All history is, perforce, a merciless abridgment, and yet too much can never be written concerning any nation, any people— since each contribution must have a definite value. In the offering of this compendium of history and biography, the publishers lay claim not to any amplification of data in the annals of Detroit and Wayne county, but rather to the condensed, narrative presentation of the history of a section whose records bear the graceful tales of romance and the sterner burdens of definite accomplishment.