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"The greatest study of mankind is man." Man conquered the wilderness; man laid the foundations of the matchless province of Cass County within the confines of this great state; man sowed and planted and cultivated man dug and delved and builded, and man is now reaping the fruit of his earlier toil and privations. And so this souvenir is dedicated to the men of Cass County, that brave confederacy who struggled ever onward and upward, content with nothing but the best, and whose motto throughout the years has ever been, "Excelsior."

Many of the men who contributed engery, ability and character to the earlier stages of the work of building and development, have passed to their eternal reward. Among the mourned host none gave more than the man whose likeness we first reproduce herein , the late Frank H. Whitney. His was the tireless hand and brain. No work was too great for him to undertake ; no days with hours enough for the work he wished it to encompass. While others wondered what his object, he ever knew, and the things which at first looked the most doubtful became in time hus greatest successes. To him and his co-workers in this great and primitive industrial vineyard, and to the men upon whom their mantels have fallen, the touching sentiment, "Cheers for the living, tears for the dead," is the most appropriate.

In this work an effort has been made to represent the county and its towns, not by pictures of things done, but by pictures of those who have done them. The money of the man who never earned a dollar, nor contributed a single thing to the cause of human good , may build sky-scrapers and palaces, yet the man himself may live and die "unwept, unhonored, and unsung;" while the man whose energy and ability have been the warp in the woof of accomplished things occupies the brightest niche in the temple of fame.

To the energetic, progressive, irresistable, broad-minded and great-hearted men and women of Cass County, Iowa , this work is dedicated, with the knowledge that it will be appreciated today and sought after in the years to come.
Transcribed by Brenda Magee, Oct., 2011 from: Exposition Souvenir Album, published by Democrat Publishing Company, Atlantic, Iowa, 1904.