Preface.
This little Scrap-book of memories is compiled from the records of our first courts, supplemented with facts culled from general history and the comments of the writer. It is designed to revive the memory of the past, and to preserve and perpetuate something, at least, of the early history and settlement of Randolph county.
The Indian is taught to love the hunting grounds of his fathers, and to hold in sacred veneration the traditions of his tribe.
Our traditionary history is largely lost amid the rubbish of huried centuries. The men who knew it are gone. The living know more about is to be than what has been.
No county in the State has ever won a grander or a nobler fame, in the struggle for life and liberty, in the cause of peace and freedom than Randolph. No county in the State possesses to so great an extent the natural elements of wealth and prosperity as ours. Yet she is comparatively unknow. Her resources are undeveloped. Her history is unwritten. Her story is untold. Records are destroyed. Information is lost. Facts are forgotten. Old men pass away, even the prophets do not live forever, hence the necessity of duplicating history. Within the last twenty years, it is said that six per cent. of all the public records in the United States has been destroyed by fire. With the comforting thought hat it possesses at least the merit of brevity, this little work is submitted to an intelligent public with the hope that it may furnish amusement or entertainment for a leisure hour, awaken a desire to learn more of our early history, to collect and preserve ancient relics, stimulate a higher appreciation of our county and our people, and excite our gratitude to a merciful Providence for the blessings of civil and religious liberty and a home among the historic rocks and hills and heaths of Randolph county, where
And freemen rise in homage to the plow.
