|
ALBERT SHAW'S OHIO YOUTH by LLOYD J. GRAYBAR |
In the twenty-eight years between 1829 and 1857 there were born in Ohio four distinguished American journalists: Murat Halstead, Whitelaw Reid, William Dean Howells, and Albert Shaw. In 1857, Murat Halstead, born in 1829, had already achieved recognition, Whitelaw Reid and William Dean Howells were commencing their brilliant careers, and Albert Shaw had just been born. All four were intimately associated with one small corner of the state--Butler County--and two, Halstead and Shaw-- cousins--were born there.1 We know much about Murat Halstead, for in a half-century career, spent primarily on the Cincinnati Commercial, he made many significant contributions to American journalism. In the years after the Civil War Halstead stood with Whitelaw Reid, Samuel Bowles, and Henry Watterson at the summit of editorial prowess. A prolific and versatile writer, Halstead was best known for his military and political commentary. Although his participation as a wire-puller in the Liberal Republican convention of 1872 did not turn out successfully, as an observer of political gatherings Hal- stead was most astute. And following the Franco-Prussian War, during which he served as a correspondent, he received the nickname of "Field Marshal."2 Albert Shaw lived to within a month of ninety, and his active career-- spanning the years from 1879 to 1937--was even longer than Halstead's. His editorship of the American Review of Reviews from its start in 1891 to its finish in 1937 is a story of ability and consistency.3 He had come to New York to operate the new Review in 1891 after prior editorial work on the Grinnell (Iowa) Herald and the Minneapolis Tribune. This previous experience had given him a detailed knowledge of the newspaper profes- sion and at the same time the chance to see that the routine of a news-
NOTES ARE ON PAGES 72-73 |
30 OHIO HISTORY
paper was not quite what he wanted. The
tempo was too rapid and the
mood too partisan for Shaw to write in
the reflective manner that he
preferred. The recipient of a doctorate
in history and political economy
from Johns Hopkins University in 1884,
Shaw had the offer of a Cornell
professorship but declined it to accept
the position with the Review of
Reviews. The decision was prompted to some extent by financial
considera-
tions but mainly by the opportunity to
remain in journalism. Since the
Review appeared but monthly, Shaw reasoned that he would have
the
time to write with greater erudition
than before.
The Review of Reviews featured an
inventory of other periodicals and
abstracts of their lead stories, a
sketch of some prominent person, and
"The Progress of the World,"
an editorial section dealing with foreign
and domestic news. Shaw's contribution,
"The Progress," was especially
esteemed for its genial and intelligent
approach to current problems.
International affairs he surveyed from a
broad perspective and domestic
politics from the outlook of a temperate
Republican. In 1892 Shaw ac-
quired a majority interest in the
magazine, and in the following year it
began to prosper. As the Review of
Reviews increased in popularity
through the 1890's and particularly
during the two decades thereafter,
Shaw's stature in New York and the
nation grew apace. Member of some
three dozen social and charitable
organizations, sought-after expert on
municipal institutions, friend and
confidant of Theodore Roosevelt, Shaw
had a full and rewarding life. Much of
his success he owed to the lessons
of his youth. It was in Butler County,
Ohio, where Shaw spent his boy-
hood, that he acquired a Republican
preference in politics, an interest in
scholarship, and a taste for journalism.
The family that could produce a Murat
Halstead and an Albert Shaw
in successive generations was in no
sense an ordinary one. In its annals
are found numerous farmers, but also a
conspicuously large incidence of
professional men, plus the proverbial
rascal or two.4 Although none of
its progenitors had arrived on the Susan
Constant or the Mayflower, they
had not been far behind. Nathan
Halstead, the first to arrive from
England, came to Dedham in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641, or
perhaps a few years before. His son
Henry, who moved to Norfolk in
1651, began the southern branch of the
family. John Holstead, a descend-
ant of this Henry, and his wife Ruth
moved to Butler County from North
Carolina in 1804. Their daughter Rebecca
married Hezekiah Shaw, a
Methodist circuit-rider of Ulster-Scot
derivation who had made several
stops on a roundabout route from
Pennsylvania before settling perma-
nently in Ohio in 1808. The couple had a
daughter and three sons, John,
Daniel, and Griffin.5
The last-named studied medicine in Ohio,
settled in Indiana, and mar-
ried a Susan Colburn who gave him two
children, Griffin, Jr., and Lucy.
After his wife died, he was married
again, in 1852, to Susan Fisher of
Chester, Vermont. Of old New England
stock, Susan Fisher had been
reared in the Congregational tradition
and educated at Mary Lyon's school
ALBERT SHAW'S OHIO YOUTH 31
before contracting to go west to teach.
Together with the children of his
first marriage, the Shaws moved to Ohio
in 1854 in order to avoid a
malaria epidemic which had already
infected his two elder children and
claimed the life of the first-born of
his second marriage. Two children
were born to them in Butler County, Mary
and--on July 23, 1857--the
baby of the family, Albert.6
The Shaws were a close-knit family, and
Albert's childhood seems to
have been reasonably happy. Their home
was in Paddy's Run, a small
village in Butler County six miles from
the Indiana line and twenty-two
miles from Cincinnati. This crossroads
village had once carried the fa-
cetiously exotic nickname of
"Bagdad," and would receive the mundane
name of Shandon in 1893, but the
"Paddy's Run" of Albert Shaw's boy-
hood was a title both quaint and
descriptive. The little creek of that name
rippled by on its way to the Great Miami
River, giving the area a basis
for a number of prosperous farms. The
foliage of the pawpaw, persim-
mon, maple, and oak lined the banks of
the creek and dotted the country-
side. So rural was the village that its
residents could, as the Shaws them-
selves did, keep some livestock and
raise vegetables. The elder Shaw's
interests were in fact quite
diversified, for besides being a doctor and a
"farmer," he owned a store,
dealt in real estate, and mixed in politics.7
If, as his first few years passed, the
world of a small child was un-
disturbed by events in the world beyond,
the lives of the area's adults
were of course dramatically altered by
the impact of the Civil War. Most
of the neighbors were Union-loving, but
a considerable number of south-
erners had migrated to the area, and
there seems to have been a certain
amount of "Butternut" sympathy
as well.8 Griffin Shaw himself was a
Douglas Democrat, who, as a former
Indiana legislator, had joined in
Ohio politics with enthusiasm. After
secession, however, he transferred
his allegiance to the Republicans. He
thus joined the party that his abo-
litionist father had undoubtedly
preferred and to which his wife was
already devoted. As a reward for his new
loyalties, Dr. Shaw was ap-
pointed to the Butler County
conscription board, but these and other
duties seriously undermined his health.
His death in 1863 brought the
first great sorrow into his youngest's
life.9
Albert was but six years old at the
time, and the tragedy probably
rested easier on him in its immediate
impact than on the others in the
family. But though Mrs. Shaw was devoted
and strong-minded, his
father's guidance was still missed by
the growing boy. "I was only six
years old when my father died," he
recalled, "and nobody will ever know
how bereft and forlorn I felt as I grew
older and realized the need of a
father's direction and general
backing."10
As concerns his daily life, however, the
activities he pursued were
quite normal and pleasurable. He grew
close to his mother and sister
Mary, who was but two years older. Of
Lucy and Griffin, Jr., he was fond,
and there certainly was none of the
discord that one usually associates
with the relationships of stepchildren,
but they were considerably older
32 OHIO HISTORY
and had gone their own way by the time
Albert reached his early teens.
Nor was money a major problem. To be
sure, the family provider was
gone, leaving a mother and four
children. But he had left them well
taken care of; a house, a farm, several
parcels of land, and the store, the
last of which Mrs. Shaw soon sold, all
passed to his heirs. The net worth
of these possessions came to about $10,000,
and there was always enough
for pleasant trips to Cincinnati for the
theater, for concerts, or for shop-
ping, and even for lengthy visits to
maternal relatives in Vermont and
Iowa.11
The tenor of this predominantly Welsh
community, Shaw later wrote,
was one "of intelligence promoted
by good schools, and of social conduct
influenced by churches," and Mrs.
Shaw reared the children in her own
tradition of Congregationalism and sound
learning.12 Her own knowledge
of the fundamentals was, of course,
quite respectable. To complement
Albert's natural aptitudes there was
thus the interest in education at
home which makes for conscientious
studying. He attended a two-room
frame elementary school, where, as he
remembered, he had the special
privilege of carrying the water buckets
from the pump. His teachers
were methodical, stressing spelling, the
"3 R's" (Shaw, it can gratefully
be stated, became a superb penman), and
memorization of selections from
McGuffey's Readers. Thus were emphasized
the values of sobriety, moral-
ity, piety, and industry that was his
heritage from his mother. As the
years passed, Greek and Latin, algebra
and geometry, English stylistics,
readings in Story's Commentaries on
the Constitution, and various works
of history formed the ascending levels
of his education. In every case
Shaw was encouraged to forge ahead of
his schoolmates, but only after
he had mastered the fundamentals. In
leisure hours he read Robinson
Crusoe, Tom Brown's School Days, Scott, Dickens, Mark Twain, the sea-
faring tales of Elisha Kent Kane, and
the biographies of Jared Sparks.13
Yet Albert Shaw, while an exceptionally
able student, was hardly a
bookworm and found ample time to
participate in the various activities
of a rural life. A share of his spare
time he spent in play. Swimming,
skating, singing, snowball fighting, and
baseball were all great favorites.
Young Shaw also found occupation on
neighbors' farms, where he worked
on some week ends and during the summer.
Moral censure was attached
to the idler.14
Some such activities still form part of
the developmental years of the
contemporary youth. But a century has
wrought profound changes in
patterns of life, and Shaw engaged in
pursuits which now may be re-
captured only through imagination or
analogy and not by experience.
Picketing for prohibition and
"politicking" were the most notable. In 1874
a temperance movement appeared in the
community. Mrs. Shaw and most
Republicans--the "God-and-Morality
Party"--embraced the cause. Albert
in a protective spirit accompanied his
mother as she kept her vigils of
protest in front of the local saloons
and witnessed the glee that would
follow a hard-earned triumph by the
temperance campaigners. Politics
engendered similar enthusiasm. As a small boy Albert had been exposed to the new-found Republican ardor of his father and the more settled faith of his mother, and impressions have a way of becoming durable. At first his political credo (if such it may be called) was summed up in the notion that to be a Republican was a good thing--and fun. His active experience in politics dated from the age of seven, when he first banged his drum in behalf of Abe Lincoln; four years later he was a regular participant in torchlight parades. Enthusiasm was so tremendous and the reputation of the Shaw household for staunch Republicanism so renowned, that on one occasion the Shaws had their windows shattered by the re- verberations of strategically--and perhaps maliciously--positioned Demo- cratic cannon.15 Shaw, who had always been close to his mother, had drawn even closer in these years, for his small circle of intimates had been suddenly and shockingly reduced. Griff, his half-brother, died; Roger Williams, an older friend, passed away shortly thereafter in 1873. Actually the loss of a brother was the lesser tragedy, for Griff had left home several years before. But the passing of Williams--able in scholarship, strong of char- acter, and warm of personality--had brought profound grief. It was Williams who had shown Albert the happy times of a good baseball game; he had also given his young friend much good advice, plus a personal example which had much to do with Shaw's going into journalism. Williams (whose brother-in-law was a teacher) had even planned a pro- |
34 OHIO HISTORY
gram of education that Shaw should
follow in high school. The study of
English, with the practical thought of a
journalistic career evidently in
Williams' mind, was to be stressed.
Williams himself, while still attend-
ing Miami University in nearby Oxford,
had in 1870 purchased the Citizen,
the weekly newspaper of that college
community. There Albert, to his
delight, had every chance to observe the
operation of the presses and the
many activities of a newspaper. The
example of Shaw's now-famous
cousin, Murat Halstead, was not
uninspiring. But this more tangible con-
tact with an actual newspaper, and with
an editor whom he worshipped,
impressed him profoundly. Williams'
death grieved people all over the
county; no one felt it more than Shaw.l6
The deaths of the men closest to him
left him thus with only his mother
and sisters. Of the latter he lost one
(even while gaining a brother-in-law)
when Lucy married lawyer Richard R.
Stephenson and moved to Indiana.17
With only two children left at home,
Mrs. Shaw decided it would be
sensible to move to Grinnell, Iowa,
where she had numerous relatives.
Albert had graduated from high school in
1874, and with neighboring
Miami closed, he would have to go away
to school anyhow.18 What then
could be better than to move to
Grinnell, where he could attend Iowa
College? But the children were reluctant
to leave Paddy's Run, so Susan
Shaw decided to spend one more year in
Ohio. Her son, forewarned by a
catalog, was tutored by schoolmaster
Clark in a fashion paralleling the
program of Iowa College freshmen. He had
always had a distinguished
school record, so there should have been
no doubt of his ability to do
college work. Nevertheless, he feared
that "he wouldn't be thought any-
thing of" in Grinnell.19
In the spring of 1875 the Shaws made the
much-discussed move to
Iowa. Shaw was almost eighteen, somewhat
immature, and still impres-
sionable, yet the fundamental lessons he
had learned in Ohio were in the
future only modified, never eradicated.
This is especially true of the ones
that were to influence his career most
deeply: a Republican political bias,
the attitude of a scholar, and above all
an interest in journalism as a
vocation. He would end up as editor of a
magazine, not a newspaper;
he would decline an academic position
but only to remain in journalism;
he would qualify his politics by a
reformer's outlook but stray only
temporarily from Republican ranks in
1912 to vote for his "Bull Moose"
friend Theodore Roosevelt. And although
he would reside in the East,
his later life bore other reminders of
his Ohio background. One was a
genuine sympathy with the problems of
rural America. The others were
personal: he would name his home
"Shandon" and his second son "Roger."
THE AUTHOR: Lloyd J. Graybar is a
doctoral candidate at Columbia
University.
|
ALBERT SHAW'S OHIO YOUTH by LLOYD J. GRAYBAR |
In the twenty-eight years between 1829 and 1857 there were born in Ohio four distinguished American journalists: Murat Halstead, Whitelaw Reid, William Dean Howells, and Albert Shaw. In 1857, Murat Halstead, born in 1829, had already achieved recognition, Whitelaw Reid and William Dean Howells were commencing their brilliant careers, and Albert Shaw had just been born. All four were intimately associated with one small corner of the state--Butler County--and two, Halstead and Shaw-- cousins--were born there.1 We know much about Murat Halstead, for in a half-century career, spent primarily on the Cincinnati Commercial, he made many significant contributions to American journalism. In the years after the Civil War Halstead stood with Whitelaw Reid, Samuel Bowles, and Henry Watterson at the summit of editorial prowess. A prolific and versatile writer, Halstead was best known for his military and political commentary. Although his participation as a wire-puller in the Liberal Republican convention of 1872 did not turn out successfully, as an observer of political gatherings Hal- stead was most astute. And following the Franco-Prussian War, during which he served as a correspondent, he received the nickname of "Field Marshal."2 Albert Shaw lived to within a month of ninety, and his active career-- spanning the years from 1879 to 1937--was even longer than Halstead's. His editorship of the American Review of Reviews from its start in 1891 to its finish in 1937 is a story of ability and consistency.3 He had come to New York to operate the new Review in 1891 after prior editorial work on the Grinnell (Iowa) Herald and the Minneapolis Tribune. This previous experience had given him a detailed knowledge of the newspaper profes- sion and at the same time the chance to see that the routine of a news-
NOTES ARE ON PAGES 72-73 |