Excerpt from Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 Unique in conception and treatment, this work constitutes one of the most original and permanently valuable contributions ever made to the social history of an American com munity. In it are arrayed in a lucid and dignified manner all the important facts regarding the ancestry, personal careers and matrimonial alliances of those who, in each succeeding generation, have been accorded leading positions in social, professional and business life. It is not based upon, neither does it minister to, aristocratic prejudices and assumptions. On the contrary, its fundamental ideas are thoroughly American and democratic. The work everywhere conveys the lesson that distinction has been gained only by honorable public serv ice, or by usefulness in private station, and that the development and prosperity of the region Of which it treats have been dependent upon the character of its citizens, and in the stimulus which they have given to commerce, to industry, to the arts and sciences, to education and religion - to all that is comprised in the highest civilization of the present day - through a continual progressive development. The inspiration underlying the present work is a fervent appreciation of the truth so well expressed by Sir Walter Scott, that there is no heroic poem in the world but is at the bottom the life of a man. And with this goes a kindred truth, that to know a man, and rightly measure his character, and weigh his achievements, we must know whence he came, from what forbears he sprang. Truly as heroic poems have been written in human lives in the paths of peace as in the scarred roads of war. Such examples. In whatever line of endeavor, are of much worth as an incentive to those who come afterward, and as such' were never so needful to be written of as in the present day, when pessimism, forgetful of the Splendid lessons of the past, withholds its effort in the present, and views the future only with alarm. 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.