Mirror of Olden Time - Border Life

This is a truly rare and extremely hard-to-find early book documenting principally the history and settlement of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Pritts however begins his book by documenting the settlement of New England and King Philips War, educating you about Indian white contact prior to Penn's coming to America. It contains almost 300 pages on the border warfare history of Pennsylvania and Virginia (including Northwestern VA and Kentucky), including many scarcely documented skirmishes, raids and adventures. Interesting are the many personal narratives and sketches of the remarkable exploits of numerous early Frontier men such as Col. James Smith, Sam Brady, the Wetzels, Moses Van Campen, Simon Kenton and more.

As Mr. Pritts says:
"From the material in our hands, we might have attempted a general outline of the period we have undertaken to illustrate; we might have given a more connected narrative of the frontier events we wished to preserve; and conclude with a general description of border life and border characters of the period. Such attempts have been often made. But they are usually wanting in interest; they fail to give any vivid impressions of what they describe; and very frequently they are only calculated to mislead. We have chosen rather to give our Incidents of Border Life in detached pieces as we found them. And especially where adventurers themselves, or those who were their contemporaries, have related the events of their times, we have greatly preferred preserving their own words. We have scarcely changed a syllable. To have altered the style of the witnesses would have greatly marred and weakened their evidence. To have attempted to improve the pictures they have drawn, would only have destroyed their identity; they would have been no longer, as they now are, perfect representations of border life - scenes of days gone by, fixed, at the time in enduring colors, by the rude but faithful artists who were witnesses of what they paint with such untutored yet graphic skill."

728 pages including 16 plates (illustrations), hardback, 6x9 inches and limited to 1,000 individually numbered copies. Was $49.95. Now $34.95