Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

Amphibians of Ohio, Part I. The Frogs and Toads (Order

Salientia). By Charles F. Walker. Ohio State Museum Science

Bulletin, Vol. I, No. 3 Columbus, Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society, 1946. 109p. $1.00.)

Teachers, students, naturalists, and herpetologists will be

glad to know that this much needed paper on the frogs and toads

of Ohio has at last made its appearance. Although the numbers

of kinds of this Order of tailless amphibians (Salientia) native

to Ohio are very limited, the numbers of individuals seem to be

almost limitless and from sheer weight of numbers, if for no

other reason, they are the best known of the amphibians. They

are far more familiar to the average layman than the more elusive

salamanders, for who has not heard the singing of thousands of

frogs and toads when these interesting animals congregate at the

ponds, lakes, and streams during the late winter and early spring?

The Frogs and Toads of Ohio is a model state report. It is

informative and the format is excellent, and it will appeal to both

the scientist and the layman. Everyone who reads this fine work

will undoubtedly look forward to the publication of Part Two.

The Salamanders of Ohio.

The introduction considers the classification of the amphib-

ians as an Order, gives an historical account of Ohio papers and

authors, acknowledgements, and explanations of the arrange-

ments of the information as given for each species. The excellent

keys for identification of adult frogs and toads will be welcomed

by teacher and student alike. There is also a key for the identi-

fication of tadpoles, with illustrations of many of the species in

the larval stages. Each species is listed separately, and under the

subheading the following information is given: identification

(short diagnosis): description of tadpole: habitat and life-his-

tories; distribution in Ohio; range in North America; Ohio lo-

cality records and where to find the specimen that forms the basis

for the records; general and Ohio literature references. The

413

• 1
 

414   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

known distribution in Ohio of each of the fourteen species of

frogs and toads listed (with the exception of the Spadefoot) is

clearly shown on outline maps.

From the foregoing information about this publication, the

reader might conclude that this Ohio State Museum    Science

Bulletin, is intended for specialists only, but such is not the case.

Although this is a scientific publication and technical terminology

is, of necessity, used, the paper also contains a wealth of popular

information. Also pictures of the fourteen species listed are

included in the work.

Ralph Dury, Director

Cincinnati Museum of Natural History

Cultural Story of an American City: Cleveland, Part I,

During the Log Cabin Phases, 1796-1825, Part II, During the

Canal Days, 1825-1850; Part III, Under the Shadow of a Civil

War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877. By Elbert Jay Benton.

(Cleveland, Western Reserve Historical Society, 1943, 1944,

1946. 3 v.)

In recent years much scholarly interest has been shown in

the writing of the history of American cities, as is evidenced, for

example, by Professor Bessie L. Pierce's History of Chicago

[1673-1871], 2 vols. (New York, 1937-40), which is a careful,

documented study based upon great numbers of newspapers and

other contemporary sources.

If a similarly ambitious effort had been attempted for the

largest city in Ohio, no one would have been better qualified for

the task than the late Elbert Jay Benton. Practically all of his

professional life as an historian was spent in the city of Cleve-

land. There, as professor of history and dean of the Graduate

School of Western Reserve University, and then as acting head

of the Western Reserve Historical Society, he was intimately

connected with the educational life of the city. There too he

was personally acquainted with many who had helped and were

helping to shape the destiny of the city. He, moreover, had per-

sonally witnessed tremendous changes in its life and growth.

• 2
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     415

 

In venturing to produce the volumes here reviewed, Dr. Ben-

ton, however, did not attempt a monumental history of the me-

tropolis of Ohio on Lake Erie. He, moreover, did not endeavor

to re-evaluate much of the material found in the older histories,

such as Charles Whittlesey, The Early History of Cleveland

(Cleveland, 1867). He, furthermore, did not seek to tell the story

of its rich and varied political past.

Rather, Dr. Benton confined this project to the "cultural

story," basing his account in part upon numerous original docu-

ments (with many maps and illustrations) preserved in the Wes-

tern Reserve Historical Society Library.

Part I, dealing with "the Log Cabin Phases, 1796-1825,"

traces the passing of the early Indian camps in the vicinity, the

beginnings of settlement by pioneers from Connecticut, and the

founding of such cultural agencies as the church, the academy,

and the newspaper. By 1825, however, Cleveland was yet one of

the smaller towns on the Western Reserve, being surpassed in

population by a dozen or more communities which, having "pro-

gressed farther from the frontier state, enjoyed a higher cultural

life, conditions more nearly like the old home towns of Connecti-

cut." (p. 46)

Part II, dealing with "the Canal Days, 1825-1850," includes

an account of the building of the Ohio Canal which was to give

Cleveland a decided advantage, during a crucial period, over many

neighboring towns. By 1850 its population had come to be al-

most three times that of the next largest city on the Reserve.

Brooklyn (Ohio City), which was later to be absorbed into the

larger community. By the middle of the century some beginnings

had been made in a development of interest in music, science, and

the arts, including the drama. Yet the chief cultural agencies

were the churches, especially those of the Episcopal and Presby-

terian denominations.

Part III is concerned with the period of slavery controversy,

war, and reconstruction, 1850-1877. By this time the railroads

had ushered in a new era and iron ore carriers were contributing

• 3
 

416   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

to the development of trade and manufacturing in the city. With

greater economic activity there came of course greater wealth

and the manifestations of it in more costly homes and churches

and in more sophisticated cultural interests. A picture (facing

p. 8) of homes on Superior Street (near the present Hollenden

Hotel) indicates the classical taste of the Greek Revival Period,

and other pictures give ample evidence of the famed reputation

of Euclid Street (Avenue) as one of the stately residential thor-

oughfares of the nation. But by the early 1870's business was

beginning to invade the section adjacent to the Public Square. and

soon the first removals of prominent citizens to outlying areas

began to take place.

With its influential leadership of New England background,

Cleveland did not escape the tensions of the abolition movement

or of the Civil War Period. The war, however, brought the

intensification of an economic revolution by which Cleveland

profited greatly. Business expansion, stimulated by the activities

of John D. Rockefeller and others, furnished the economic basis

for greater interest in music and the drama. These cultural activ-

ities in turn owed much to the energetic efforts of John Ellsler,

manager of the Academy of Music and, for a time, of the Euclid

Avenue Opera House which was termed (1876) by Edward A.

Sothern "the most perfect theatre in America or England."

Already by 1850 large numbers of Irish and Germans were

residing in the city, and by 1876 the majority of the population

was of foreign birth or parentage. As yet, however, immigrants

from southern and eastern Europe were few in numbers. and

families of old Connecticut stock still dominated the professional

and business life.

As a whole the story told in these volumes is an interesting

one both for the scholar and layman. It is to be regretted that

the sudden death of the author prevented his completion of the

account of more recent decades.

Francis Phelps Weisenburger

Department of History

Ohio State University

• 4
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     417

 

The Ancient Ohioans and Their Neighbors, By Raymond C.

Vietzen (Wahoo, Nebraska, Ludi Printing Co., 1946.  439p-

$7.00.)

It is always difficult for professionals to judge the work of

amateurs, since the former are likely to demand a high standard

of interpretation and scientific acumen which the latter are not in

a position to adopt. In the eastern United States, however, sev-

eral "amateur" archaeologists--notably  Langford of Illinois,

Webb of Louisiana, and Lilly of Indiana--have made an effort

to secure scientific outlooks and training, and while these men

have no academic connections, their work can stand with the best

of the "professional" productions.

The present volume unfortunately cannot be placed in this

class. In conception and execution it is muddled, uncertain, and

inaccurate.  In an expensive book which purports to tell the

story of Ohio archaeology there is not a single reference to the

informative exhibits and charts in the Ohio State Museum; no

reference to any archaeological work later than Mills' and Fowke's

(Not one of the seven archaeologists listed on page 27 as having

influence on the author is living). The general chapters display

a fairly accurate view of the Asiatic origin of the Indian, the

American Indian identity of the "mound builders," and similar

established facts, but the points are confused and vitiated by

grossly inaccurate detail and repeated mention of "Mound

Builders," the use of "Mongols" for Mongoloid, and similar-

malapropisms. In the discussions of the Fort Ancient culture

there is no mention of Griffin's monumental study. The Fort

Ancient Aspect, one of the most detailed and exhaustive archaeo-

logical monographs in print. On pages 20-22 the author pur-

ports to give a brief description of all Ohio archaeology, but this

merely simmers down to a recital of the numbers of mounds in

various localities. There is neither the slightest recognition of

the distinctive Ohio cultural horizons nor of the basic cultural

patterns for Eastern archaeology as a whole. Again, a single visit

to the State Museum could have provided Mr. Vietzen with all

the needed information.

The objectives of the book are mixed. On the one hand

• 5
 

418   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

(p. 17) the author seems to be addressing the work to his fellow

collectors, and on the whole the volume is merely a discoursive,

chatty potpourri of unrelated items of information. On the other

hand (pp. 166-170), the author seems to feel he is a professional

among professionals, writing a definitive work on the affiliations

of Ohio prehistoric Indians. Whatever the book may be, it is

certainly not that.

About half the volume consists of a series of chapters on

random subjects. Most of these are shot through with inaccur-

acies and inadequate information. The only ones that might be

of some possible use in scientific archaeology are those written by

Arthur Altick on his explorations of small Hopewellian mounds,

but the illustrations are too crude for careful comparative use.

The other half of the book consists of photographs of collectors'

items, garnered from Ohio and practically everywhere else.

Strange bed-fellows abound: On page 92 a Woodland burial from

Fulton County, Illinois, faces an Erie burial (p. 93) from

northern Ohio. In the pottery section one finds pictures of

Peruvian vessels, Hopewellian jars, Middle Mississippi pots, Cad-

doan bottles, and generalized Woodland pottery.

Among the rich store of misleading information in the first

half of the book the following may be mentioned: In several

places (e.g., pp. 25, 167) the author suggests that the Cherokee

are the "remnants of the Mound Builders." Here Vietzen seems

to think of the "mound builders" as some special race, apart from

the historic tribes, when actually all Southeastern Indians passed

through a mound-building phase. The Cherokees undoubtedly

built mounds, as did all their neighbors. The historic tribes were

simply the survivors of a previous stage of cultural development

which had as one feature the practice of constructing mounds

for various purposes.

We also find statements like the following: "The Mound

Builders may have been driven from their homes in the Ohio

valley and thence wandered south into Mexico. . . . This theory

has been advanced by several authorities. . . ." (p. 25).

• 6
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     419

 

This "theory" is patently absurb and no "authority" ever recom-

mended it. The influence went in precisely the opposite direction.

On pages 64-66 the myth concerning the Hopewell and Fort

Ancient people engaging in war is once more revived, in spite

of the author's recognition of the fact that the Fort was con-

structed by Hopewellians and is distinct from the village site cul-

ture. If Vietzen had merely inspected Morgan's excellent chrono-

logical culture sequence chart on the second floor of the State

Museum he could have eliminated this misleading and confused

interpretation. The best analyses of the relative dates of the two

cultures place them about 300 years apart.

The author also insists on telling the reader at length about

his delightful experiences while digging a Middle Mississippi site

in Kentucky--a site of a culture unrelated in time and cultural

affiliation to Hopewellian. Again he succeeds in thoroughly con-

fusing the picture by merging the discussion of Hopewell burial

mounds into Middle Mississippi domiciliary mounds (p. 34).

Here again a little reading in recent issues of Amercan Antiquity

(which often prints the work of "amateurs") and an elementary

perusal of recent monographic studies might have cleared up the

muddled viewpoint.

Everyone knows that a good, concise, well-illustrated, and

simply-written manual of all Ohio archaeology is needed. If an

"amateur" can beat the State Museum to the gun so much the

better for the amateur. The reviewer holds no particular brief for

professional archaeology as such--he merely requests that whether

the work is done by professionals or amateurs it be accurate, in-

formed, and show some familiarity with the relevant literature.

Mr. Vietzen had an excellent opportunity to write a much needed

book, but his present effort can have no conceivable importance

save within the ranks of his fellow collectors in the State. The

author's real point of view is pretty clear from his Introduction.

where he claims that Ohio collectors, because they have "lived

in their respective sections since their childhood and have observed

the types of artifacts found, over a period of years . . ." should

• 7
 

420  OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

be heard and their opinions respected. A thousand years of

contemplation of artifacts will not contribute one whit to the

major goal of scientific archaeology, the reconstruction of history.

John W. Bennett

Department of Sociology

Ohio State University

Proving Ground: A Novel of Civil War Days in the West.

By Leone Lowden. (New York, Robert M. McBride & Company,

c1946. Cloth. $3.00.)

The War between the States has furnished the theme for

countless books, both factual and fictitious. The present novel, as

the sub-title indicates, deals with the war in the West, an aspect

of the conflict which has received little attention from historical

novelists. This fact induced the author to write a story concern-

ing a period in which she has had a lifelong interest.  Mrs.

Lowden is an Indiana woman, who, to use her own phrase, "grew

up on the Civil War," and has steeped herself in its history. Her

first-hand knowledge of local tradition, thorough-going research.

and keen imagination have combined to produce a dramatic novel

of the times.

As in historical novels, generally, fact and fiction are intri-

cately interwoven, and chronology is sometimes altered to suit the

needs of the narrative. In the main, however, the background

material is authentic. Sylvan Grove, the scene of most of the

action, is an imaginary town, but Ripley County in which it was

supposed to be situated, is an actual county in southern Indiana

where the Confederacy had many sympathizers and active sup-

porters. A great deal of attention is focused on the activities of

certain pro-Southern organizations as the Knights of the Golden

Circle, Butternuts, and Copperheads. The close cooperation of

Vallandigham and other conspirators in Ohio, Indiana, and Illi-

nois with the leaders of the Confederacy is emphasized. The

author shows the importance of this movement in the West in dis-

couraging enlistment, encouraging desertion from  the Union

army, and in sending food and other supplies across the Ohio

• 8
 

BOOK REVIEWS                     421

 

River to aid the rebellion. The movement was climaxed by an

almost successful plot to seize the Indiana capital and assassinate

the governor, Oliver P. Morton.

The Copperheads had their representatives in Sylvan Grove

in the persons of Brant Taylor, William Neal, Carrie Overturf,

and Ben Platt. Arrayed against them were the loyal Unionists

typified by Ezra Overturf, Nathaniel Hull, his son Arne, and the

younger Neal boys. Will Neal represented conscientious objectors.

Union defeats on the battlefield strengthened the peace-

without-victory movement. Then the tide turned with victories

of the Union forces at Shiloh, Missionary Ridge, and Lookout

Mountain. These names become for the reader more than mere

names on a list of battles or dots on a campaign map because Will

Neal and his brothers, Rod and Thad, lived through the sights,

sounds, and smells of battle and witnessed the sufferings of man

and beast in the deadly conflict. Their father led the difficult and

triumphant charge up Missionary Ridge.

General John Hunt Morgan and his rebel raiders brought the

war home to Sylvan Grove and to the very door of the Neal cabin

when they crossed the Ohio River and sped unchecked across

southern Indiana and Ohio in July 1863.  Their coming was

heralded by wild rumors which terrorized the inhabitants along

the route, and they plundered and pillaged as they went. This

episode is the most dramatic of the war.

Mrs. Lowden's principal characters are well drawn, and some

of them are fairly complex. This is true especially of William

Neal and Carrie Overturf.   Neal, brilliant and charming but

swayed by revenge and personal opportunism, played his various

roles with equal ease. His conscience troubled him only occas-

ionally, and even then he soon stifled it and went on with his play-

acting undisturbed. In the end he performed two unselfish deeds,

which served in a degree to redeem an otherwise despicable

character, and thus escaped all too lightly the consequences of his

crimes. The arrogant Mrs. Overturf betrayed her better im-

pulses and yielded to pride and passion which made her the tool

of Confederate agents and brought her to a remorseful end. The

• 9
 

422   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

moral conflict is less apparent in Arne Hull, but he too had some

admirable traits to offset his vices. On the other hand, Brant

Taylor and Ben Platt are unmitigated scoundrels while Ezra

Overturf and Nathaniel Hull are without a flaw.

Other characters are discriminatingly portrayed. Among

them are Mammy Sue, a typical southern mammy, and her

mulatto son, Solly, who longed for actual freedom; Willy Nelson,

the dashing young rebel cavalryman; and Jules Neal, who at last

"got his Johnny Reb." Finally, there are the women of the Neal

family to whom the war brought suffering and grief: the invalid

mother, Elizabeth, crude and domineering, with a grudge against

life; Molly, who grew up too rapidly; and Nancy Anne, vivacious,

courageous, resourceful, and independent, who dominate the

pages of the story.

Two features of the book are, in the opinion of the reviewer,

to be regretted. The vernacular is unbelievably crude, and some

of the incidents are unnecessarily sordid. With these two limita-

tions, Mrs. Lowden has produced an excellent novel which makes

a significant contribution to the literature of the War between

the States.

S. Winifred Smith

Ohio State Museum

• 10