Excerpt from Illustrated History of the Borough of Queens, New York City
For these reasons the history of the Borough ‘of Queens-contained in the fol lowing pages does not confine itself to the past. It does indeed furnish a complete sketch of the settlement of the territory from the time when the first white man set foot upon the soil of Long Island, and it follows the efforts made to change a wilder ness into a blooming garden through the march Of the centuries, but it goes further. It shows how the borough has been developed, and in what manner, and for what reasons it is apt to grow in the future. It points out the great natural advantages the territory possesses, and the enterprises which, in the near future, will tend to bring about even greater changes than the past has produced. The history naturally deals with the men who have played important roles in the shaping of the destinies of the localities now forming the Borough of Queens in the past, and who have left their mark upon the conditions evolving slowly from insecurity almost amounting at times to chaos, until a staple and regular government was formed. But it shows, in addi tion, in the biographies of men who are at the present time interested in the welfare of the borough, and who, in public life or private enterprise, are devoting themselves to the upbuilding of the community, the forces that are at work. No better way could be found, in our opinion, to show what Queens is now, and what it is destined to be, for the work of man, even if intended for the day only, always influences the future and it is impossible to draw a line that divides sharply the work of those living from that of coming generations. Those who come after us will have to build upon what we have accomplished; they cannot entirely get away from it, and even if they choose new paths, they must reckon with those laid out by their forerunners.
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