Pennsylvania : a primer

Preface

The following pages have been prepared to present, in the most concise form possible, the essential facts of Pennsylvania history. Intended to serve as a summary of Pennsylvania affairs, available for the busy man searching for facts only, the narrative form has been abandoned, and the text arranged in paragraphs, which, in their turn, are gathered together into related chapters.

In an elementary text book, such as this is designed to be, little display of original research can be expected ; but the author believes the plan and scope of the book to be new, and trusts it sufficiently covers the subject to have genuine usefulness.

No history of the State can be intelligible which ignores its geography, its geology, its political divisions, its government. History is best understood by comparing the past with the environment of the present. Considerable space is, therefore, given to summarizing the present form of government in Pennsylvania and related topics, subjects that ordinarily would be omited from a book of this size and which give it a broader scope than a history alone, and being presented in an eminently elementary manner, justify the title "Primer" which has been chosen as descriptive of the book.

The Author's heartiest thanks are due to a number of gentlemen who have kindly aided him in sundry special matters. And first of all he must acknowlelge his heavy obligations to Dr. Julius F. Sachse, whose keen advice and profound knowledge of Pennsylvania history and bibliography have been most helpful. Dr. Sachse has also aided in the illustrations and has loaned a number of cuts from his remarkable monographs on the Pennsylvania-Germans. Mr. David McNeely Stauffer has rendered much valuable aid and has permitted free access to his great collection of illustrative material and has contributed many of his own drawings to the adornment of the Primer. Messrs. James M. Beck, Hampton L. Carson, William U. Hensel, M. Hampton Todd and S. Raymond Roberts have kindly furnished special suggestions to the author. His thanks are also due Mr. Thomas Lynch Montgomery, State Librarian of Pennsylvania, for the use of a number of cuts of seals and arms. Mr. Alva Burton Konkle has permitted the reproduction of two interesting maps of

4 PREFACE

Pennsylvania counties compiled by himself, from his valuable Life and Times of Thomas Smith. The Site and Relic Society of Germantown has also permitted the use of two cuts from The Guide to Historic Germantozvn by Mr, Charles F. Jenkins. Dr. Gregory B. Keen, Curator of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has permitted the reproduction of his interesting map of New Sweden, and Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have supplied an illustration from Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America and from Fiske's Critical Period of American History. Thanks are also due Henry Wharton Shoemaker, Esq., for help in reading the proofs, and to the Publication Committee of the Pennsylvania Society, Henry F. Shoemaker, Esq., Chairman, for rendering possible the publication of the book, which, having appeared in the Year Book of the Society for 1904, is also issued in separate form by its permission.