The life of Oliver Ellsworth

Front matter

ODD FELLOWS' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

[INSTITUTED 1866]

SALEM, OREGON.

Prefatory Note

I no not think it worth while to list all the authorities which I have used in this work. The footnotes contain specific references for all important

itements of fact. Whatever contributions the book may make to the knowledge of Ellsworth's life have been drawn chiefly from certain unpublished sources — letters of Ellsworth, and manuscripts relating to him, of which the most valuable are two by Oliver Ellsworth, Jr., his son, and two complete biographies, one by Hon. Joseph Wood, his son-in-law, and the other by Rev. Abner Jackson, sometime president of Hobart College, who was married to his granddaughter. Wood's work was used by Flanders and others who have published accounts of Ellsworth. So far as I know, Jackson's has not hitherto been used at all.

For procuring me this material, and for help rendered in many other ways, my thanks are due to various members and connections of the Ellsworth family. To Mrs. F. C. Porter of New Haven, to Mr. W. W. Ellsworth of New York, to Mr. and Mrs. W. Irving Vinal of Washington, to Mrs. P. N. Nicholas of Geneva, New York, to Mr. G. E. Taintor of Hartford, and to Mrs. Elisha Geer of Windsor, I wish to make a particularly hearty acknowledgment of my obligation. Many other persons have assisted me

vii viii PREFATORY NOTE

with information or suggestions, — among them, Professor A. C. McLaughlin, Hon. H. C. Lodge, Professor F. B. Dexter, and Mr. Cephas Brainerd. The officials of the New York Public Library, and those of the libraries of Harvard, Princeton, and the Massachusetts and Connecticut Historical Societies, have courteously favored me with access to material in their

several collections.

W. G. B.

Cambridge, Mass., October I, 1905.