Excerpt from Annals of Phoenixville and Its Vicinity, From the Settlement to the Year 1871: Giving the Origin and Growth of the Borough, With Information Concerning the Adjacent Townships of Chester and Montgomery Counties and the Valley of the Schuylkill The idea of the preparation of these Annals originated with my lather, who, in the course of an extensive medical practice, collected, from the aged persons whom he at tended, considerable information concerning the early in terests and incidents of this vicinity, and preserved in a manuscript, now among the records of the Historical So ciety of Pennsylvania, whatever he thought would be in structive or useful. To this source, I am indebted for the greater part of the traditionary matter contained in the following pages, and coming to me certified by Moses Ro binson, Daniel Buckwalter, iienry Rhoades, Joseph E. Anderson and Matthias Pennypacker, I have no doubt of its general correctness. For the other materials, I have searched carefully the Pennsylvania Archives, Colonial Records, American Archives, the Minutes of the Assem bly, Pamphlet Laws, the Records of the County Courts, the Newspapers, the Minutes of the Town Council, gene ral and local histories, and hm e availed myself of the books and manuscripts contained in the libraries of the Historical Society and the Philadelphia Library Company, and of every other means of obtaining information within my reach. 'here, in the collection of facts, I have been compelled to request the assistance of other persons, I have invariably been treated with the utmost kindness. To iienry Ashenfelter, Esq., Peter G. Carey, Esq., David. 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.