Ohio History Journal

EDITORIALANA.

THE DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS. In this QUARTERLY we publish the first of a number of articles we shall from time to time reproduce from the collection of the famous Draper manuscripts in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society, located at Madison, Wisconsin. A large portion of these manuscripts, there preserved, pertain to the early history of Ohio. The past summer (1910) it was the privilege of the Editor of the QUARTERLY to visit Madison and through the courtesy of Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary and Superintendent of the Wisconsin Historical Society, certain of the Ohioan manuscripts were selected for transcription and publication in this and future numbers of the Ohio State Archae- ological and Historical Society QUARTERLY. Many of these have never before been made public and we are thus enabled to present our readers much valuable history at "first hand." What are the Draper manuscripts? We answer that question from the article by Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites on "The Draper Manuscripts," published in his volume of "Essays on Western History." Lyman Copeland Draper was a native of Erie County, New York, the year of his birth being 1815. His paternal grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier and his maternal grandfather fell in the War of 1812, in which contest his father also took part. The lad's taste therefore for historical lore of his own country was a natural inheritance. AS a boy he heard the tales of frontier warfare from those who had par- ticipated therein, and he read the stories of the colonies. When only eighteen years of age he began to write historical sketches for the newspapers. In his nineteenth year he entered college at Granville, Ohio, now known as Denison University. After two years of undergraduate work, lack of means compelled him to leave and seek aid elsewhere. This aid he received from Peter A. Ramsen, who had married Draper's cousin. The well-to-do relative, appreciating the boy's ambition and ability, placed him in the Hudson River Seminary, at Stockport, New York, where he pursued his studies "which were followed by an extended course of private reading, chiefly historical," -the historians of the Western border. In 1838 he entered upon the plan of writing a series (467)

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468       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

of biographies of trans-Alleghany pioneers, from material to be gathered

by original investigation and research. This investigation and search of

material he assiduously followed to the end of his life, "but," says

Thwaites, "in the end he had only investigated and collected, and the

biographies were never written." But he left a wealth of material for

others to use. He entered into correspondence with the prominent

pioneers, then still living, and (in 1840) began to supplement his cor-

respondence with journeys of discovery and of interviews with persons

able to impart information and historical data. These journeys slow

and tedious in those days of primitive travel extended throughout New

York, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. The result was a vast

accumulation of "old diaries, letters, account-books, or other family

documents which might cast sidelights on the romantic story of western

settlement." He also visited and took notes among aged warriors of

several Indian tribes -the Six Nations and the Ohio tribesmen. For

forty years-1840-1880- he toiled unceasingly to gather this material,

much if not most of which, would have been lost to the student and

scholar, but for his industry. During the early period of his researches

Draper drifted about, engaging in various literary enterprises, mostly

historical, and he made his home in several localities, at one time (1841)

in Pontotoc, Mississippi, where he was joined by a young lawyer, who

had been a fellow-student at Granville, Ohio, one Charles H. Larrabee.

For a while he was an official clerk at Buffalo, then for a time was in

Baltimore and  (in 1844) at Philadelphia, where his extensive and

valuable collection of historical material, prints and books, came to

the knowledge of George Bancroft, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, S. G. Drake,

Francis Parkman, Jared Sparks, Benjamin Lossing and others. With

these he carried on correspondence, and from them received encourage-

ment to proceed in his mission. Lossing even entering with him into a

proposed literary co-partnership for the joint production of some of the

biographies of early prominent pioneers.

In January, 1849, the Wisconsin Historical Society was organized at

Madison. Larrabee, then a circuit judge in Wisconsin, became one of

the founders of the Society and through his recommendation and

influence Lyman Draper was induced to settle in Madison, to which

place his historical property was transported and placed in the archives

of the Wisconsin Historical Society, of which famous society he

became the secretary. In 1886 he resigned his secretarial office, "turning

over to the charge of his successor a reference library of national

reputation," to which were to be added the volumes of Wisconsin His-

torical Collections, which he edited and which are generally recognized as

ranking with the best American publications of this character.

As we learn from the sketch of Dr. Thwaites, the result of Mr.

Draper's efforts, now upon the shelves of the Manuscript Room in the

Wisconsin Historical Library, is a collection numbering four hundred

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Editorialana.                       469

 

folio volumes, comprising "some 10,000 fools-cap pages of notes of

the recollections of frontier warriors and pioneers, either written by

themselves, or taken down from their own lips; and wellnigh 5,000 pages

more of original manuscript journals, memorandum books, and old

letters written by nearly all the leading border heroes of the West."

This collection under the direction of Dr. Thwaites has been classified,

mounted in folios, catalogued and indexed in a most accurate and

satisfactory manner, so as to place it easily within the use of students,

desiring to consult the contents.

Dr. Draper died on August 26, 1891, after a life work, which

did not fulfill his ambition or plans-as he had ever hoped to write

and publish a series of complete biographies of pioneer heroes, but which

left to succeeding workers the foundation for many an historical edifice,

that never could have been erected but for "the unusual literary bricks

and stone" gathered by him. Dr. Thwaites, whose privilege it has been

to be the co-laborer and successor of Dr. Draper, to whose character

and life work Thwaites pays splendid tribute, describing him as "under-

sized, far from robust; a bundle of nervous activity, with delicate cut

features, which exhibited great firmness of character and the powers of

intense mental concentration, readily brightened with the most winning

of smiles."

 

 

MEMORIAL TO RUFUS PUTNAM.

[The Rufus Putnam Memorial Association, with headquarters at

Worcester, Massachusetts, held its tenth annual meeting at Rutland, Mass.,

the home of Rufus Putnam, on September 27, 1910. As the proceedings

interest the members of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society, we publish the same as reported in the Worcester Daily Telegram,

on September 28.-EDITOR.]

The 10th annual meeting of the Rufus Putnam Memorial Association

was held in the Rufus Putnam home. The Worcester members and some

from other places came in 10 automobiles. They left the Worcester

Club about 11.30 o'clock.

The meeting was stirred by the address of Senator Charles S.

Dana of Marietta, 0., and remarks by Prof. A. B. Hulbert of Marietta

College. President G. Stanley Hall called the meeting to order at 12.25

o'clock. Secretary Eben F. Thompson read the records of the last annual

meeting. Vice-President Hon. Henry A. Marsh spoke of the death of

Henry E. Hill, treasurer of the association, telling of his untiring

efforts for the good of the association. He then read the report of

the treasurer, which showed the balance on hand $178.16.

Then followed the election of officers for the year 1910-11. These

were chosen: President, G. Stanley Hall; Vice-President, Hon. Henry A.

Marsh; Clerk and Secretary, Eben F. Thompson; Treasurer, Edward G.

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