The History of Redding, Connecticut - From Its First Settlement to the Present Time, With Notes on the Adams, Banks, Barlow, Bartlett, Bartram, Bates, Beach, Benedict, Betts, Burr, Burritt, Chatfield, Couch, Darling, Fairchild, Foster,... #245132

An interest is attached to the place of one's birth which change of scene rather enhances than removes, and which increases rather than diminishes in intensity as one approaches the later stages of life; this home feeling has been largely instrumental in the production of this work, and to it is due nearly everything of interest or value that the book possesses.<br><br>A history of Redding has been long contemplated by the author as a service due his native town, and as long shrunk from because of the labor, the expense, and the difficulty of its compilation. Whether well or illy done, it is now completed, and goes out to the somewhat limited public for whom it was written.<br><br>The materials for the work have been drawn largely from the ancient records of the town and parish, from the records of the colony, and from the files of musty papers in the State Library at Hartford. Tradition and oral information have not been neglected, and every reasonable effort has been made to render the work as far as possible a thorough and reliable history of the town. That errors and discrepancies will be found, is to be expected; but it is not believed that they are sufficiently numerous or important to destroy its historical value. In the preparation of the book the compiler has aimed to preserve the character of a local historian, and has confined himself chiefly to the narration of local facts and incidents. In harmony with this principle, an extended biography of Joel Barlow, at first intended for this work, has been excluded. The sketch of the poet so grew on the author's hands, that it was found it would make a volume by itself, and contained so much of general interest and detail that it could not be made to harmonize with the local character of this work. A concise sketch of the poet's life, however, and the original portrait from Fulton's oil-painting, that formed the frontispiece of the Columbiad, are included in its pages.<br><br>The compiler has not aimed at making a large book; many facts in few words is what a busy age demands of the historian, and in deference to this demand only such matter as was of real value and interest has been admitted. The church histories and the genealogical notes are, perhaps, the most important, if not the most interesting, portions of the work.