Excerpt from Quarter Centennial Historical Sketch By the "Great Fire" in Chicago, October, 1871, there were lost the Records of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Theological Seminary, also the Records of their Executive Committee, the official Reports of the Treasurer and Agent, as well as many other important documents. In consequence only a meager History of the Seminary did the Committee, appointed for that purpose, count themselves able to make. They have, however, been gratefully surprised to find how much reliable history they still could gather. This required minute search in private diaries and letters, in written memoranda, published periodicals and the fortunately preserved duplicates of Reports made by Mr. Kedzie during his Agency, and involved also extensive correspondence. Often long search and much correspondence has been necessary to settle a date or fact, which could be recorded in a single line. The Committee have spared no pains to make this History accurate. For all important dates and facts they found some printed document, written memorandum, or personal testimony, on which they could rely. Thus they have been able to gather the important facts concerning the organization and work of the Seminary thus far, which, else, were likely to perish with this generation. A review of those early times awakens conflicting emotions in the minds of those participating therein. 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.