A Brief History of Chemung County, New York #265996

Local history is fleeting and evanescent. Events of one day, even considered of supreme importance at the time, are forgotten the next day, and soon drop into oblivion. Any effort to recall them, after years have passed, entails tireless and exhaustive research amongst the files of musty, old newspapers, private memoranda, public records, and, best of all; the interviewing and arousing the recollections of elderly persons; preferably ladies, for their memories are usually very retentive and are seldom found inaccurate. Very much that follows is from the remembrances of old ladies; who knew the country in their girlhood; when it was pretty much all woods and swamps. Interviews with them could only be characterized as delicious. If there could be reproduced only one-half of all they have recalled, it would form a book many times the size of this, and if their names could be given; they would be recognized as belonging to some of the oldest and best-known families of the county.