226 HISTORY OF CHAPTER X. The lost manuscript — Early [organization of religious societies — Report of the first missionary — Summary of report — Different sects in the county — Educational interests of the county, and other information. The reader who has glanced at our preface, has already been made aware of the almost total destruction of this work by fire. And this misfortune appears nowhere more evident than in the present chapter. Several of the first pages of the manu- script, containing much valuable and important historical infor- mation, are thus irremediably lost. The information too was of a character which cannot be replaced. The index to the chapter having been burned, also containing the different points of observation, coupled with the interval of time with its mov- ing world of other projects, have almost totally obliterated from my mind a definite idea of its contents. A general out- line is all that remains. In the first pages we had remarked the gradual march of improvement from the organization of the county, at which point the preceding chapter had reached, and the development of its moral and social resources. We had extracted from a little pamphlet the report of the first missionary to the county. His visits to the various localities, his remarks on the state of society in the diff'erent towns, forming, as they did, interesting themes of instruction and grateful comparison, we are now compelled to omit. Speaking of the town of Middletown, the missionary thus remarks : In this town, Grod appears to have made your society instrumental to the good of many souls, particularly in the settlement of Platte-kill, where the divine spirit was poured out in a remarkable manner.
