Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by the Wright American Fiction Project) [Illustration: There was no happier couple in all the settlement than Hanz and Angeline Toodleburg. Page 13.] THE VON TOODLEBURGS; OR, THE HISTORY OF A VERY DISTINGUISHED FAMILY. BY F. COLBURN ADAMS, AUTHOR OF "MANUEL PERIERE, OR THE SOVEREIGN RULE OF SOUTH CAROLINA;" "OUR WORLD;" "CHRONICLES OF THE BASTILE;" "AN OUTCAST;" "ADVENTURES OF MAJOR RODGER SHERMAN PORTER;" "THE STORY OF A TROOPER;" "THE SIEGE OF WASHINGTON," ETC. ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY A.R. WAUD. PHILADELPHIA: CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, 819 AND 821 MARKET STREET 1868. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by F. COLBURN ADAMS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. I never could see what real usefulness there was in a preface to a work of this kind, and never wrote one without a misgiving that it would do more to confuse than enlighten the reader. The good people of Nyack will pardon me, I know they will, for taking such an unwarrantable liberty as to locate many of my scenes and characters in and around their flourishing little town. I have no doubt there are persons yet living there who will readily recognize some of my characters, especially those of Hanz and Angeline Toodleburg. That the very distinguished family of Von Toodleburgs, which flourished so extensively in New York at a later period, as described in the second series of this work, will also be recognized by many of my readers I have not a doubt. Nyack should not be held responsible for all the sins of the great Kidd Discovery Company, since some of the leading men engaged in that remarkable enterprise lived on the opposite side of the river, many miles away.