The following pages, which represent the constant labor of a corps of reporters, writers, editors, and printers for several months, is presented to the public. The general idea of a history is a large expensive volume, bound in heavy board covers, associated with a library and accessible only with more or less trouble. That of the publishers is to furnish a History of Connecticut and its representative industries at a low price and in such a portable shape that he who runs may read. In order to do this at a profit, large editions are printed, enabling the publishers to furnish each part at a price so low that all who wish can possess it. It has been the aim to mention representative mercantile houses and manufacturing establishments in the cities and villages of which this part especially treats, that would be of interest to present and future generations.