The great
scope of this work, including as it does the history of California from the
time the earliest settlements were made, together with the separate
histories of Plumas, Lassen, and Sierra Counties, has rendered it an and
exceedingly laborious task, and the publishers congratulate themselves on
having exercised the utmost care and conscientious discretion in bringing
the volume to its present completeness and accuracy. A glance through the
succeeding pages will give some idea of the vast amount of labor expended,
both in collecting and arranging the historical matter, and in preparing the
numerous illustrations.
The history of California in her primitive
days, and the articles on the Fur Companies, Settlement of the Sacramento
Valley, and Discovery of Gold, are the result of long and patient
investigation by their authors, and may be considered the most authentic
records of these events yet given to the public.
The county histories that follow are intended
to be clear, concise, and comprehensive, without attaining to an exuberance
of detail which would be tiresome to the reader, or dealing in glittering
generalities and florid rhetoric that would convey the least possible
information in the greatest number of words. The purpose has been to present
to the reader successive statements of the most important facts relating to
the growth and development of the individual localities, and such only as
the proof of which has been sufficiently proven by the reiteration of
corroborative testimony, and the presentment of official records. How well
the work has been done, we leave it to the reader to decide. It may be,
that, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made for correctness, errors
have here and there crept in. If so, it should be remembered that in a work
if this character, containing the many names and dates which it does, they
are almost unavoidable.
We would greatly acknowledge our indebtedness
to our patrons who have aided us in the prosecution of the work by
contributing from their stores of information, or in other ways assisting in
making it what it is. Without their aid and patronage, it could never have
been published.
FARRIS & SMITH
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta