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107 Front St
New York City
Aug 10. 1872

Miss Ema Dayton
South Glastonbury

Dear Madam
I must ask permission to write
you a letter in lead pencil, as I have
had a nervous fever for several days
and it is harder for me to write
steadily with a pen.

Your letter of Aug 3d and the
accompanying writings (which I herein
return to you as you have reqested)
were duly received and I have copied
the whole of the letter into my records.
Your kind interest in the matter
places me under great obligation to
you and The clearness with which you
express the information you have collec-
ted renders your letter of especial value.

In criticizing certain traditions
which you narrated in your letter, as I
propose to do in this letter, I trust you
will credit me with a simple desire to
arrive at the truth more than to urge
and advertise my own especial opinions.
Throughout all my records I have made
it a rule to put nothing down as fact
unless I ad documentary or othehr sure
evidence, or a numerous sequence of
facts rendering a point seemingly sure.
All other items I put down as mere
statements to be considered as open to investigation.
Of course these remarks apply only to
traditions and narrations about the
earliest Daytons in this country.