of literature and science, more relish for works of art, and a far higher regard for the immortal welfare of their children and their children's children, than have distinguished any other pioneers the world has seen. 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.

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An index to the Proceedings is included in "A rough subject index to the publications of the Essex Institute," by Gardner M. Jones.