Litchfield enquirer., 1881-07-14
lFor the Litchfeld Enquirer.I History of Litchfield County.


 
 MR. EDIroR.-About two years since sub. scriber for a history of Litchfeld County which was promised to be an authentic work, the price to be twelve dollars and to be pub lished by Lewis & Co, of Philadelphia.
 Three weeks since the SO called history was delivered at my house and paid for it as agreed, believing that was receiving relia- ble. authoritative and complete history of this cid county, so rich 1T. almost inexhaustible historical materials but in this, in common with others, must say that 1 am grievously disappointed and sorely vexed.
 The work as history is so full of errors in what it actually contains and in what IS omit ted that it can never be regarded as an au. thentic history of the county, and these errors are so conspicuous that in my judgement the publishers are justly censurable for the care- less, not to say criminal manner in which they have palmed of upon the honest citizens of this county, at an expense of very many thousands of dollars. an entirely different book from what was promised and contracted for. think l am not going too far, when announce it as my opinion that the publishers of this pretended history are guilty of having obtained money by false pretences.
 In the pretended history of the town of Plymouth, the record stops at the year of 1909, and stranger would naturally conclude upon reading it that in some unaccountable way that good old town was plotted from exist ence three years previous to the war of 1812.
 In reference to the bench and bar of the county, one looks in vain for any mention of Abijah Catlin of Harwinton, Elisha Johnson formerly of Plymouth, Henry s. Barber formerly of Torrington, Roger H. Mills for merly of New Hartford, Philander Wheeler formerly of Salisbury, all of whom were high ly respectable members of our County bar i; and strange to say, the names of Edward w. Seymour and Charles B. Andrews, two as prominent attorneys as the County can boast of within the past twenty years, are also omit. ted from the pages of this mis- s-calsed history. Space is taken up with long notice of Mir. Delevan of New Milford who never tried a cause in the Superior court of the county and yet Julius B. Harrison (deceased of New Mill ford) a prominent lawyer and States Attor- new of the county is forgotten, nor is this all the injustice done to New Milford. The Hon. David c. Sanford, a very prominent lawyer of the county, and at his death judge of the Superior and Supreme courts of the State, finds no place for mention of his name in this exhaustive" history.
 The names of Roland Hitchcock, at present judge of the Superior Court, Donald J. War ner the present judge of the Litchtield County District Court and Jared B. Foster, for sev- eral years judge of the district court, all of them at the present time prominent members of our bar, find uV mention in this most re- markable history.
 Such preteuded history of the Litchfeld County bar, is downright imposition upon the public and the subscri bers to the work. The publishers seem to have made success full appeals to the vanity of many gentlemen in the county for the insertion of wood cuts at $lOO each (upon which they are presumed to have received large pro6ts), and these cuts are followed with long and fulsome biographies in many instances, sone of which might be we'll characterized by the comment prominent attorney, formerly of this county, once made upon the testimony of witness in an argu- ment to the jury, when he said, ''Gentlemen of tue jury, that witness, in my opinion, lied like tombstone"
 This pseudo history IS issued in one volume and weighs about ten pounds, very much of sLe .-.a.te- hai., .,,ade of material the next generation will care very little for.
 If the publishers desired to insert these long winded biographies, thus increasing largely the size of the book, in justice to the original subscribers. they should have issued the work in two volumes. A it is, thebook is unwieldy and inconvenient e6 be perused (should any one be foolish enough to atte mpt to do so). The cost of an additional volume would have been something more than in it's present form. but in my judgement $12 for the work with the commissions upon the two hundred and forty three portraits would have afforded ample reward to the publishers and paid the cost of binding an additional volume.
 have yet to find single subscriber who is not very much dissatisfied and disappointed with this work.
 Taking it all in all as history of an old county, it is failure and meets with great disfavor at the hands of an intelligent public and is justly regarded by that public as noth. ing more than money speculation on the part of the publishers.
 HENRY B. GRAVES. ;toh6ald T,,Iu otL 1oof