Historical Sketches of the Town of Portland Comprising also the Pioneer History of Chautauqua County
By HC Taylor

Preface

The following pages are not the result of hasty research or careless investigation, but for three years have occupied the earnest attention of the author during the hours that could be spared from the demands of a most laborious profession. The compilation was not undertaken for the want of employment, but to rescue from the wasting influence of time the facts and incidents connected with the settlement and early history of the town. It has been a labor of love, and in one sense the author regrets the close of the volume. It was not expected that more than from two to three hundred pages could be written, but such was the accumulation of material that it would have been far easier to have written two volumes than condense it within the present limits. It was said by a friend that he who could write a good town history is fitted to write a book on any other subject. However this may be, it is certain he would be capable of almost any amount of hard labor, and for his patience well deserving a niche close by the one occupied by that rigid old moralist, the man of Uz. Amid the discouragements consequent upon the prosecution of the work, it becomes a pleasant duty to mention the names of a few of the numerous friends whose kind sympathies and intelligent aid have cheered the author in his difficult labors. But for them the work might have been abandoned long since. To Hon. ET Foote of New Haven, Conn., he is indebted for many suggestions of importance and many facts in regard to the early history of the county; to David Eaton, an early settler of the town who died the past season, for a large amount of local history that it would have been impossible to have reached from any other source; to Hon. Abner Hazeltine of Jamestown, this county, EB Taylor, Alfred Eaton. JS West, and many others of this town, and over two hundred correspondents in twelve states of the Union. In addition, a vast number of books, manuscripts and records have been consulted and the utmost effort made to render the whole truthful and a reliable book of reference. Errors may be discovered by careful antiquarians, but it is believed that it will be found as free from defects as it is possible for intense solicitude and hard labor to make it. It is hoped that none by a hasty glance will pronounce this or that statement incorrect, but on the contrary subject them first to serious consideration or investigation.

To the good people of Portland, firstly, and to friends in every locality, this book is dedicated, with the best wishes of the author.

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