Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-06-07
The History Of Highland
Final Mention.

The whole Gultlun Is now pracll-
,allv disposed of. \ few copies are
reserved for persons who have an
bounced their intention of taking /
them up at later date. A very I!
few other copies can still besparei,
but is these will soon be gone, any
persons wishing them should apply
at once to J. NJ. Colow or A. L.
Jones. When these are taken no
mar can be had.
Il viii doubtless be many years
before any one else writes a history
of Highland. The present book is
wcll-bound and with reasonable care
will last long while. 1t is a book
for reference and not a book to be
once read and thrown aside. Like
all books of this sort it has a per-
manent value. and merely as an in
vestment is quite safe. After few
years an old copy of a county his
tory brings the price of a new one
and sometimes more. From these
considerations will appear that
owners of this book will do we'll to
90 very slow in the matter of loan
ing them.
The people of Highland deserve
much credit for their general friend
illness toward this enterprise. Only
one citizen, approached personally,
was unwilling to give the genealo
sie information desired. As for
house t. house canvassing but little
was necessary. When it came to
tie delivery the subscribers with
every rare exceptions were entirely
ready and willing to receive their
booiis. When the compiler had
occasion to travel the county, his
reception by the people was such as
to make his work a pleasure and
not a task. He has reason to carry
away 4 very friendly feeling for the
people of this co,n'y..
Some ! erson~ imagined the price
rather high. Ga the contrary it is
very low for book of this class.
It is Just as unreasonable to expect
every manner of book of a certain
size 10 sell OF a uniform price as to
expect every manner of house of a
certain size to be built for the same
money.
An occasional person seems to
have the strange idea that the book
should be absolutely perfect and free
from all error and omission whatso-
ever. 1t is not within human pos
sibility to attain this mark with any
book of reference, not even an una
bridged dictionary. Those who
appear to expect the history OF
Highland to have hit a mark that
no one else has hit should read the
preface to the great Standard Die
tionary. They should at all events
read attentively what is said in the
history of Highland in the preface
in Sections / 2, and 3 of Part Two,
especially page 243, and the top OF
page 416. In matters of family
the book gives what was furnished,
1t does not give what was not fur,
nishc1, and it does cot profess to
include all the younger persons of the
present generation. Had it been
possible for the compiler to visit
every family, the results would still
have been imperfect, as any census
enumerator will affirm. And dur
ing several months of the time he
has spent in this crunty he could
not freely travel afoot because OF
an injury received several years
before.
There is a sharp limit to the time
which any person can give to a
county history, unless he can afford
to give a part of this time for moth
ing. Even if he were to put in five
years, he could all the while be COM
ing upon new or more accurate in
formation.
With any county history the great
practical question is not whether it
is without all fault, but whether in
the long run another person would
have doneit better. Iffvepersons,
working in entire independence of
one another, were to write five
books on the history of a given
county, the five will differ in plan
and in method of execution. In
this or thst feature each book will
be stranger then any of the others.
Every one of the five books will be
criticized. although each one will be
considered the Lest by aportion of
the public.
All unfinished business relating
to the history of Highland is left
in the care of ]. N. Colaw and A.
L. Jones, attorneys at Monterey.
Inquiries may be made of them or
of II. M. Slayen, postmaster.
n Z Marian