I feel as if I were treading on forbidden ground, entering a field which should ever be closed to all but one individual. William Nelson devoted nearly all of his life to historical research, and he subordinated to this all which most men would have considered the imperative duties of life. Unmindful of social duty or financial loss, he was ever ready to abandon, no matter what he might have undertaken outside of the realm of history, for the pursuit of what to him was the most important call. He published scores of pamphlets and wrote thousands of pages for magazines, but the great work of his life, which he had ever in mind, was his History of Paterson. Begun immediately after the Civil War, he busied himself with accumulating material, and it is doubtful if a day ever passed which did not contribute its meed of research or literary toil.