Page:History of the Municipalities of Hudson County (1924), Vol. 1.djvu/11

 The original plan of this ‘History of the Municipalities of Hudson County, New Jersey” has been followed with exactness and fidelity under the capable and scholarly editorship of Mr. Van Winkle and his local associates. Often, in a work of the magnitude of the present offering, circumstances arise which admit of circumvention only through radical departure from the course first charted, but in this instance there was little to obstruct the way. Mr. Van Winkle’s pen brought forth a department of the work that in every respect measures up to the exceptionally high standard of his previous contributions to historical literature; L. E. Travis, editor of the Bayonne “Evening News,” is the author of Parts IV and V, valuable contributions to the historic writings of the region; while Part VI represents the interested and zealous labor of Ackerman Hawkey. Part III was the province of John H. Cuntz, whom circumstances prevented from serving other than as a reviewer, the writing of this part devolving upon a staff member, Benedict Fitzpatrick, author of ‘Ireland and the Making of Britain” (Funk and Wagnalls, 1923), and a well-known contributor to contemporary periodicals of the more serious class. It is a matter of general sorrow that two official members of the company’s staff were called by death from their duties in the forwarding of this work—Frank R. Holmes, organizer and general super- visor of the edition, and Captain Fenwick Y. Hedley, office editor. The following advisors were also responsible in no small degree for the successful completion of the history: Dewitt Van Buskirk, president of the Mechanics’ Trust Company, Bayonne; Thomas F. Hatfield, librarian of the Free Public Library, Hoboken; William J: Davis, president of the West Hudson Trust Company, Harrison; Thomas H. McCann, civil engi- neer, Hoboken; William P. Drew, secretary of the Chamber of Com- merce, Bayonne; A. Riesenberger, Stevens Institute, Hoboken; Francis H. McCauley, Weehawken; George J. McEwan, West Hoboken; Charles Singer, Jr., Union; James Nolan, North Bergen; Joseph Stilz, West New York; and Rutherford H. Walker, Guttenberg. In the production of such a work as this by the people of a given locality there is generated an enthusiasm for things historic that finds its way into civic life in a heightened community pride, in resolution that the present and the future shall not fall below the standards of the past, and that the work of to-day shall be performed in such manner as to make fair the record penned to-morrow. It is with sincere appreciation of the privilege enjoyed in codperating with the citizens of Hudson County that the publishers place these volumes in their hands.

THE PUBLISHERS.