History of the Town of Milford, Worcester County Massachusetts

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It will be seen that I have divided the work into two general parts, - Historv and Genealogy. Part I. Is almost exclusively historical, with only some incidental exceptions which seemed allowable. It comprises seventeen chapters of various length, arranged in what seemed to be the natural logical order. Each of these embodies the themes and topics that belong legitimatelv under its caption. Thus the reader, bv looking at the Table of Contents, will, for the most part, perceive at once where to find auv particular matter treated of, that mav be the subject of special inquiry. But, in default of this, my carefully prepared Index will give him the very page that contains the topic or name desired. Most of these chapters are subdivided into sections with specific appropriate headings. This may also be a help to research in some cases. I must here observe, that some of the earlier chapters were written before Dr. John G. Metcalf's His tory of Mendon was published. His Annals were then in manu script; and he kindly permitted me, through my copyist, the late Alex. H. Allen. To take liberal extracts necessary for this history; which I made use of verbatim et literatim. Very naturally, when the Doctor came to pass his manuscript through the press, he slightly changed some of his verbalism. But I have let mv extracts stand nearly as Mr. Allen copied them; and, therefore, some apparent dis crepancies may appear in the printed texts of the two published his tories. In glancing at them, however, I did not think them impor tant enough to require much re-writing of my own manuscripts. Part II. Consists of what mav be called a biographico-genealogical Register, arranged in alphabetical order of surnames. Of these surnames there are more than four hundred, manv of them branch ing into numerous family records. All our ancient, prominent inhabit ants are brought into conspicuous notice, and many others, of more or less note, all the way down to the present time. This has been by far