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ΤΟ

JAMES HAMILTON COUPER, ESQ.,

HON. GEORGE R. GILMER,

AND THE

HON. JOSEPH H. LUMPKIN,

WITH

SINCERE ADMIRATION FOR THEIR VIRTUES AND TALENTS

This Book

18 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY

THE AUTHOR.

:

PREFACE.

THE flattering reception given by my fellow-citizens to "THE STATISTICS OF GEORGIA," naturally encouraged me to venture still further in that field, which must ever be a favourite with the patriotic Georgian.

Ten years of incessant labour, expense, and travel throughout the State, have been cheerfully bestowed, and the "HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF GEORGIA are the result.

No source of knowledge has been neglected or despised. The Libraries of Charleston, Savannah, Milledgeville, and New-York, have been diligently searched.

The Colonial Documents kindly furnished me by the Legislature of Georgia, to aid in the compilation of this work, have been freely used. A large amount of information has been gleaned, moreover, from aged persons -"the oldest inhabitants" of many of our towns and villages-whose memories are proverbially tenacious in regard to events, which made their vivid impressions in early youth. This oral tradition, indeed, often furnishes

the warm flesh and blood of the body of History, while documentary evidence can be relied on for the putting together of the dry skeleton alone.

Correctness rather than elegance has been the end chiefly sought; and the pains unsparingly taken give me a right to claim general reliability for all facts stated.

But, in a field of original research, so new, so extended, and so largely unexplored before, it is too much to expect that entire freedom from error has been attained.

TO JAMES HAMILTON COUPER, Esq., Hon. GEORGE R. GILMER, Hon. WILSON LUMPKIN, I. K. TEFFT, Esq., Colonel WILLIAM HARDEN, of Cass County, Rev. P. A. STROBEL, GEORGE W. WALTHOUR, Esq., NELSON TIFT, Esq., General J. V. HARRIS, Colonel A. J. PICKETT, of Alabama, EDWARD F. CAMPBELL, Esq., Rev. JOHN JONES, WILLIAM MCINTOSH, Esq., J. H. R. WASHINGTON, Esq., BENJAMIN E. STILES, Esq., and Colonel JOHN MILLEDGE, the author is indebted for valuable assistance.

This work does not assume to be a consecutive History. It is but a collection of materials for the use of the future historian. It is enough for me, if, by the tough toil of the literary pioneer, I succeed in breaking and gathering out the stone from the quarry, and in hewing the heavy timber from the mountains, wherewith, hereafter, some accomplished architect, in its full proportion and finished beauty, may rear the fair fabric of the History of Georgia.

MARIETTA, COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA, }

1st January, 1854.

G. W.

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