"That the representative public, as well as the more illustrious citizen, is entitled to to the privileges and benefits afforded by a work of this kind needs no assertion at our hands, for one of our greatest Americans as said that the history of any county resolves itself into the biographies of its stout, earnest, progressive and representative citizens. This medium then serves more than a single purpose; while it preserves biography and family genealogy, it records history that probably would not be preserved in any other way; the expediency therefore, of placing biography and genealogy in book form is beyond question."