The handwriting in the journal was precise, each stroke executed with the care of someone educated in an era when literacy was a rare privilege. Samuel read the text carefully:
In this year of our Lord 1640, we 43 families do hereby establish the settlement of Milbrook Hollow, having departed from the corruption and compromises of the coastal colonies. We have been chosen by providence to maintain our lineage separate from those who would dilute our convictions. We covenant together that no outsider shall ever join our community, that unions shall occur only between those families who have taken this oath, and that any child born of an outside union shall be cast out regardless of circumstance. We seek not growth, but preservation. In this hidden valley, we shall remain separate and whole.
