HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs
GENEALOGIST, AUTHOR OF 66 'Picturesque BERKSHIRE COUNTY," MEMBER OF THE
BERKSHIRE COUNTY HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, AND SECRETARY
OF THE BERKSHIRE COUNTY CHAPTER, MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY,
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
"And so it is, too, with family recollections. To have had forefathers renowned for
honorable deeds, to belong by nature to those who have bravely borne their part in life
and refreshed the world with mighty thoughts and healthy admiration, is a privilege
which it were mean and self-willed to despise. It is as a security given for us of old,
which it were falsehearted not to redeem; and in virtues bred of a noble stock, mellowed
as they are by reverence, there is often a grace and ripeness wanting to self-made and
brand-new excellence. Of like value to a people are heroic national traditions, giving
them a determinate character to sustain among the tribes of men, making them familiar
with images of great and strenuous life, and kindling them with faith in glorious
possibilities."-Martineau.