Publishers' Announcement.

The present work, "History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania," will, it is confidently believed, commend itself to the people of that historic old region of Pennsylvania, and not only to them but to various Libraries, Historical Societies, and also to many individual investigators throughout the Commonwealth and Nation.

These volumes contain much valuable information which has hitherto lain inaccessible to the people at large. Of special importance are the numerous lists of Taxables and Land Owners, the Military Rolls of the Dauphin County Territory in the wars with the French and Indians, of the Revolution, the Whiskey Insurrection, the War with Great Britain in 1812-14, the Mexican War, the War of the Rebellion, and the Spanish-American War; also the early Church Records of Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths.* These compilations have been made with painstaking care, in large part by Mr. Luther R. Kelker, and in their entirety under his immediate supervision. To this monumental labor, as well as to directing the compilation of the general history, that gentleman has brought the highest qualifications-diligent study of local history for many years, warm enthusiasm based upon reverence for the pioneers who here planted the institutions of civilization, and a laudable pride of ancestry. He was possessed of a love of historical and genealogical subjects from his youth. During his convalescence following a serious illness he began a systematic study of what had been gathered in the Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives, and on recovering his health procured permission to examine the unpublished records in the basement and attic of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg. While he was thus engaged the American Historical Association appointed a committee to examine into the condition of published and unpublished archives in the various States of the Union. Dr. Herman V. Ames, Professor of American History in the University of Pennsylvania, represented that body for investigations in Pennsylvania, and, on reaching Harrisburg, consulted with the various

*The reader will understand that in all ancient lists the original orthography and punctuation have been preserved.