A people justly proud of their ancestors, as are the descendants of the Puritan Fathers of New England, take a lively interest in studying and in transmitting to posterity whatever of history pertains to their town or family. Farmington is undoubtedly one of the best agricultural towns in the State, and when we consider the extent of its geographical area, the fertility of its soil, its varied mechani cal industries, its mercantile and professional pursuits, and also consider the fact that it has been the shire town of the County of Franklin for almost half a century, none will deny that such a town has a history, and that it should be pre served. The pioneers who came to found a home for them selves and their families were generally without pecuniary means. Mere hangers-on were not tolerated, nor did they find a welcome among the early settlers. Many of these pioneers had seen hard service in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, had been inured to hardship, toil, and poverty, and fully realized the blessings of home and its comforts. They were generally men in the prime of man hood's strength, and with vigorous blows leveled the forests and brought under cultivation a virgin soil, the fruits of which furnished abundant sustenance for all. Amid the curling smoke and dying ?ame they erected their log-cabins and hovels, and thither conducted in triumph through the wilderness their wives and children.