BOOK REVIEWS
A History of Kentucky. By Thomas D. Clark. Prentice-Hall
History Series. Ed. by Carl Wittke. (New York, Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1937. 702p. $5.00.)
To present in one volume a general
history of Kentucky was
the purpose of this book. In a concise
narrative of the political,
economic, and social development of the
state Kentucky has been
viewed as an important factor in the
larger life of the Nation, and
especially as a factor in the settlement
of the South and West.
Each chapter has been well fortified
with a bibliography of use
not only to the general reader but also
to the researcher.
Before the story begins the reader is
acquainted with the
physiography of Kentucky and with
certain geographical influences
on the state's history. The story moves
rapidly but interestingly
through the English and French
rivalries, the early settlement of
Kentucky, the Revolutionary War, the
Indian wars, and the move-
ment for statehood. Succeeding chapters
tell of the Burr con-
spiracy, the Kentucky expansionists in
the War of 1812, the state's
agricultural, industrial, and commercial
development, and the po-
litical struggles within the
commonwealth, particularly between
the rich landowners and the poorer
classes, such as the bank,
courts, and slavery controversies.
Chapters on social and cultural history
tell of the evolution
of educational facilities from Mrs.
Coome's school at Fort Harrod
in 1775 to the comparatively recent
expansion of the University
of Kentucky, the productions and
influence of newspaper, periodi-
cal, and book presses, and the awakening
of an interest in art,
architecture, literature, and music.
While the rise of religious
sects is not overlooked, their
importance in the state's history is
perhaps not sufficiently discussed.
The final pages deal with the economic
revolution which ac-
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BOOK REVIEWS 79
companied the Civil War, the cut-throat
competition between
Louisville and Cincinnati, the expansion
of railroads, the utiliza-
tion of natural resources, and the
development of the manufactur-
ing industry, tobacco cultivation, and
live-stock breeding. Also
discussed are certain philanthropic and
charitable enterprises, such
as the temperance, women's rights, and
prison, labor, and social
reform movements, and the political
struggles since the Civil War,
including agitation for the new
Constitution of 1873, third party
movements, the assassination of William
Goebel, and the turbu-
lent administration of Democratic
Governor Laffoon. It seems,
however, that the treatment of the
period since the Civil War is
too sketchy as compared to the rest of
the book.
Maps, illustrations, and a good index
add to the understand-
ing and utility of the text. The volume
has an attractive cover
and is well printed, typographical
errors being found only on
pages 208 and 641.
JAMES H. RODABAUGH.
Bibliographie des Deutschtums der
Kolonialzeitlichen Einwander-
ung in Nordamerika 1683-1933. By Emil Meynen. (Leipzig,
Otto Harrassowitz, 1937. xxxvi+ 636p.)
This extensive bibliography of the
Pennsylvania-German
element and their descendants, promoted
by the Pennsylvania-
German Society of Pennsburg,
Pennsylvania, was compiled prin-
cipally for research students. The 8,000
items listed in the bibli-
ography were compiled from the
catalogues located in the prin-
cipal libraries of Europe, the United
States and Canada. The
volume is arranged alphabetically by
author under a subject
system.
This bibliography furnishes the
essential materials for a com-
prehensive history of the
Pennsylvania-German element in North
America. The first eighty-six pages of
the bibliography contains
a list of works which deal with the
American and European back-
ground of German settlement, emigrant
ships and registers, re-
80 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
demptioners and indentured servants,
German settlements in co-
lonial Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey, and New England.
Meynen also includes a few references on
the neighbors of the
colonial Germans, the Swedes, the Dutch,
the English, and the
Scotch-Irish. Then follows a list of
works from which one may
trace the expansion of the
Pennsylvania-German element as far
south as North and South Carolina and
Tennessee, north to On-
tario, Canada, and west through Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.
There are other sections in which are
listed the principal works
which treat of the participation of the
Pennsylvania-Germans in
politics, local and state
administration, and in the wars in which
the United States was a belligerent.
With special regard for
social and cultural history, the
compiler lists the works which deal
with the contributions made by the
Pennsylvania-Germans to
American religion, art, science,
literature, and music. The last
131 pages of the bibliography, besides
containing a list of German
guides, manuscript materials,
genealogical institutions and socie-
ties, lists 1786 family histories and
biographies of Pennsylvania-
Germans and their descendants.
In examining the list of works cited in
the bibliography one
is amazed at its accuracy and
completeness. There are, however,
certain omissions of titles, especially
in the sections listing trav-
eler's accounts of the
Pennsylvania-Germans, and in the section
listing the works dealing with the
"Pennsylvania-German Part in
the Winning of the West." On the
other hand, Meynen has pro-
duced a bibliography so exhaustive that
it is discouraging even
to attempt to check it for omissions.
The register of surnames and
the index to authors facilitate the use
of the work.
JOHN O. MARSH
Solon Robinson, Pioneer and
Agriculturist; Selected Writings.
Ed. by Herbert Anthony Kellar. Indiana
Historical Collec-
tions XXII. (Indianapolis, Indiana, Historical Bureau, 1936.
Vol. II: 556p.)
The first volume of Solon Robinson's
writings (1825-45)
which was published in 1936 has been
reviewed in this QUARTERLY,
BOOK REVIEWS 8l
Vol. XLV, p. 374. In the second volume
selections from his writ-
ings during the years 1846-51 are
presented. In these years "Solon
Robinson of Indiana" was continuing
his extensive travels into
the rural sections of all parts of the
United States and Canada.
While making these journeys he
frequently contributed his acute
observations to various newspapers and
periodicals. These ar-
ticles, as selected by Kellar, Director
of the McCormick Histori-
cal Association, are a source of
valuable information to the eco-
nomic and social historian.
The calendar of 154 writings from which
the 113 selections
for this volume have been made include
106 from the American
Agriculturist, published in New York, and others from the Cin-
cinnati Daily Gazette, the
Chicago Prairie Farmer, the Western
Ranger, of Valparaiso, Indiana, the Richmond, Virginia Inquirer,
the Indiana Sentinel, the National
Intelligencer, the American
Farmer, DeBow's Review, the Southern Cultivator, of Augusta,
Georgia, the Plow, of New York,
the Northern Almanac (1851),
and the Planters' Pictorial Almanac (1851).
There were also
eighteen manuscripts published from the
Amos Allman, Ewing,
and Harry Robinson Strait collections.
Among these writings are notes on the
Cherokee Rose Hedge,
seen near Natchez, and notes on fences,
pork and bacon, uses for
corn cobs, a "Visit to General
Zachary Taylor at New Orleans,"
manufacturing and cotton manufacturing
in the South, negro
slavery, the use of guano, strawberries,
and many other topics.
All selections are fully edited in
footnotes. A sixteen-page bibli-
ography pertaining to Robinson and an
extensive index conclude
the volume.
JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Sons of the Wilderness: John and
William Conner. By Charles
N. Thompson. (Indianapolis, Indiana
Historical Society,
1937. lx+283p. Illus., maps. Paper,
$1.50; Cloth, $2.)
This little volume, as the title
indicates, is essentially a bi-
ography of a family and the part Richard
Conner and his two sons,
82 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
John and William, played in the winning
of the wilderness. Be-
ginning with a resume of Indian affairs
in the years preceding the
American Revolution, the author unfolds
the familiar story of In-
dian wars, British Indian policy
following the expulsion of the
French (1763), and the conditions on the
frontier during and
after the American Revolution. It is
against such a background
of western events that Thompson relates
the story of the Conner
family, their conversion by Moravian
missionaries in Ohio, their
settlement at Schoenbrunn, and finally
the incidents of their re-
moval, with the dispossessed Moravians,
to Detroit by Major
De Peyster, British commander at
Detroit, who, with other British
military leaders, was convinced that the
Moravian Indians and
their teachers were secretly aiding the
Americans in their struggle
for independence. The author traces with
dramatic interest the
incidents of their winter journey from
Schoenbrunn to Detroit,
the events in the trial before the
British commandant, the removal
of the Conner family to Lower Sandusky
(Fremont), and later
to New Gnadenhutten, twenty miles from
Detroit, where Richard
Conner established a permanent home.
John and William Conner, after spending
the most impres-
sionable years of their lives in the
Moravian settlements in Ohio
and Michigan, abandoned a settled
agricultural life for that of the
Indian trader. After some wandering
along the northern frontier
the brothers settled in the Indiana
Territory. Both married Dela-
ware Indians, engaged in trading, and
served as Indian inter-
preters and scouts before, during and
after the War of 1812.
The termination of the war was a
transitional period not only
in the history of Indiana, but also in
the lives of the "Sons of the
Wilderness." Largely through the
efforts of the Conner brothers
the Delaware Indians were persuaded to
sign the Treaty of St.
Mary's (1818) whereby the central
portion of Indiana was sur-
rendered to the United States. With the
marriage of John to
Lavina Winship, following the death of
his Indian wife, and the
marriage of William to Elizabeth
Chapman, following the migra-
tion of his Indian wife, Mekinges, and
his hybrid siblings beyond
the Mississippi, the ties which bound
the Conner brothers to their
BOOK REVIEWS 83
Indian life were gone. Both John and his
brother William
emerged from the wilderness to high
positions in the newly cre-
ated state of Indiana, the one to become
the founder of Conners-
ville (later to be designated as the
county seat of Fayette County),
one of the ten commissioners appointed
to select a site for the
permanent seat of government of Indiana,
a member of the state
senate, and later a successful
Indianapolis merchant, the other to
become the founder of Noblesville (later
to be designated as the
county seat of Hamilton County), a
member of the general as-
sembly, a railway promoter, and a
charter member of the Indiana
Historical Society. Both John and
William, as sons of the wild-
erness, and later as members of the
legislature, helped to fashion
a state "out of the primeval forest
and virgin prairie."
Thompson has, with varying degrees of
success, interwoven
the narrative of John and William Conner
with western and na-
tional events. Unfortunately the author
was unable to locate let-
ters of the Conner family and the
narrative is not as complete as
could be desired. The lengthy classified
bibliography which the
author used during his five years of
research is reasonably com-
plete, although the omission of such
well-known works as Samuel
F. Bemis' Jay's Treaty, Julius S.
Pratt's Expansionists of 1812,
and Alfred T. Mahan's Sea Power in
Its Relation to the War
of 1812, are surprising. Although the use of such works would
probably have modified some of the
author's statements, they
would not materially have changed his
point of view. Aside from
a slightly anti-British tone in the
chapters dealing with the events
leading up to the War of 1812, the
author's treatment is scholarly
and impartial. The placing of the
footnotes at the back of the
book is inconvenient for those readers
wishing to follow both
notes and text.
Some, of course, may doubt whether the
Conners deserve so
much attention. But the author, in his
introduction, makes it
clear that "'historical
understanding is perhaps advanced as much
by the biographies of secondary
individuals as by the reiterated
accounts and appraisals of the lives of
the truly great'."
JOHN O. MARSH.
84
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Twelve Virginia Counties: Where the
Western Migration Began.
By John H. Gwathmey. (Richmond,
Virginia, Dietz Press,
1937. 469p. Illus.)
Gwathmey, the author of Love Affairs
of Captain John
Smith, now turns his attention to twelve central Virginia
counties
which, he contends, furnished a majority
of the "families who
first settled west of the
Alleghanies." The twelve historic Vir-
ginia counties under consideration are:
Albemarle, Augusta, Car-
oline, Essex, Glouster, Goochland,
Hanover, King William, King
and Queen, Louisa, New Kent, and Orange.
Each county is al-
loted a section.
The contents of the volume, partaking of
the nature of a
museum guide, is a peculiar mixture of
descriptions of court-
houses, churches, and portraits,
genealogical information concern-
ing the owners of houses, plantations
and estates, lists of county
and state officials, rosters of
soldiers, short biographical sketches,
and a thread of historical narrative
which, in some instances, does
not approximate the standards set by
modern historians.
The complete lack of documentation, and
the fact that the
author did not see fit to include a
classified bibliography, will render
the volume of little value to students
of history. But since this
interesting volume was evidently not
written for the specialist and
is comparatively free from serious
errors, it can be highly recom-
mended to the general reader, to those
people who are descended
from the early Virginia pioneers, to
those interested in genealogy,
and to tourists who are interested in
visiting any one of the twelve
Virginia counties. The book is
attractively bound, well printed,
and contains twelve illustrations of
courthouses, and an index.
JOHN O. MARSH