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PREFACE.

T has been the purpose of the Publishers to condense into the convenient form of a single volume the scattered fragments of local history and to give as an aid to the coming searcher after historical truth a systematic recital of events in their relations to the labor of creating and developing La Crosse County. The labor bestowed upon this work has been patiently performed; it is for the public to determine the degree of success attained.

The elaborate and highly interesting article on the Press, from the pen of Mr. Charles Seymour, is one of the most valuable portions of the book. Therein has a skilled writer drawn a clear-cut analysis of a noted character before the country, and, although himself a political and business opponent of the man, Mr. Seymour has evinced a moral courage that is admirable; he has dared to see and define the good qualities, as well as the mental attributes, of a nature which is worthy of the attention of psychologists. The success of Mark M. Pomeroy must be acknowledged one of the noted journalistic phenomena of this generation; and the facts recorded in Mr. Seymour's sketch will supply the historian of the war-period with most suggestive and significant data from which to draw conclusions. The La Crosse Democrat was a representative of an element in the national life which history cannot ignore; and he who writes must turn to La Crosse for a description of that human instrumentality which was the startling embodiment of an idea.

In general terms, thanks are expressed to the Clergy, the Press, the Pioneers and the Public, for cordial co-operation in the compilation of this book.

That the History of La Crosse County as here presented may be satisfactory to all-a sentiment, we confess, that is bold, in view of the freedom and diversity of opinion-is the sincere prayer of

THE PUBLISHERS.

SEPTEMBER, 1881.