TRAVEL NOTES OF A MID-NINETEENTH
CENTURY FRENCHMAN
By BERTHA RUTH LEAMAN
Extended travel and a great variety of
experience had left
the curiosity of Jean Jacques Ampere, a
learned Frenchman of the
mid-nineteenth century, unsatisfied;
consequently, in search of
new information, he came to America.1
Landing in New York,
the French visitor traveled through the
New England States; went
to Montreal and Quebec; journeyed to
Niagara, Buffalo and De-
troit; and then proceeded to Chicago. He
had planned to go also
to St. Louis, but he was quite worn out
by his travels and feared
he might become ill. This was a
possibility he did not like to
contemplate in America where it seemed
to him people were
so rushed that they would not look after
one properly. He con-
sidered that the possibility of having
good care would be better
in the large cities than elsewhere;
therefore, he thought it best to
return to New York as expeditiously as
possible.2 He did not
want to leave the West, however, without
seeing Cincinnati and
the Ohio Valley.3 Being, among other things, an
antiquarian,
Ampere was greatly interested in the
remains of Indian civiliza-
tion which he hoped to find on the
banks of the Ohio.
The trip from Chicago to Cincinnati was
not without interest.
Crossing Lake Michigan by steamboat from
Chicago to New Buf-
falo, the French visitor arrived at the
latter city too late to depart
the same evening for Detroit. As a
result of inadequate hotel ac-
commodations the travelers from Chicago,
as well as those from
1 Ampere was widely traveled and very
versatile. He said since it was inadvisable
to go to China and the moon was
inaccessible, he was forced to come to America to
find something new. "Promenade en
Amerique," Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris),
ser. 2, nouvelle periode [ser. 6], I (1853), 5. He had
a serious motive in coming,
however, for being a close friend of de
Tocqueville and a believer in his doctrines,
Ampere came to America to find materials
to justify those doctrines. For informa-
tion concerning Ampere, his travels, and his reasons
for coming to America, see the
article of the present writer, "A Frenchman Visits
Philadelphia in 1851," Pennsyl-
vania History (Philadelphia),
VIII (1941), 261-63.
2 Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique," 737.
(101)
102
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
another steamboat which was to leave New
Buffalo the following
morning for the West, were lodged in a
large dining-room for the
night. Having the cultivated Frenchman's
love of comfort, Am-
pere did not find the situation a happy
one. The folk who were
traveling west, and with whom he was
forced to pass the night,
he described as noisy and not very
orderly immigrants.4
It must be conceded that for a Frenchman
of his day Ampere
was a political liberal. It is perhaps
not too much to call him
democratic,5 but, like the
democracy of many intellectual liberals,
that of the French traveler obviously
broke down in practice. He
made the best of the situation by
appropriating for his own use a
table which was placed under a hanging
lamp. Using the little
leather bag in which he carried his
books and notes as a pillow, he
settled down to read an English novel in
his makeshift bed, which
he described as being a bit hard, until
"the men had ceased speak-
ing, the women had stopped scolding
their children, and the chil-
dren had discontinued crying."
Then, he said, he tried to sleep.
If one may judge from the circumstances
surrounding his awaken-
ing the following morning, he did so
successfully. The visitor
considered he was aroused a little
uncivilly by the tavern boy, who
threw a napkin in the window and cried:
"Come on comrade,
wake up." He admitted, however,
that the table upon which he
had established himself was needed to
serve the breakfast coffee,
and also that everyone else had been up
for a long time.6
Experiences connected with boarding the
train, which was
scheduled to leave for Detroit at six
o'clock the same morning, did
not improve the humor of the French
traveler. Deploring the
rudeness of minor officials and
attendants in the United States, he
went toward the railroad station where
his possessions had been
left the previous evening. Here he
barely avoided an accident
which he considered might well have been
disastrous. The bag-
gageman threw a packing case down an
inclined plane without
giving the customary warning. "It
passed within two inches of
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., 738.
5 On the political opinions of Ampere
see Leaman, "A Frenchman Visits Phila-
delphia," 270 ff.
6 Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique,
738.
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 103
my legs," said Ampere, "which
would have been broken had it
hit me."7
By this time his mood had become one of
philosophical resig-
nation and he decided this was a day of
bad luck. At the station he
found neither a locomotive nor any other
indication that the train
was going to depart. Inquiring whether
it would leave soon, he
was told without any explanation that it
would leave in twenty
minutes. The French observer apparently
found Americans to be
men "of few words," for at
this juncture, he complained that
Americans have a horror of explanations.
Time passed and noth-
ing happened; consequently the French
visitor finally questioned
some other travelers about the train. He
learned from them that
it was not going to depart from the
place at which it had stopped
when it had arrived from Detroit four
days earlier, but from
another point a half mile distant. It
was Ampere's opinion that
someone had been very remiss since his
baggage had been received
and he had not been given any indication
of the change. "One
moment more," he said, "and I
would have missed the train which
carried my trunks to the border of Lake
Erie."8
In apologetic mood, the traveler
indicated that he recounted
these details, "which will interest
the reader only moderately,"
because they depict the national
character "which shows itself in
small things as well as in large
ones." The principle of politics and
of society in the United States, he
concluded, is that each se tire
d'affaire comme il l'entedn. One
is given complete liberty of action
as long as one does nothing that shocks
public opinion. His recent
experiences had made Ampere not quite
sure he liked so great
liberty, for, he stated, this liberty is
accorded to the individual at
his own risk and peril. He is at no time
directed, he is at no
time cautioned, it is his job to find
out for himself from what place
the train leaves, it is his job to look
out for himself if someone
throws a packing case in his direction.
The whole American atti-
tude can be summarized in the phrase: aidez-vous
vous meme.
This, he stated, is sometimes translated
in the following manner:
Dieu pour tous, en avant, et que le
diable emporte le dernier!9
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 739.
104 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The French visitor always maintained in
his writings on his
American travels that the better
Americans were never incon-
siderate, but he thought they did
subject travelers to great in-
convenience by their thoughtlessness in
giving directions. Over-
looking the fact that in a new country
many of the conveniences
of life do not exist, Ampere exaggerated
the importance of this
matter when he considered it an abuse of
self-government. He
was hopeful his writings would be seen
by Americans and would
make them "a bit ashamed of the lack of attention they gave to the
comfort of travelers." If this
happened he thought they would
"reform the abuse," for he
found Americans willing to profit by
criticism--even the most violent and
unjust diatribes. Among
these Ampere listed that of Mme.
Trollope,10 whose work aroused
keen resentment in the United States.11
Larousse says this was
due to the "too great truth of its
pictures."12 Ampere, on the
other hand, although he admitted there
was some truth in the book,
was more generous to the Americans; he
called the book an out-
rage.l3 He implied that Mme. Trollope
did not know Americans
too well, for, he asserted, she came to
Cincinnati for the explicit
purpose of establishing a small shop and
she saw almost no one.14
The Frenchman, however, gave credit to
the Americans for having
enough good sense to see the value of
criticism. He made his
point by the following example: When a
man at the theater placed
10 Ampere was referring here to
Frances Milton Trollope, Domestic Manners of
the Americans (London, 1832). Mrs. Trollope accompanied her husband,
Thomas
Anthony Trollope, an unbusinesslike
English barrister who had been reduced to poverty,
to America. A small fancy goods shop
which she opened in Cincinnati was a failure
but the three years' stay in America
gave Mrs. Trollope material for her later book
on the people of this country. After
returning to England, Mrs. Trollope followed
her husband, who was obliged to leave
the country because of his debts, to Bruges
where she thereafter supported the
family, which included five children, by her literary
work. The book on America gave Mrs.
Trollope her start in writing. Having suc-
ceeded with it, she wrote one on
Belgium, Paris, and Vienna and the Austrians
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., XXVII, 301). See also Frances Eleanor Ternan
Trollope, Frances Milton Trollope,
Her Life and Literary Work (London, 1895). The
success of the book was due in large
part to the unflattering account she gave of
Americans. Ampere considered this
account to be due in some measure to the fact
that she was catering to "the
aristocratic vanities in Europe in whose services she
found herself singularly employed."
Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique," 739.
11 Ency. Brit., XXVII,
301.
12 La Grande Encyclopedie (Paris), XXXI, 418.
13 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 739.
14 Ibid. Ampere said his opinion
on this point was confirmed even by Cap-
tain Marryat, who was in no way
favorable to the United States. Captain Marryat
was an English sailor and novelist. His
mother was an American of German extraction.
His opinions concerning America are
contained in A Diary in America (London, 1839).
On Marryat see Florence Marryat Lean,
Life and Letters of Captain Marryat (New
York, 1872).
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 105
his feet as high as his head, people
laughingly called "Trollope!
Trollope!" As a result, he
recounted, this undesirable custom
has passed.l5
Unfortunately the traveler's troubles
were not at an end when
he had finally boarded the train at New
Buffalo. Recalling how
very expensive food was at the stations
at which trains stopped
for meals, he spent the entire day
without eating. One suspects
this was due to pique and not to the
economics of the situation,
for, he reported, "my health which
is not at all good perhaps
augments my disposition to
chagrin." He thought, nevertheless,
that even though the railroad did go
through scarcely cleared
forest land the train should have
carried a diner. Whether there
were no further mishaps on the journey
or whether the traveler
was too dejected and worn to note them
is not known. The re-
mainder of the trip was recorded very
simply. The visitor reached
Detroit; at once boarded the Arrow, the
steamboat which was to
carry him from Detroit to Sandusky;
disembarked at Sandusky
the following morning; almost
immediately entrained for Cincin-
nati; and arrived at this city the same
evening.16
The visitor found much natural beauty in
the river and the
hills surrounding Cincinnati. Both his
aesthetic appreciation and
his eloquent description indicate the
poetic proclivities of the
writer. He described the beauties of
southern central Ohio in the
following terms:
The Scioto, which seems to be without
banks, is noiseless and
apparently lost in solitude. One might
say it sleeps and dreams. . . .
The country is ravissant; everywhere
one sees rounded mountains
covered with beautiful forest, appearing
at this time in all the splendors
of autumn. No place in the world are the
tints of the leaves at this
season as live and as varied as in North
America; the diversity of trees
in the forest is very great, and many of
these trees are tinted in autumn
in the most brilliant colors: bloody
red, golden brown, and orange are
to be found side by side with
green--sometimes somber, sometimes
bright. One's eyes are truly dazzled by
this rainbow of vegetation. It
is, however, not always satisfying for
in some cases these brilliant colors
are not harmoniously blended, but in
others the combinations are pleas-
15 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 739.
16 Ibid., 740.
106
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ing. This is a spectacle which I believe
does not have its equal in any
other country.17
The Ohio, lying at the foot of the hills
which surrounded the
town, was described as forming a gracieuse
courbe d'azur. "I
could wish," declared the traveler,
"to walk always on the borders
of this charming river, at the foot of
these hills, in the shade of
these beautiful trees, among the promeneurs
who seem so happy."18
Within the natural amphitheater formed
by the hills lay the
city of Cincinnati: la reine de
l'ouest. From the top of one of the
hills Ampere viewed the town
"bathed in the splendors of the set-
ting sun"; the "slender white
bell towers" seemed to him like the
minarets of an Asiatic city.19
Within the city itself the observer
found less reason for
enthusiasm. There was no wharf along the
river and there were
very few bridges; the bridges, he said,
were the numerous steam-
boats which passed ceaselessly from one
bank to the other. The
streets in the city were named for
trees. The American "horror
of uselessness and consequent love of
abbreviation" had caused the
elimination of the word
"street" on the signs. The sidewalks,
made of large flagstones, came to an end
abruptly giving the im-
pression that the town had been built
hastily and was not finished.
Descending back of the town Ampere found
suburbs being con-
structed, these areas seemed desolate to
him for they were no
longer country and had not yet been
transformed into town.
The narrator reported that the
population of Cincinnati was
116,000 in 1851; the rapid growth of the
city is attested by the
fact that the population had doubled in
the preceding ten years.20
Being connected by rail with the Great
Lakes and by the Ohio
with the Mississippi, Cincinnati was a
prominent commercial city;
it was also a noteworthy packing center
of the pork industry.
Ampere was not enthusiastic about
Cincinnati; this lack of appre-
ciation was due to the presence of the
pork industry. On the other
hand, he admitted, it was "because
of the pigs" that instead of
17 Ibid.,
755.
18 Ibid., 744, 755.
19 Ibid., 755.
20 These figures are apparently accurate
for the census of 1850 gives the popula-
tion of the city as being 115,438.
Charles Cist, Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati
in 1851 (Cincinnati, 1851), 45.
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 107
savages who would scalp travelers like
himself there was on the
banks of the Ohio a city of 100,000
people with churches, schools
and theaters. Despite this knowledge the
Frenchman could not
develop the ardor for the pork industry
which was shown by the
native son who had written:
The foreigner who finds himself here
during the packing season
and especially at the time one ships
this article [pork] finds himself
bewildered in trying to follow with the
eye and fix in the memory the
many processes which he successively
observes although he follows the
different stages of preparation of the
pork until it is ready to be sold,
and notes the interminable lines of
trucks, which it seems at this time
occupy the principal streets, going and
returning in continuous files to
the extent of a mile or more, making any
other use of the streets im-
possible from morning until night.21
Ampere considered this statement to be
worthy of Cicero, "at
least in length." He also
called it almost lyrical and, begging to
be pardoned for the comparison, stated
that it really reminded him
of the verse of Dante in which he
depicted "the innumerable files
of pilgrims coming and going from Saint
Peter's to the bridge of
Adrien,22 and from the bridge
to Saint Peter's during the solemnity
of the jubilee."23 The Ohio writer had further observed:
And the astonishment of the foreigner is
not diminished when he
considers the numerous barrels of pork
and casks of lard for which
there is no room on the platforms of the
factories, extended though
they be, and which encumber all the free
space, being scattered on the
banks of the river, on the sidewalks, on
the streets, and even on the
adjacent land, which is ordinarily
empty.24
Continuing unable to develop enthusiasm
equal to that of the writer
21 Ampere indicated that he found this
statement ibid., 257. See Ampere, "Prome-
nade en Amerique," 743. Ampere made
a mistake in his page numbering for the
quotation is from page 286 and not 257.
There is only one edition of this work,
therefore, this cannot account for the
difference in pagination.
22 This is the bridge over the Tiber at
Rome commonly known as the Ponte S.
Angelo, built by the Emperor
Hadrian. Paget Toynbee, Concise
Dictionary of
Proper Names and Notable Matters in
the Works of Dante (Oxford, 1914), 434
ff.
23 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 743. Dante is referring here to the
enormous throngs of pilgrims from all
over Europe who went to Rome during the
Jubilee of 1300. As a safety measure a
barrier was erected lengthwise on the bridge
of S. Angelo in order to facilitate
passage in two directions. Dante depicts these
pilgrims as they cross the bridge in
opposite directions. The Inferno, xviii. 32.
24 Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique," 743. For a
description of the industry
see Cist, Sketches and Statistics, 278-88.
This account is worth reading. Another
writer in discussing the industry says:
"Cincinnati for years was known as 'Porkopolis,'
a name perhaps not much coveted by the
citizens of the Queen City but justified
possibly by the large pork interests
centered here for several decades."
Charles
Frederic Goss, Cincinnati, the Queen
City, 1788-1912 (Cincinnati,
1912), II, 334.
108 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in question, Ampere declared, however,
that it was impossible not
to be struck by the truly gigantic
development of the pork indus-
try in Cincinnati. A single
establishment by the name of Mamouth,
he reported, had shipped almost 12,000 porkers in one season. The
average shipment for Cincinnati, he
continued, was more than
300,000 per year, the figure being
raised one year to 725,000; for
the whole Mississippi Valley the figure
climbed to many millions.
The great numbers in America always
stagger the imagination,
said the visitor, whether it is a
question of years, of distances, or
of individuals, even when these
individuals are pigs.25
The writer was somewhat perturbed by the
following state-
ment which he found in James Hall's Esquisses
de l'ouest: "Cin-
cinnati is considered to be the artistic
and scientific city of our
republic, the center of culture and
taste in the arts, and conse-
quently has the most perfectionce population
of our continent."
Considering Boston and Philadelphia,
Ampere thought this was
saying a good deal; he did, however,
find indication of some artis-
tic achievement in Cincinnati. Before
coming to America, Ampere
had seen in the Crystal Palace in London
the statue called "The
Greek Slave"27 which was
the work of Powers, a Cincinnati sculp-
tor.28 The Frenchman
considered the work gracieuse, in spite of
some faults, but he was less impressed
by Powers' first efforts, the
results of which Ampere found in the
museum at Cincinnati and
which he described as grotesque and
perfectly ridiculous.29 The
opportunity for Powers to develop his
talent had been provided by
the wealthy Nicholas Longworth30 who had sent
the sculptor to
25 Ampere,
"Promenade en Amerique," 744.
26 The
English title is, Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the West
(Philadelphia, 1835).
27 Ampere
called the work "The Young Slave" and not "The Greek Slave"
("Promenade en Amerique,"
745). This production took first prize at the Crystal
Palace exhibition. This was the first
time the work of an American sculptor had been
considered the equivalent of that of
European ones. Clara Longworth de Chambrun,
Cincinnati, Story of the Queen City (New York, 1939), 174.
28 Throughout his discussion Ampere
calls this sculptor Powell. He is undoubtedly
referring to Hiram Powers. He may have
confused Powers' name with that of the
Cincinnati portrait painter, W. H.
Powell. Powers is unquestionably one of the out-
standing artists Cincinnati has
produced. Cist says of him, "His Fisher Boy, Proserpine,
Calhoun, Eve, America and California,
stamp him as the sculptor of the age, if not
of all ages past and to come."
"Promenade en Amerique," 128. On Powers see also
Chambrun, Cincinnati, 174-83;
Goss, Cincinnati, II, 440 ff.
29 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 746.
30 Nicholas Longworth came as a young
man from Newark, New Jersey, to Cin-
cinnati in 1804. Here he studied and
practised law. He became very wealthy: in 1850
his taxes were approximately $17,000.
This was the largest sum paid by any individual
in the United States, except by William
B. Astor, whose taxes for the same year were
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 109
Rome to study for a number of years. In
his travels in America
Ampere found numerous instances in which
individuals assumed
responsibilities which in Europe were
undertaken by the state;
Longworth's benefaction he placed in
this category. Two other
sculptors--Horatio Greenough, whose
studio the traveler had seen
in Florence, and Thomas Crawford, who
had been to Rome--were
also described by Ampere as men of
talent.31
It was only in the field of sculpture
that the narrator found
any artistic achievement in America. He
thought less progress
had been made in architecture than in
any other of the fine arts.
The only attractive architectural
productions he had seen (when
in Ohio) were those connected with
public utilities, such as the
reservoirs of Boston (?), which he found
to be built with a truly
Roman simplicity and solidity. Ampere
could not determine the
architectural design of the Capitol at
Columbus, which city he
visited briefly, but he was not
favorably impressed by it. Perhaps
the worst example of American
architecture he saw was a building
in Columbus which was constructed of
brick, "with a great
hexagonal tower, numerous turrets, and
doors and windows of
white marble; the whole having a false
air, very false, it is true,
of the Alhambra." Ampere's distress
was increased when upon
asking a passer-by what this strange
building could be he was told
with an air of satisfaction that it was
a medical school. "What an
honor to Hippocrates," said the
writer, "is this feudal structure!"
Ampere thought the same principle which
explained the suc-
cess of the Americans in sculpture
accounted for the lack of success
in architecture. In his opinion
sculpture is not connected with the
needs of the age in which it is produced
but is largely borrowed
from
classical models. There is,
therefore, no reason why it
should not be developed as readily in
one country as in another;
no reason why a man born on the banks of
the Ohio should not
be inspired by classical models as
easily as one born on the banks
of the Rhine or the Seine, for even an
inhabitant of Cincinnati
$23,000. He made his money in real
estate, having bought many city lots in the early
days for ten dollars or less. In 1850 he
was said to be the largest landholder in the
city in spite of the fact that he had
sold more lands and lots than any other man in
Cincinnati. Cist, Sketches and
Statistics, 333 ff.; Chambrun, Cincinnati, 108 ff.
31 According to Powers the works of
Greenough and Crawford were inferior to
his. Chambrun, Cincinnati, 181.
110
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
could readily make a trip to Italy for
the purpose of studying
classical models. Architecture, on the
other hand, must be adapted
to the age which produces it.
Utilitarian values are the primary
essential and the problem of the
architect becomes one of combin-
ing beauty and utility in a given age.
This means the creation of
new models, a difficult task under any
conditions, but particularly
so in a country which is preoccupied
with material development
and has had no time to devote to
aesthetic appreciation. It is not
surprising, therefore, said Ampere, that
in their efforts to be origi-
nal Americans have mixed in a most
unfortunate manner different
styles of architecture and then added
ornaments as fancy dictated
without taking the purpose of the
building into account in any
way.32
After stating that Americans have the
bad habit of giving
things pompous names, especially in
matters in which they excel
the least, Ampere said their museums
were often only collections
of bric-a-brac. It would seem that he
placed the museum at Cin-
cinnati in this classification. The only
things of value he found in
it were some Indian relics. He was totally unimpressed by a
"thousand insignificant
objects" he found; by a small Egyptian
figure which he was told was found in
one of the Mexican pyra-
mids--a claim he did not hesitate to
declare impossible; and the
sculptural composition of Powers
referred to above.33
Mid-nineteenth century Cincinnati also
gave evidence of some
scientific interest. There was an
observatory, which had been
built by private subscription, on land
donated by Longworth;34
there was also an astronomical society,
whose composition Am-
pere found curious.35 Its
membership consisted of: twenty-five
doctors, thirty-three lawyers,
thirty-nine wholesale grocers, fifteen
retail grocers, five ministers, sixteen
pork merchants and twenty-
three carpenters. Ampere considered it obvious that this
society
did not make any great astronomical
discoveries, but, he said, it did
32 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 745 ff.
33 Ibid.
34 Cist, Sketches and Statistics, 107-10,
341-46.
35 This astronomical society was due to
the efforts of a young lawyer and teacher
named Ormsby M. Mitchell. As professor
of mathematics and astronomy in Cincinnati
College he found himself handicapped by
lack of equipment. By a series of lectures
he tried to arouse public opinion in
favor of building an observatory. There was an
attendance of sixteen at the
first lecture and two thousand at the last. Henry A. Ford,
History of Cincinnati (Cleveland, 1881), 223.
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES III
contribute from its treasury to the
study of astronomy. One
scientist of note, however, was found in
this society--Doctor John
Locke who had discovered the electrical
clock, which made it pos-
sible to determine longitude more
readily than formerly.36 Charles
Maury, the director of the observatory
at Washington, said the
following about it:
This problem which has tormented
astronomers and navigators for
centuries [that of determining
longitude] has been reduced by American
sagacity to the simplest and most exact
form. Now, thanks to this
process, longitude can be determined in
a night with much more exacti-
tude than was possible by years of
observation before.37
In order to accomplish the real purpose
of coming to the Ohio
Valley--that of securing information
about Indian relics--Am-
pere went to Chillicothe to consult with
the local authority, Edwin
Hamilton Davis38 who had, in
collaboration with Ephraim George
Squier, published the well-known work on
the Indians called
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi
Valley.39 The traveler
hesitated to make this trip because
there was no railroad to Chilli-
cothe but his health being somewhat
improved he decided to do so.
Ampere went to Chillicothe by way of
Columbus. He de-
scribed this city as being a town of one
street, which was half a
mile long and ended in the forest; he
admired the width of this
street which he compared to that of the rue
de la Paix. There
were streets leading from the principal
one but the houses on
them were small and scattered like those
in a village. The "im-
mense monument" which formed the
Capitol was located in the
center of the city. Everywhere in the rustic streets of the
city
hammering and pounding could be heard.
The summary im-
pression was that "of a city that
was awakening." Ampere said
Columbus reminded him of Vergil's
description of the building of
Carthage:
36 On the work of Locke on the magnetic
intensity of Cincinnati and its environs
see Cist, Sketches and Statistics, 23-28.
Locke was professor of chemistry and pharmacy
in the Medical College of Ohio, which
was located in Cincinnati.
37 Ampere,
"Promenade en Amerique," 746.
38 Davis was trained in medicine. He
taught in one of the medical schools
of New York. Apparently the study of
Indian civilization was his avocation; he must
have given a great deal of time to this.
Ibid., 1029.
39 This work, published in 1847, forms
volume I of the Smithsonian Contributions
to Knowledge.
112 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Instant ardentes Tyrii; pars ducere
muros
Molirique arcem et manibus surbvolvere
saxa.40
The only means of transportation from
Columbus to Chilli-
cothe was the diligence. The insatiable
curiosity of the traveler
made him eager to experience this type
of travel; he thought that
by so doing he would perhaps become more
tolerant of the incon-
veniences of travel by rail. He found
the diligence fairly clean but
poorly closed by its leather curtains.
The road was bad and the
"joltings were very rude." As
a result of the trip he developed
an increased admiration for the people
who had traveled in
America before railroads were built.
Unfortunately Davis was in New York when
Ampere arrived
at Chillicothe. But the father-in-law of
Davis met the situation
adequately by giving the French traveler
a copy of his son-in-law's
book, in order that he might thereby
secure some initial informa-
tion regarding the remains of Indian
civilization in this area, and
by introducing him to a young German
doctor, by the name of
Rominger, in the vicinity, who was also
greatly interested in prim-
itive civilizations and who had often
accompanied Davis on his
archaeological expeditions. Rominger
took the French visitor to
see the Indian mounds in the vicinity of
Chillicothe. Some of these
mounds were circular, others square
(these being more than a
thousand feet on each side),41
and in both cases the formation was
always perfect. Ampere placed the mounds
in two categories:
those devoted to religious purposes, and
those used for defense.
Those constructed for defense purposes
were surrounded by a ditch;
inside this ditch there was a wall,
which was usually made of earth,
but sometimes it was built of stone some
of which seemed to have
been carried from a long distance.42 The mounds were found in
the area contained within the St.
Lawrence, the Ohio, the Missis-
sippi and the Alleghenies. They seemed
to Ampere to indicate the
40 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 747. The passage is found in AEneid,
i, 423. Freely translated it runs thus:
The Tyrians eagerly advance to the work; part
of them raising the walls and building
up the citadel and some of them rolling up
stones with their hands.
41 Ampere indicated that he had taken
this information from Squier and Davis.
Ancient Monuments, 31, 40. (Throughout his discussion Ampere spells
Davis's name
Davies). None of Ampere's references to
Squier and Davis have been checked for
accuracy.
42 Ibid., 23.
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 113
presence, at a very early date, of a
semicivilized people in this
region who were superior to the Indians
of the area. Amp??re
was inclined to accept the theory that
these Mound-builders, who
had entirely disappeared from the Old
Northwest leaving no trace
of themselves except the mounds, were
the people whom the Mex-
ican painters represented as moving from
the North to the South.
They were perhaps, he suggested,
Asiatics who had entered the
North American continent from the
Northwest and who, leaving
the remains of their civilization in the
Old Northwest Territory,
had moved on to Mexico. There was, he
stated, a certain simi-
larity between the truncated pyramids of
the Mound-builders and
the Mexican teocallis.43 The
mounds in the Ohio Valley with their
contents represented, he believed, a
civilization which was not yet
perfected but which was developed to a
greater extent in Mexico.
Ampere found a number of evidences that
the Mound-builders
were on the way toward civilization. One
of these was the ex-
ploitation of copper, which seemed to
antedate the coming of the
white man, in the region of Lake
Superior. There existed in this
area a veritable copper mine which is
attributed to the Mound-
builders. The aisles in the mine were
from ten to fifteen feet in
width and from five to twenty-five feet
in depth; natural pillars
similar to those used in coal mines
supported the roof. In one
place a mass of copper ore weighing
approximately twelve thou-
sand pounds was found on a wooden
trellis. The ancient miners
had tried to remove this ore from the
mine but due to its great
weight they apparently had to abandon
the project. Cinders and
coal found all around the mine indicated
a knowledge of the use
of fire. Traces of an extended and
fairly well-developed agri-
culture, which was superior to anything
found among the savages,
also existed in the regions occupied by
the Mound-builders.
Ampere also considered there was
evidence that the Mound-
builders had lived in this area at a
very early date. Trees, which
had grown on the mounds in the Ohio
Valley and had been cut,
gave evidence of being at least eight
hundred years old.44 Then,
too, there was an absence of metal tools
while stone hammers
43 Ibid., 18, 45.
44 Ampere takes this information from
Sir Charles Lyell, Travels in North Amer-
ica (London,
1845), II, 29.
114
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
existed in great abundance. Finally, in the Lake Superior region,
the roots of a tree, whose concentric
rings indicated it could not
have been less than two hundred and
ninety years old, had grown
entirely around a mass of copper,
proving that the copper mines
had been abandoned at a date well before
the first European estab-
lishments in the vicinity of Lake
Superior.45
While most of the mounds Ampere saw
were either square
or circular, there was one which
represented a serpent one hun-
dred and fifty feet long with an eye in
its forehead. He thought
this interesting because of its
similarity to the one in Salisbury
Plain, England, close to the famous
monument of Stonehenge. He
was of the opinion, however, that
Squier, who had combined these
facts with the role of the serpent in
the religions of the East and
on this basis had formed "an
historic system on the cult of the
serpent," like many other authors
of mythological systems, had
confused things which are entirely
different. The facts in them-
selves, he added, were, however, not
less curious and the similarity
not less singular.
Ampere's antiquarian and scientific
interest came into play
when he advocated that the French
government send an archaeo-
logical expedition to these mounds. By
using a map of the mounds
which had been prepared by Davis, this
expedition could work
very effectively, Ampere declared. So
hopeful was he that the
French government, or at least some
European government, might
follow this recommendation that he
secured detailed information
concerning the expense involved. From a
"distinguished mer-
chant" named Clemensen 46 in
Chillicothe he learned that the cost
of excavating would be approximately
five francs per day for each
man; this seemed to the French
investigator to be very little. He
thought this work should be undertaken
immediately, for in twenty
years, he said, there will be nothing
left of this unknown past. The
plows of those who clear the land, he
asserted, are rapidly de-
stroying these mounds. "Would it
not be desirable to save from
destruction the remains of a
civilization which one may call rela-
tive and which seems to have been the
intermediary between the
45 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 749 ff.
46 The present writer could not find
either the first name nor any other additional
information about Clemensen.
AMPERE'S TRAVEL NOTES 115
more advanced culture of the Mexicans
and the barbarity of the
savages?" he queried. The inquiring
traveler's principal purpose
in going to Chillicothe had been to see
Davis's collection of Amer-
ican antiquities; since Davis had taken
this to New York with
him, Ampere's trip to Chillicothe seemed
useless. But in spite of
the fact that he found it very fatiguing
he did not regard it so.
For, he said, if he could convince
someone to make these excava-
tions which would be easy, inexpensive
and almost certain to pro-
duce results, he would consider the trip
worth all the effort.
When he arrived in New York Ampere at
once sought out
Davis who showed him his collection of
Indian relics. It was
dominated by pipes, which the curious
French visitor found very
strange. He described them in the
following words:
The bowl ordinarily represents an
animal, although sometimes it is
a human figure. The animals are carved
in a very remarkable manner;
the carving being as good as that I have
seen in Egyptian sculpture
and in the beautiful collection of M.
Siebold at Leyden. The figures
of animals are easier to reproduce than
those of man. The Indian
artists have succeeded admirably in
reproducing the character and habits
of quadrupeds and birds: a hawk tears
its prey to pieces, the otter
really bites. The crane with its long
beak joined to its long neck, has
been as naively and as faithfully
represented by an unknown sculptor
as by a great poet. The articulations of
its long legs, the scales and the
gills of the fish are expressed with an
extreme delicacy; it is the same
with the reptiles, the shape of the
serpent's head ,and the wrinkled skin
of the toad are well executed. One finds
there [in the collection of pipes]
a veritable American menagerie; the squirrel, the
turtle, the beaver, the
eagle, the swallow, the parrot, the
toucan,47 the lamantin,48 etc., it is not
a fantastic sculpture like that of the
Mexicans,49 nor grossiere like the
informal designs of the Red-skins; it is
an art different and superior,
following closely nature and knowing how
to reproduce it without dis-
figuring it. There are also heads of men
showing very remarkable
work; one of them, having a very
individual character, represents a
chief whose face is tatooed; another
seems to represent death. A man
on all fours shedding tears is probably
a representation of an enemy
47 The toucan is any one of the many
fruit-eating, picarian birds of tropical
America.
48 The lamantin is the manatee, any of
several aquatic herbivorous mammals of
the order Sirenia. It inhabits the
waters of the West Indies and the neighboring main-
land coasts from Florida to Yucatan. It
is about ten feet long, nearly black in color,
and thick skinned.
49 Ampere
indicates in a footnote that after writing this he had seen animals
and even human figures in the Museum of
Mexico which were carved as realistically
as these. Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique," 1026.
116
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
produced in this manner in order that
his conqueror can give himself
the pleasure of smoking through the
image of his person as a sign of
triumph.50
Ampere was greatly impressed by the
large number of pipes
in the Davis collection. This could be
understood, he stated, if
one realized that smoking was among many
Indian tribes a re-
ligious ceremony and that it also formed
among many of them
the most essential part of the ceremony
in all deliberative assem-
blies. Ampere had collected a large
number of statements which
indicated that to inhale tobacco smoke
was a religious act, and to
burn it a sign of homage to the
divinity. Strange as it may seem
tobacco was also used as an incense.
Davis had in his collection an Indian
skull which had been
taken from a mound some miles from
Chillicothe--a mound so
high that it "seems to dominate all
the country," says the nar-
rator. This mound, he thought, was
probably the tomb of a cele-
brated chieftain of this unknown people.
The skull was con-
sidered a perfect type of the American
race.
In the Davis collection there were also
many interesting
weapons of war: javelins and lances of
flint, milk-white quartz,
or rock crystal. These, thought Ampere,
seemed to be an imitation
of the fossilized teeth of the shark.
The mounds furnished these
teeth in great numbers, as well as those
of the bear and the alli-
gator; they were used to form necklaces.
Some of the tools in-
dicated that the people who used them
had acquired a certain
degree of skill: stone scissors had been
ground and polished with
sand, and a kind of wheel with a groove
in which there was a
thread--perhaps metallic--was used to
operate a gimlet. Metallic
threads were also used to repair broken
stone objects. There was
pottery in various forms some of which
was rather graceful. In
some cases it had been decorated, and
like the pipes this pottery
was very superior to that produced by
the Indians who lived in the
Ohio Valley at a later date. In the
collection were also shells that
had been found placed together in a
manner which seemed to indi-
cate they had been used as money.51
Neither gold nor iron were
50 Ibid.
51 Ampere remarked that this custom
existed in India and among certain savage
people of North America. Ibid., 1028.
AMPERES TRAVEL NOTES 117
found in the collection, but as
suggested above, copper was used
and also silver--probably found
occasionally in the copper veins--
in very small quantity. This
civilization belonged then to the
Bronze Age. Davis also had large pieces
of stone which he thought
represented a type of anvil that was
used for hammering out
bronze.
Davis thought there was evidence that
the Mound-builders
came close to having a knowledge of
printing. He believed they
traced designs in relief, covered them
with oxide of pulverized
iron, and then used them to print many
skin ornaments. But
Davis did not believe, as did some
others, that certain hollow
tubes had been used to make astronomical
observations; he
thought these were more probably only
ordinary pipes.
An interesting aspect of these mounds
was that in general
each one contained a particular kind of
object to the exclusion
of all others. In one there were pipes,
in another quartz arrow-
heads, and in others mica plates. Davis
thought each kind of
object, as well as each mound and altar,
was dedicated to a
special divinity and that the bones
found with these objects were
those of a chief or priest who was
devoted to the service of this
special deity.
In concluding his discussion, Ampere
decided that one thing
at least was certain concerning this
unknown people, whoever
they were: they had connections with
very diverse and very dis-
tant points in North America. They made
ornaments of bone
or shell and covered them with bronze
and silver, they had pieces
of obsidian,52 and
they had pearls which they used for the eyes
of animals; the copper could hardly have
come from any place
other than the borders of Lake Superior,
the obsidian from
Mexico and the pearls from the Gulf of
Mexico.
Ampere stated that the Davis collection
was unique, for
Europe had no antiquarian collection of
this type. He con-
sidered it would be a valuable
collection for any European
museum. He hoped France might acquire it.53
Thus the itinerant Latin had not only
satisfied his curiosity
52 Obsidian is a very hard volcanic
stone used by the ancient inhabitants of
Mexico and Peru.
53 Ampere, "Promenade en
Amerique," 1029.
118
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
about the remains of Indian civilization
in the Ohio Valley but
he had also increased his interest in
them. After continuing his
travels in the eastern part of the
United States he went to Mexico
and thence to Cuba, from which point he
returned to Europe,
taking with him the hope that he could
induce some European
government or other agency to engage in
an archaeological ex-
pedition to the Ohio Valley--a hope
which was never realized.
TRAVEL NOTES OF A MID-NINETEENTH
CENTURY FRENCHMAN
By BERTHA RUTH LEAMAN
Extended travel and a great variety of
experience had left
the curiosity of Jean Jacques Ampere, a
learned Frenchman of the
mid-nineteenth century, unsatisfied;
consequently, in search of
new information, he came to America.1
Landing in New York,
the French visitor traveled through the
New England States; went
to Montreal and Quebec; journeyed to
Niagara, Buffalo and De-
troit; and then proceeded to Chicago. He
had planned to go also
to St. Louis, but he was quite worn out
by his travels and feared
he might become ill. This was a
possibility he did not like to
contemplate in America where it seemed
to him people were
so rushed that they would not look after
one properly. He con-
sidered that the possibility of having
good care would be better
in the large cities than elsewhere;
therefore, he thought it best to
return to New York as expeditiously as
possible.2 He did not
want to leave the West, however, without
seeing Cincinnati and
the Ohio Valley.3 Being, among other things, an
antiquarian,
Ampere was greatly interested in the
remains of Indian civiliza-
tion which he hoped to find on the
banks of the Ohio.
The trip from Chicago to Cincinnati was
not without interest.
Crossing Lake Michigan by steamboat from
Chicago to New Buf-
falo, the French visitor arrived at the
latter city too late to depart
the same evening for Detroit. As a
result of inadequate hotel ac-
commodations the travelers from Chicago,
as well as those from
1 Ampere was widely traveled and very
versatile. He said since it was inadvisable
to go to China and the moon was
inaccessible, he was forced to come to America to
find something new. "Promenade en
Amerique," Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris),
ser. 2, nouvelle periode [ser. 6], I (1853), 5. He had
a serious motive in coming,
however, for being a close friend of de
Tocqueville and a believer in his doctrines,
Ampere came to America to find materials
to justify those doctrines. For informa-
tion concerning Ampere, his travels, and his reasons
for coming to America, see the
article of the present writer, "A Frenchman Visits
Philadelphia in 1851," Pennsyl-
vania History (Philadelphia),
VIII (1941), 261-63.
2 Ampere, "Promenade en Amerique," 737.
(101)