The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-01

with adequate descriptions of the mani fold factories of the city. A striking feature of the work Is its illustrations of scenes and places in the town, past and present, and It's views of the towns churches, manufactories and prominent buildings. A very interesting feature also in this connection is the array Of portraits of Waterbury's men Of note of to-day, as we'll as a number of
 those also who were leading men of the town in days gone by. The history of gotten up on an extensive scale, more
 extensive than was at first contem-
 plated by Its publishers and authors, liberal and thorough as their plans
 were. Special mention and honor is due Miss Sarah J. Prichard, to whose very competent hands fell the work of
 telling the history of the towns first
 one hundred years of existence. The editor In his preface we'll says: Miss Prichard, in pursuance of her task, af-
 ter years of patient and long research contributed to the history an elaborate and vivid narrative covering the col
 onial and revolutionary periods, and
 prepared In addition chapters on the
 old highways, on early place. names,
 on the history of the First church and
 on the church in Salem society. As
 we read her story, the Waterbury of
 the eighteenth century comes back to
 us, vital with the old colonial life and
 clothed at the same time in that rich
 and tender coloring which the past so
 naturally takes on at the magic touch
 of pen like hers"
 Many readers of the Journal and Courier remember with much pleasure perusing articles from her pen pub lished in leading magazines, among them, for example, a pretty tale of Charles Island, published some years ago in the Atlantic Monthly.
 Another of the leading contributors to the history, is Miss Anna l.. Ward to whom the second hundred years of the towns career was given as her quota
 of the work Her task was laborious one, involving much research, and cor
 respondence, and upon her devolved also much labor ''as representative to
 a certain extent, of the business aspects
 of the publication, and In this field
 also, she exhibited decided ability. " The numerous illustrations with which the book is adorned were in her charge also, as also the history's elaborate in- dex.
 A feature of the work Is the appen- dix, containing transcript, with i'm portant additions of the towns records in relation to births, marriages and deaths.
 Any notice of the work would be incom-
 plete without reference to the impor- tant contributions 1t contains from the
 pen of Hon. Frederick J. Kingsbury.
 who, as the editor remarks, not only l wrote a number of the chapters, but
 served continually as repository of genealogical and other facts, and was ever ready to be drawn upon and ever reliable. Other specially notable help CTS In the work were Benjamin F. How
 land, Prof. David G. Porter and Miss
 Mary DeForest Hotchkiss.
 Of the writers whose names appear in the table of contents four have fin- ished their earthly course since the his
 tory was begun, viz, Nathan Dikeman, Israel Holmes, Rev. J. H. Duggan and Thomas s. Collier, the last named of 4NeW I4OuuOIl. IHe Nlu6ly kIOWn GIl- | graver, Alexander H. Ritchie, by whom
 most of the steel plate portraits in this , history were executed, died in New
 Haven September 20, 1895, in his seven 1 ty-fourth year. He was a native of
 Scotland, an artist in oil colors and for | twenty-five years member of the Na-
 tional Academy of Design, A number
 of the engravings of this master in his | profession are among the adornments of the home of our esteemed towns man, Dr, Paul c. Skiff whose wife Is a
 step- daughter of the late MT. Ritchie; and at pr. and Mrs. Skiff's home he passed away.
 Another man, the late George S Les | ter, who was for many years a prom | inent New Haven business man, and
 whose aged mother Mrs. Timothy Les 1 ter, resides on Orange street, this city. l and who, as representative of the
 DlIbfiShpr was closely connected wifb