Excerpt from A History of the Diocese of Ogdensburg The desire of gathering into a permanent form such facts concerning the faith in Northern New York, as might be of interest and use to the future historian, was my only reason for composing this history. That reason would justify the appearance of a much poorer book. At the same time it was my desire to produce a volume that would be read with pleasure by the people of the district, and held in esteem as a decent memorial of the work done by their fathers and clergy in earlier times. Therefore I have been generous of details which can be of little interest to outsiders, and have introduced portraits of the clergy, past and pres ent, to brighten the book for those who may never read it. The labor of gathering the material of which this history is composed has been very severe. My thanks are due to the priests of the diocese for the facilities which they placed so generously at my dis posal, and their valuable assistance in many ways. To Mr. Hough, the historian of Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, and to John Gilmary Shea, credit is owing for certain particulars of Picquet's mission, St. Regis, and the incidents of Split Rock Bay. Otherwise the book is of my own making; and I place it in the hands of the public with the conviction that they will speak of its faults leniently in consideration of the. 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.