The Peach Tree Project began 25 years ago with The Peach Tree newsletter. This was just a simple rag sheet of what little I had learned about my research of Peach genealogy. I had no intention of this newsletter going anywhere but to the 24 people who first received it. It was an innocent attempt to try to make contact with others whom I thought might be interested in this subject. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how this would become a lifetime project and touch the homes of thousands of Peach descendants all over the world. Now 25 years later, the 150th Issue of The Peach Tree newsletter has become a reality. This book is about our Peach Heroes. Originally, all I could think about when I thought of heroes were those who had engaged in the military service of our country. Therefore, this book begins with our dedicated Peach war veterans. However, after completing the rough draft of the book, I felt there was a gaping hole in the book that had to be filled. I struggled for months to find things to fill this emptiness. As I wrestled with this, I had no solution for my consuming problem. Then came the 10th National Peach Reunion in Chattanooga, Tennessee. While I was standing before those who came from twelve different states and from as far away as California, Maine and Minnesota, I was struck with the awesome reality that I was looking at my Peach heroes. Most of these had spent all or a major part of the past 25 years with me helping to sustain and grow this Peach Tree Project.

Hopkinton, NY is a quiet little town in the northeast part of the state, settled by New Englanders and built in the New England style with a village green, white wood frame churches, and large Victorian houses. Life here has generally moved at a leisurely pace; yet Hopkinton's people have had their dramas - both comedy and tragic - and their stories have been remembered. In 1903, Carlton Sanford had a book published documenting the settling of the town from a wilderness in 1802 through its first hundred years of development and tracing the descendants of the first settlers. Now Dale Burnett has written a folk history of the second hundred years, chronicling the events in the lives of Hopkinton's people and the town itself through the 20th century. Mr. Burnett has researched each separate district of the township and spoken with at least one person from each area to get its history from someone who lived there. In addition to the facts one would expect - businesses, history of the fire department, town officers - he has taken almost every house along each road in the town and listed the residents through the years, along with any tales that may have been told about them. Based mainly on interviews with older Hopkinton folk, some of whom were alive when Sanford's book came out, the stories handed down have been preserved as the old people told them. Facts are supported by newspaper articles, deeds and other documents. Included are tales of Hopkinton's characters, its three or four murders, and its one kidnapping case with still unanswered questions. And, following Mr. Sanford's example, at the end of "The Second Hundred Years" are genealogies submitted by Hopkinton families, many of whomcan still trace their ancestry to those early settlers.