We have seen the time when schools were in their infancy in this part of our country, their progress and the vast extent to which they became multiplied, even so that almost every citizen of this State, and generally of the other states, has the opportunity of having his children educated according to and even beyond his pecuniary means. We have seen the time when there was not a minister of the gospel, lawyer or physician, within 20 miles distance from our present town, and have seen the continual increase of those professional men until every town in our county had more or less of them, and the increase of education, so that it reached nearly all the citizens, few of whom do not acquire enough to read and write, and a very great proportion have reached the higher branches of learning, and become fitted for all the different business transactions of our country. We have been spectators of the time when all transportation on the Hudson river was done in vessels, whose speed depended on the winds which impelled them, and of the time when the ingenuity of Fulton, with the help of Chancellor Livingston, produced a steamboat wherewith the Hudson river was navigated, and, when thereafter others from time to time were built, until all the navigable waters with such boats in our country were therewith navigated, and even the Atlantic Ocean crossed to and from England and other places, and the time when other machineries began to be impelled by steam power and their increase until thousands got into operation. We have been travelers on the early rough and stony roads in Orange County and have seen the first construction of turnpikes in our county, and the great improvement of our highways, and at last have beheld the gigantic works of canals and railroads, on which the value of millions of property is annually transported to and from all parts of our country, and thousands of people are continually enjoying the easy and speedy travel thereby furnished.