Taken from the book's Preface…History of Mitchell County.

The historian's mission is to give the facts and traditions of Mitchell County only since its formation, and surely there is no uncertainty about her earliest occupants of the soil. We do know there is a possibility of the Native Americans having roamed our unbroken forests, tramping the carpet of wire-grass in their search perhaps for venison and other game, because they have left behind them as evidence their names in the only continuous running streams that thread the east and the west boundaries of the county – the Ochlocknee and the Flint rivers, and also in the grave mounds found in some parts of the county.

Among the primitive inhabitants of Mitchell County we find no untutored Native Americans – they had long vanished toward the westward plains, but we do find the records of many noble characters, many lofty heroisms, existing among the small colonies of men and women who were home seekers in new territories – none skilled in the hunt and chase, none cunning in the use of native herbs, but picturesque in the rude simplicity of their lives.

We find the pioneers of this county cared little for written history; at first they were too busy making way to the ends of life to write incidents by the wayside. After the War Between the States they were still too busy rebuilding their resources which had been devastated more from neglect than from ravage.…