Excerpt from History of Genesee County, Michigan: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers IT is chiefly for the sake of conforming to a custom which is as old as the trade of book-making that. These few prefatory lines are addressed to readers of the following pages. Prefaces, although seldom read, contain, generally, some remarks which are pertinent and of value, as well as many which are unimportant and unnecessary; among the latter of which may be classed those insincere apologies which authors so frequently offer in advance, - much the same as the skillful housewife of a quarter of a century ago used always to make pretended apologies to her guests when setting before them a repast which was really excellent, and which she herself knew to be so. It has been told how, on one such occasion, when the good lady of the house had despairingly assured her favorite pastor that he would find the meats very badly cooked, and the bread really not fit to be eaten, the reverend gentleman disappointed and mortified her by the inquiry, Then why, my dear madam, do you place them before me? The reply was most appropriate; and a similar one might well be addressed to these writers who, while acknowledging their works to be faulty and inferior, yet do not hesitate to offer them to readers who have the right to expect and den-land that they shall be of an opposite character. 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.