Excerpt from Dansville Historical, Biographical, Descriptive This valley and Dansville are indissolubly joined in history as in tradition, to a race "Of men Whose deeds have linked with every glen And every hill and every stream The romance of some warrior's dream." The imperial tradition of the Iroquois fills the place with romantic interest before our annals begin. And is the history of the white man here, which I have essayed to portray, less noble than that of the "Romans of the West?" It may not clearly appear upon the face of the History herein written, but for those who read between the lines there will be resurrected from its pages many noble men and women who wrested homes from a wilderness of savage beasts and more savage men, often at the peril and cost of their own lives, that others might live and prosper. There will be recalled lives illustrating and illuminating the highest practice of the principles of Christian civilization, under whose influence the Dansville of the white man is as far beyond the village of the Ganosgagos as civilization is in advance of barbarism and Christianity above paganism. I cannot deny and I would not conceal the fact that Dansville has had its seamy side throughout its more than a century of life. In the quest for historical material there have been unearthed many tragedies and sorrows under the shadowy power of wrong, and many misfortunes; but I confidently affirm that from the gusty days of the early canal period, when a grasping commercial spirit seemed to predominate and recklessness kept pace with it, until the steadier period of the present when our churches and our schools are better than our warehouses, the advance has been upward and onward to ever higher levels of thought and action. From our humble homes have gone out into the great world men and women who have become famous in the ministry, in school, in literature, in art and science, in law and in business, and never before as today has there been such opportunity in Dansville for the higher education of its young men and women. That this History of Dansville, modestly submitted, may convince its citizens that there is much reason for pride in the past and present of this village, and the brightest of hopes for the future, in the steady growth toward the solidarity which promises complete unity of interests and ambitions, is the fondest hope of one who has grown to love and to believe in Dansville more and more during all the years of half a century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.