Ohio History Journal

Book Notes

 

 

 

Covered Wooden Truss Bridges of Greene County, Ohio. A collection of photos

and data of a vanishing era. By James H. Shell. (Xenia, Ohio: Greene County

Historical Society, 1998. 76p.; illustrations, bibliography.) At first glance this

slender volume appears to be just another covered bridge picture book. Many of

this genre emphasize numbingly repetitive photos of bridge exteriors, and, in-

deed, the lead section of this book includes the expected "photo gallery." But this

publication actually strives to move beyond such superficiality. A chapter enti-

tled "What's Inside a Covered Bridge?" includes not only a brief descriptive text

but also photos of the various truss designs used in Greene County bridges.

Biographies of several important builders are included. The author's desire to

make this a Dragnet-like compilation of "just the facts" led to the inclusion of a

highly detailed tabulation of all known covered bridges ever built in the county.

The level of documentation, including name, location, builder, truss type, size,

cost, and a compendium of miscellaneous information gleaned from primary doc-

uments, is unprecedented in covered bridge books and greatly increases the vol-

ume's value to engineering historians.

 

Ohio Historical Society                                David A. Simmons

 

 

John Ogden, Abolitionist and Leader in Southern Education. By Dennis K.

McDaniel. By Dennis K. McDaniel. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical

Society, 1997. viii + 138p.; illustrations, notes, chronology, bibliography, in-

dex.) John Ogden (1824-1910) lived an exciting and varied life. According to the

author, he was principal, president, or superintendent of nine different schools,

county school systems, normal schools, or states departments of public instruc-

tion. Most notably he served as the first Superintendent-later Principal and

President-of Fisk School (now Fisk University). In the years after the War

Between the States, Ogden labored as Superintendent of Education for the

Freedman's Bureau in Kentucky and Tennessee. McDaniel noted that Ogden has

been overlooked by abolitionist biographers, most notably James McPherson in

The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP, who included in

his work both the second and third presidents of Fisk but not Ogden. This tiny bi-

ography is an effort to educate about one of the lesser known but equally worthy

nineteenth-century educational reformers and early civil-rights activists. Ogden's

colorful life is reason enough to read this work, but it also will meet the needs of

Ohio history enthusiasts as well.

 

Galloway, Ohio                                          James S. Baugess

 

 

Zane Grey: Romancing the West. By Stephen J. May. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio

University Press, 1997, xvi + 180p.; illustrations, notes, selected references, in-

dex.) Literary historian, essayist, and novelist, Stephen J. May explores the en-

during popularity of Zane Grey by analyzing the writer's life and novels. Placing

Grey firmly in the tradition of romance writing, May critically examines the nov-

• 1
 

els showing how Grey's childhood, emotional life, and personal philosophies in-

fluenced his work. A refreshing look at a writer who, often overshadowed by his

personal mystique and that of his romances, proves a complex and intriguing fig-

ure in twentieth century American literature.

 

Ohio Historical Society                                     Laura Russell

 

 

Livingston and the Tomato. By A. W. Livingston. With a foreword and ap-

pendix by Andrew F. Smith. (Columbus:   The Ohio State University Press.

xxxviii + 226p.; illustrations, index, appendix.) Ohio lays claim to the world's

largest tomato processing plant (Fremont), so it seems fitting that much of the

pioneering work in the development of the tomato as we now know it came about

in Ohio. Readers and backyard gardeners may be surprised if not amused to learn

how extensive and detailed tomato cultivation has been over the past two centuries

in American agriculture. This soft-bound volume consists of a foreword and

appendix written by Andrew F. Smith who, as a teacher of culinary history at the

New School in New York and author of The Tomato in American and Pure Ketchup:

The History of America's National Condiment, is eminently qualified to bring us

this topic. Tracing the development of the tomato in America, Smith focuses on

Ohio's many contributions and in particular the mercurial career of A. W.

Livingston, a Reynoldsburg seeds man. The appendix describes an astonishing

215 tomato varieties offered for sale before 1900. Yet it is the meat of the book,

Livingston and the Tomato, first published in 1893, that provides readers with de-

scriptions and illustrations of the many tomato varieties he developed. For the

reader, only the palate is left wanting after digesting this healthy diet of tomato

historiography.

 

Ohio Historical Society                                Stephen C. Gordon

 

 

Maps of the Shaker West: A Journey of Discovery. A collection of maps and

histories of better known and lesser known Shaker sites in Kentucky, Ohio,

Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan beginning in 1800. By Martha Boice, Dale

Covington, and Richard Spence. (Dayton, Ohio: Knot Garden Press, 1997. x +

140p.; illustrations, appendices, further reading, index.) This book "represents a

serious effort to document all the Shaker sites in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana,

Illinois, and Michigan. It ties the sites related to the Kentucky revival to the es-

tablishment of the Shaker movement in this part of the country." The well-docu-

mented text by Boice is greatly amplified by the maps and line drawings by

Covington and Spence.

 

Ohio Historical Society                                     Laura Russell

 

 

Walking the Steps of Cincinnati: A guide to the Queen City's scenic and his-

toric secrets. By Mary Anna DuSablon. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998.

xx + 165p.; illustrations, bibliography, index.) Cincinnati, as the author astutely

notes in her preface, has erroneously been called the City of Seven Hills. Truth is,

at least in geologic terms, it is a city of valleys carved from a plain, earning the

more dubious nickname of "Landslide City USA." Whatever moniker one prefers,

• 2
 

Cincinnati and its environs still boast more than 400 sets of public steps and

more than 2 miles of risers, making it second to San Francisco in the number of

public steps. Walking the Steps is a field guide to thirty-five of the most scenic

public steps in twenty-six urban neighborhoods. Maps can be somewhat difficult

to decipher but there are excellent written descriptions of each tour. Generously

illustrated with both contemporary and historic black and white photos, as well as

a fine bibliography and index, Walking the Steps challenges the cardiovascularly

curious to new levels of fitness. To truly see a city such as Cincinnati and all its

"nooks and crannies," those that are able must park the car, walk the side streets,

and take the steps.

 

Ohio Historical Society                                Stephen C. Gordon

 

 

The following books have been received by Ohio History which might be of inter-

est to our readers:

 

Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott. By John S. D.

Eisenhower. (New York: The Free Press, 1997. xiv + ⁴⁶⁴p.; illustrations,

notes, bibliography, appendices, index.)

C-Span's Traveling Tocqueville's America: Retracing the 17-state tour that in-

spired Alexis de Tocqueville's political classic Democracy in America.

(Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. xi + 188p.;

illustrations, credits, a note on sources.)

Grandpa's Gone: The Adventures of Daniel Buchwalter in the Western Army 1862-

1865.   By Jerry Frey.   Introduction by Wiley Sword.   (Shippensburg,

Pennsylvania: Burd Street Press, 1998. xix + 227p.; illustrations, notes, bibli-

ography, index.)

From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy

Research Project Winners. Edited by Pamela E. Mack. (Washington, D.C.:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1998. xxiii + 427p.; illustra-

tions, notes, index.)

Home Material: Nineteenth-Century Regional Women's Fiction.   By Sandra

Parker. (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1998.

viii + ²40p.)

Changing History: Afro-Cuban Cabildos and Societies of Color in the Nineteenth

Century. By Philip A. Howard. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University

Press, 1998. xxii + 227p.; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.)

Roosevelt's Children: The Story of My Generation. By Edward D. Phillips. (New

York: Vantage Press, 1998. 233p.; appendix.)

Gunner with Stonewall: Reminiscences of William Thomas Poague, Lieutenant,

Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel of Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia,

CSA, 1861-65. A Memoir Written for His Children in 1903. Edited by Monroe

F. Cockrell. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. xxxii + 181p.; il-

lustrations, notes, index.) REPRINT.

• 3
 
• 4