Excerpt from Historical Address and Poem: Delivered at the Bi-Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Old Town of Reading, May 29, A. D. 1844 MY duty Upon the present occasion is prescribed in the terms of the joint vote of the citizens of Reading and South Reading, in town-meeting, last January, that thebi-centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Reading should be celebrated, by the delivery of an historical address and'othergexercises appropriate to the occasion. Havipg, Without duly considering my incompetency for the task, acceded to the invitation of your Committee, to prepare, With their aid, such an addressfyou Will now indulge me With your patient attention to an attempted history of the town of our nativity - to such imperfect, fragmentarjr memorials, as have been preserved, of the deeds, char acter, and fortunes of its inhabitants, and of some of the changee and events of interest that_have transpired Within its precincts, during the lapse of two centuries; compendious it must be, but as comprehensive and amifle as the diligence of your Committee has enabled the to make it, and as the time allowed for its recital Will permit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.