The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, by S. J. (Silvanus Jackson) Quinn

The HISTORY of the City of Fredericksburg Virginia
Prepared and printed by authority of the Common Council thereof , under the direction of its Committee on Publication, consisting of the following Councilmen: H. B. LANE, WM. E. BRADLEY and S. W. SOMERVILLE
S. J. QUINN, Historian
1908 The Hermitage Press, Inc. Richmond, Va.
Copyright, 1908, On all original matter herein, By H. B. Lane, Chairman of History Committee, for the City of Fredericksburg, Va.
TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO BRAVED THE DANGERS OF LAND AND WATER IN 1608, AND DISCOVERED THE SPOT UPON WHICH THE CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA, NOW STANDS, AND TO THOSE WHO WROUGHT SO HEROICALLY AND SUCCESSFULLY IN THE SETTLEMENT AND PROSPERITY OF THE SAID CITY TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1908, A PERIOD OF THREE HUNDRED YEARS, THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THE PRESENT COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG

To Messrs. H. B. Lane, Wm. E. Bradley and Prof. S. W. Somerville, Committee on History of the Common Council :
Gentlemen—When I was requested by your predecessors to write a history of Fredericksburg, I regarded it as quite an honor, and in the discharge of the duty I have found great pleasure. Not that the material needed was ready at hand and the task was easy, but because I found so many of the best of our citizens eager to assist in getting the material together, that had been laid away for ages, and placing it at my disposal. Moreover, their kind words very much encouraged me, and I wish I could here record their names, but as it might not be proper, I take much pleasure in extending to them my grateful thanks.
The records concerning the town reach back only to the close of the Revolutionary war. If Major Lawrence Smith, who constructed the fort and governed the settlers by military law or “as a county court might do,” ever kept any records of his acts, we have been unable to find them, and the same is true of the Trustees who had the management of the town from the time it was “laid out by law,” until it was chartered by the Legislature of Virginia. Therefore, much that is found in the following pages in reference to “the olden time,” came from families who had preserved it in various forms for many generations.