No apology is needed for the publication at this time of a History of Ogle County. There are few who will not at once recognize the importance of the work.

The following sketches, perhaps, can hardly be dignified with the title of a history, from a lack of order and arrange ment which is almost unavoidable under the circumstances; but such as they are, we believe them to be accurate and reliable. In looking to books for materials, we have endeavored to find such as could be relied upon for accuracy and impartiality, while the accounts given by the pioneers now living are from men who can be relied upon for probity and integrity and a knowledge of the things whereof they have spoken. We have consulted Hakluyt's Voyages, Hennepin's Works, Burnet's Notes, Bancroft's History of the United States, Hart's History of the Val

ley of the Mississippi, Shelton's History of Michigan, Ford's History of Illinois," Peck's Western Annals, and many other works, and in some instances have adopted parts of them as best expressing what we wanted to show.