Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

Frontier Ohio, 1788-1803. By Randolph Chandler Downes. Ohio

Historical Collections, III. (Columbus, Ohio, The Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society, 1935. ²⁸0p. maps.

$2.50.)

Students of Ohio history will be grateful to the author for

presenting this vivid and accurate account of the origins of the

Commonwealth. Professor Randolph Chandler Downes has ex-

amined and cited, in a wealth of footnotes, a great variety of

widely scattered manuscript collections, as well as the available

printed records; unique documents, long hidden from public

view, are frequently disclosed.

The significant topics which receive detailed treatment relate

to the conquest of the land from the Indians, the origins and

character of the people, the problem of trade, the character of the

administrations of Governor Arthur St. Clair and Acting Gov-

ernor Winthrop Sargent, the movement for political reform, the

statehood contest, and the final establishment of the State.

The policy of the United States Government towards the

Indians of the Ohio Valley and the Northwest was exemplified by

a series of steps which finally opened the greater portion of the

present State of Ohio to white settlement. The question of a

boundary line, an old problem which vexed British and colonial

statesmen, settlers and Indians in an earlier day, was the primary

issue which both the Confederation and the National Government

sought to settle by negotiations, backed by force. Whether the

Ohio River or the Muskingum, which the Indians demanded, or

a more northerly one should be fixed upon was ultimately de-

termined by the arbitrament of war. The Treaties of Fort Har-

mar, forced upon a minority of Indian representatives, proved

unacceptable to the mass of the Indians. The failure of subse-

quent conferences to procure a treaty favorable to the American

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view and acceptable to the Indians left as the only alternative,

according to the view of the United States Government, military

intervention. After a succession of defeats in the early stages of

the conflict, the Americans succeeded in crushing the savage

forces and in imposing upon them the Treaty of Greenville. Thus

the way was cleared for white settlement, and for the building

of the Commonwealth.

Settlement on the right bank of the Ohio had already begun,

antecedent to the opening of the negotiations mentioned, as an

extension of the Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky frontiers.

There followed the founding of such settlements as Marietta,

Columbia, Cincinnati and other centers, peopled largely from

New England, New Jersey and Virginia. The "station" or com-

pact settlement method, as illustrated by the Ohio Company and

the Symmes experiments, which represented the principle of con-

trolled settlement, was effective only so long as dangers from

Indian attacks were imminent. With the passing of the danger

in question, "settlers spread out fanlike into the interior to take

new locations." The principle of scattered locations was thus

forced upon proprietors and Government alike. One of the po-

litical results of such a population movement are observed in the

emergence of rival political factions which profoundly affected

numerous issues connected with statehood. Its economic reper-

cussion was felt in Congress, and resulted in the passage of legis-

lation providing for the sale of public lands.

In the meantime frontiersmen were also concerned with

trade, involving not only the disposal of a surplus of products,

but the purchase of necessities and luxuries. The early notion of

promoters of settlements and of roads that a substantial com-

mercial connection would be made with the East proved illusory.

Trade was bound to go down-stream. This was a repetition of

the defeated purposes of the British in the West during pre-

Revolutionary days. And so New Orleans became, as of old, the

destination of most of the farmers' surplus flour, pork, beef and

other products.

With the disappearance of dangers from the Indians, and

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with a growing population which was becoming economically

self-sufficient, the emphasis from about 1795 was upon political

reform and eventual statehood. Political reform, and judicial as

well, was induced by the results of the application of some of the

harsh features of the Ordinance of 1787, which had placed large

powers in the hands of the central territorial administration. With

the advent of the second stage of government, which permitted

the people to petition for the relaxation of certain restrictions,

there came, gradually, reform in county and township admin-

istration and in the judicial structure of these local units; at the

same time the creation of new counties and townships brought

the people nearer to the seats of local government and of justice.

The movement for statehood was motivated by several forces

and was given propulsion by committees of correspondence, of

ancient origin, which served as vehicles for keeping the issue

in a state of agitation until the object was achieved. The attempted

gerrymandering of the Territory, to the end that there might be

two states, ended in defeat for its chief author, St. Clair. The

democratic forces, particularly those in the back country,

triumphed in the Constitutional Convention of 1802, and in the

election for State officials which followed.

The foregoing outline is obviously inadequate to indicate all

that is of significance in this book, which, though compactly

written, overflows with interest. It is a substantial contribution

to the history of Ohio and of the frontier in general. With the

author's main conclusions the reviewer could register little dissent.

There may be those who will think that the characterizations of

St. Clair are a bit harsh, and there may also be readers who will

feel that the attitude expressed with regard to the Indians is too

sentimental. The reviewer feels that occasional references to

British experience in dealing with similar problems would have

enhanced the value of the book to some extent.

There is an extensive bibliography, and a series of six maps,

the most interesting of which is one illustating the various division

schemes for the Territory. The book is also indexed.

CLARENCE E. CARTER,

Washington, D. C.

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Robert Hamilton Bishop. By James H. Rodabaugh, Ohio His-

torical Collections, IV. (Columbus, Ohio, The Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society.  1935.  216p. illus.

$2.50.)

James H. Rodabaugh has told more than the story of the

life of Robert Hamilton Bishop in this volume of 216 pages in-

cluding seventeen pages of bibliography and six pages of index.

With the exception of one tedious chapter the story sweeps along

easily, is simply told, and is written in a manner which justifies

the reviewer in encouraging the author to continue his researches.

Bishop was a crude Scottish lad, whose ancestors were tenants

on the estate of the profligate Lord Polkemmet near Edinburgh.

Young Bishop was brought up in the "Secession Church" and

studied at the University of Edinburgh where he was greatly in-

fluenced by John Playfair, Andrew Dalzel, and others. Very

early he became a liberal--a semi-radical conservative--probably

a result of the influence of his Edinburgh teachers and the Spec-

ulative and Academical Societies (p. 18). He studied for the

ministry in Hall Seminary in Selkirk. In 1802 he was licensed

to preach, married Ann Ireland, and sailed for the United States

as a missionary. After a brief experience as a circuit-rider in

Ohio he settled as a minister in Mercer County, Kentucky (1803).

Continuing to preach, he became a professor in Transylvania

University in Lexington in 1804. Bishop was not a noisy evan-

gelist, but as an avowed church reformist he soon stirred the ire

of the Rankinites, who attempted to bring about his suspension

from the ministry. For a while he assisted in the direction of

Transylvania University and after years of valuable service he

was called to the presidency of Miami University (1823). Un-

der his leadership this new State university became the "Yale of

the West," expanding rapidly in enrollment and departments of

learning and extending its influence throughout the United States.

Bishop was probably the ablest of all the Western pioneer edu-

cators. He believed sincerely in student self-government and was

greatly loved by his students. He stood for the abolition of

slavery and the unification of the Presbyterian Church, influenc-

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ing many of his students to take the same stand.  During the

Bishop regime Miami University became the home of fraternities

and a center for training missionaries, possessed unusual library

facilities, and established a commendable school of medicine under

the direction of Daniel Drake in Cincinnati. Bishop lost the

presidency of Miami University because of his liberalism and

was demoted to professorial rank, holding the Chair of History

and Political Economy in his own institution. In 1845 he was

forced to leave Miami, though in that same year he accepted a

call to Farmers' College at College Hill, Ohio, where in 1855 he

died and was buried.

Bishop was the first in this region to see the value of social

studies, to perceive that history was the story of the masses--the

record of all that man has thought, hoped, and done. The sagacity

and breadth of his views, the kindliness of his manner, and the

sweetness of his temper endeared him to the liberals who made

the West an empire and helped to save the Union.

This study is the fourth volume of a series by the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society. Its format is attractive

and the mechanics are good. Its value lies in the information on

(1) frontier education and early educators, (2) frontier religion,

(3) the Scottish educators in America, (4) William Holmes

McGuffey (ch. 4), (5) abolition and the American Colonization

Society (ch. 7), (6) Transylvania University (ch. 2), and (7)

Miami University. Original sources hitherto unused are heavily

drawn upon and the volume is fully and accurately footnoted

throughout. It is to be hoped that the editors may continue to

find means to publish other volumes as valuable as this one.

"Walder" should be Walden (pp. 188, 216). An excellent re-

production of a portrait of Bishop by Horace Harding is used

for the frontispiece and a picture of the Hiram Powers bust of

Bishop may be found on page 80. The Miami University of 1838

is pictured facing page 56.

WILLIAM E. SMITH,

Miami University.

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Old Chillicothe; Shawnee and Pioneer History; Conflicts and

Romances in the Northwest Territory. By William Albert

Galloway. (Xenia, Ohio, The Buckeye Press, 1934. 336p.

illus. $3.00.)

The late William Albert Galloway's Old Chillicothe contains

a Foreword by Charles Burleigh Galbreath, former secretary

and librarian of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society, in which the fitness of the author for the subject is set

forth. Galloway was a direct descendant of a member of Gen-

eral George Rogers Clark's expedition against the Indian towns

in 1782, who afterwards made the region his home, and whose

family became intimately acquainted with the noble Tecumtha

(Tecumseh), Shawnee chieftain.

The book is introduced by Thomas Wildcat Alford, great

grand-son of Tecumtha, head committeeman and custodian of the

tribal records of the absentee Shawnees, who, having been con-

sulted in the writing of every detail of the book, assures the reader

that the record is authentic. He writes:

. . . many of my nation's traditions have been given a first oppor-

tunity to become written history. It is a matter of great satisfaction that

its author came to us to obtain our traditions of the place, and our part in

the stirring events of the story, and that at a time when the old traditions

of our people are fast disappearing, owing to influences of civilization;

and that he has faithfully interpreted them.

Having paid his respects to Clark, Simon Kenton and Daniel

Boone, the author gives in detail the history of the Shawnee with

pertinent information of their primitive life and customs, and

then relates at length extremely interesting stories of their chiefs

and notable braves, with particular attention paid to the life of

Tecumtha, who is described as "a hunter, warrior, orator and

Indian statesman. A true son of his Spartan race, he was undis-

mayed, unfaltering and uncompromising in the final years of the

struggle of his people to retain the heritage of their fathers."

Dramatic incidents in the lives of the pioneers associated

with Chillicothe, which is now the name of an Ohio city, but

which was originally the name of a tribe of the Shawnee and

was given to several of the localities where their towns were built,

are retold or published for the first time, furnishing a valuable

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reservoir for historians, authors, teachers, and others to draw

upon.

To the book is appended three vocabularies of the Shawnee

language made at different times; an account of the Alford trans-

lation of the four Gospels into the Shawnee tongue; a genealogy

of the decendants of Tecumtha, and a list of Authorities Quoted

with an Index which might have been more detailed and therefore

more valuable. The documentation is adequate.  C. L. W.

 

Journal of Capt. Daniel Bradley: An Epic of the Ohio Frontier,

with Copious Comment. By Frazer E. Wilson. (Greenville,

Ohio, Frank H. Jobes and Son, 1935. 76p. illus. $.50).

Mr. Frazer Wilson of Greenville, Ohio, who has been in-

terested for years in the history of Greenville and the surround-

ing region, has rendered a service to history by securing and edit-

ing this Journal of Captain Bradley who was engaged in the mili-

tary expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne against the Indians in

western Ohio from 1791 to 1794. Captain Bradley's Journal be-

gins with August 22, 1791. The journey described started from

southwestern Connecticut to Fort Pitt, then down the Ohio River

to Fort Washington at Cincinnati, from Fort Washington north

through western Ohio to the Maumee River and return by way of

Fort Wayne and Greenville to Fort Washington, and then through

Lexington, Kentucky, and Cumberland Gap to Philadelphia and

Connecticut, a total distance of approximately two thousand miles.

Mr. Wilson's accompanying notes are of much value in illu-

minating the text of the Journal.

H. L.

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