history of the towns and
cities scattered through New England and the Middle States, most of them
on a par with those last mentioned, in all styles of print and binding,
some decrepit and musty with age, others fresh and enticing, with gaudy
covers and scores of illustrations; some like Sewall's History of Woburn
with no table of contents or index, and so practically useless; a few
like Staples's Annals of Providence, scholarly and creditable; yet none
of them ideal histories. But occasionally we meet an oasis in this vast
waste, and though it may not be a paradise, yet we are too grateful for
the water that nourishes the palms and the grass, that refreshes our
parched mouths and wearied bodies, to think that in other climes we
might call it brackish and unclean.

Such is the effect that the History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts has on
us. Here is a book that might well be taken as a standard by town
historians. The very history of the History will show its merits.

At a town meeting held in the Town Hall, in Pittsfield, August 25, 1866,
so the preface says, Mr. Thomas Allen rose, and stated that on the
centennial of the First Congregational Church and parish, namely, April
18, 1864, he had been requested by a vote of the parish to prepare an
historical memoir of that parish and church, embodying substantially,
but extending, the remarks he made at that meeting. He stated that, in
looking over the records of the town and parish, he found them
intimately connected, so that a history of the one would also be a
history of the other; and he had found the history of the town highly
interesting, and honorable to its inhabitants. True, there were no
classic fields in Pittsfield, consecrated by patriotic blood spilled in
battle in defence of the country, as in Lexington and Concord, simply
because no foreign foe in arms ever invaded its soil; but it was not the
less true that Pittsfield had always promptly performed her part, and
furnished her quota of men and means, in every war waged in defence of
the country and the Union; and that in the intellectual contests
through which the just principles of republican government, and civil
and religious freedom, have been established in this country, the men of
Pittsfield, on their own ground and elsewhere, have ever borne a part
creditable alike to their wisdom, their sagacity, and their patriotism.
Pittsfield, therefore, had a history which deserved to be written. The
first settlers