BOOK REVIEWS
Guide to the Material in The National
Archives. (Washington,
D. C., Government Printing Office, 1940. 303p. Paper,
40¢;
cloth, 70??.)
The first general guide to the materials
in The National Ar-
chives made its appearance in 1938 as an
Appendix to the Third
Annual Report of the Archivist of the United States. The present
work is the successor to that initial
guide and constitutes a key to
some 320,000 linear feet of records, or
those accessioned up to
December 31, 1939. It must be kept in
mind that the task of
organizing, classifying and cataloging
this mass of records is still
incomplete and that the guide is
tentative.
In the main portion of the guide only
those groups of rec-
ords are included where sufficient time
has elapsed to afford an
adequate description. Unarranged or
complex groups are listed
in the Appendix. In both the main
portion and the Appendix,
entries are made under the names of
government agencies. In the
former, an effort has been made to enter
the description of the
records under the names of the agencies
that last performed the
functions reflected by the records,
while in the Appendix the ar-
rangement is by the names of the
agencies from which the records
were received. The main section is
divided into four parts: the
Congress, the executive departments, the
independent agencies,
and the judiciary.
There is a brief introductory statement
for each agency deal-
ing with its history and functions.
Following the introductory
statement are descriptions of record
groups, which provide infor-
mation on such points as the type,
subject matter, chronological
coverage, quantity, completeness, and
arrangement of the records.
The index contains a large number of
cross references to re-
lated material and will be useful in
bringing together records deal-
ing with the same subject matter. The
user should be warned,
however, that the index refers only to
names and subjects men-
(171)
172 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tioned in the guide, and since the guide
does not afford a detailed
statement of the contents of all records
listed, it follows that the
index cannot be considered complete for
all the material in The
National Archives. Supplemental material
will be published quar-
terly in National Archives Accessions
beginning in 1940.
W. D. O.
The Clash of Political Ideals. A Source Book on Democracy,
Communism and the Totalitarian State.
By Albert R. Chand-
ler. (New York, D. Appleton-Century Co.,
1940. 273P.)
This volume, by a professor of
philosophy at the Ohio State
University, is made up of some 20 selections ranging from Thu-
cydides on Athenian Democracy to
Herbert Hoover on American
Individualism. Selections from John Locke on Civil Govern-
ment, Thomas Jefferson on Democracy, John Stuart Mill
on Lib-
erty, Walt Whitman on the Prospects of Democracy, The Com-
munist Manifesto, and liberal selections from the speeches and
writings of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin
afford the reader a con-
venient way of learning something first
hand of the rival ideals of
democracy, communism, fascism, nazism,
and the Japanese nation.
As the author points out in his preface,
such a book could
appear only where the ideal of free
discussion prevails. Totali-
tarian states do not wish their subjects
to hear the case of their
opponents but democracy permits the
public to hear all sides of
every issue and has faith that the
public will in the long run choose
the good and reject the evil.
Professor Chandler feels that in judging
the ideas connected
with a social movement it is unsafe to
trust the descriptions given
by its opponents. Even the most just and
intelligent men can
rarely give an adequate account of an
opponent's view, and in the
bitter and ardent struggle of our time,
many of the debaters and
propagandists are far from just or
intelligent. It is better to hear
a doctrine expounded by its friends,
still better, by the leaders who
shaped it and gave it currency. In this
volume the leaders of con-
flicting social movements are allowed to
speak for themselves.
W. D. O.
BOOK REVIEWS
173
The Buckeye Country. By Harlan Hatcher. (New York, H. C.
Kinsey and Company, 1940. 325p. Illus. $3.75.)
"You will seldom hear Ohio people
mention the State as
though it were the crown and jewel of
the Republic. We leave
that form of local pride to our
neighbors across the Ohio and the
Great Miami Rivers. I never in my
life," says Harlan Hatcher,
"heard a Buckeye get into his voice
that quaver of ecstasy that is
second nature to a 'Corncracker' when he
mentions his blue grass
and his mountains and his folks. In fact
I never heard an Ohioan
say much about his State one way or
another. Ohio is a stalwart
leader in the nation, wealthy, powerful,
self-assured, and we pro-
ceed quietly from this assumption
without troubling to be vocal
about it."
But despite a seeming taciturnity on the
part of Buckeyes
about their home State quite a few good
books and stories about
Ohio have gotten into print--especially
in recent years. Some of
them have even shown a touch of
sentiment, take for instance
Harlan Hatcher's The Buckeye Country.
It is true Mr. Hatcher
gives a voice to those who saw our seamy
side, like Fortesque
Cuming, and Charles Dickens, and
Sherwood Anderson, but in the
end we know that he is just as proud as
the rest of us of being
an Ohioan.
The Buckeye Country is not meant to be a history. It is a
description and explanation of the State
of Ohio and its citizens
as they live and breathe about us. What
history there is to be
found in the book was put there just to
show how we got this way.
The author devotes a good bit of space
to the different kinds of
early settlers so we'll know what kinds
of "cussedness" we had in
us to start with and he tells us a good
bit about the rivers and
roads and hills and valleys to show how
they got here and why.
Mr. Hatcher was born and raised on the
Ohio River and has a
special feeling for it which is
exhibited in an extra beauty that
enhances his chapter about it. He knows
it and loves it like a
brother. You'll like his story of the
National Road and maybe,
like me, you'll think his last statement
about it is something of a
mirror to the whole book: "But now
as then it is, indeed, not a
174 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lane winding through the states, but a
broad National Road bind-
ing them together with a bond of pride
that even the uninterested
wayfarer must feel when he drives his
jalopy out of a side lane
into this highroad on his way to the
county seat."
In quarters where it was known that
Harlan Hatcher was for
a time State director of the W. P. A.
Writers' Project and it was
noted that the publication dates for The
Buckeye Country and
The Ohio Guide were in the same month some eyebrows were
raised. The Buckeye Country is,
however, in no sense a com-
petitor of the Guide. It might be
thought of, in a sense, as the
soul that had to be left out of an
assembly-belt book like the Guide.
It is a book of stories not of
statistics. The Buckeye Country is a
book to read, not to "refer
to."
If you're a Buckeye and want to know why
your interests are
so diversified, or why you eat so well,
or why you are the sociolo-
gist's American average, read The
Buckeye Country.
K. W. M.
"Noble Fellow," William
Starling Sullivant. By Andrew Denny
Rodgers III. (New York, G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1940. 361p.
Illus.)
The first "first family" of
Franklin County and central Ohio
was the Sullivant family. Lucas
Sullivant was the founder of
Franklinton, the first town in the
district. He was the father of
William Starling Sullivant. Lyne
Starling was one of the four
original proprietors of Columbus and was
influential in securing
the approval of the State legislature to
the establishing of the
State capital on that site. He was
William Starling Sullivant's
uncle. The three sons of Lucas--Joseph,
Michael, and William
Starling--were leaders in many phases of
the life of Columbus
for its first half century. "Noble
Fellow" in addition to being a
biography of "the father of
American Bryology" is the story of
Columbus.
Before he died in 1823 Lucas Sullivant expressed to one of
his sons his belief that within a
hundred years "steam wagons"
would be traveling across his lands at
the rate of fifteen miles an
BOOK REVIEWS 175
hour. If he could have returned he would
have found those
steam wagons going in every direction
across his lands. And he
would have seen also a flourishing city
in which industry, science,
and education, those things which he and
his family wanted most
to encourage, holding a prominent place.
At his death Lucas left
each of his sons independently wealthy
and with wide-spread in-
terests. William Starling Sullivant
managed his interests and
even built on them while starting his
career in the field of
science. His eminence among botanists is
all the more remark-
able for this fact.
As a man of science William Starling
Sullivant was second
to none in the history of Columbus. Dr.
T. C. Mendenhall said
of him: "He was an admirable type
of a species of scientific
man, now, if not almost extinct, at
least relatively much less com-
mon than half a century ago; I mean the
amateur as distinguished
from the professional man of science:
not the dilettante, whose
intellectual excursions are restricted
to two dimensions, but the
man of genius and scholarly instincts,
who, free from the restraint
of a connection with an institution of
learning or other restriction
upon his intellectual liberty, pursues
with ardent zeal the inves-
tigation of some department of science
finding his reward in the
unalloyed delight of original discovery.
Eminent men of science
from different parts of the world were
frequently guests at his
home. It was there that I first had the
privilege of meeting that
most distinguished of American
botanists, Dr. Asa Gray, and I
recall his remark at a subsequent
meeting that Columbus, Ohio,
was known in every country of the
civilized world, not on account
of its city hall, but because it was the
home of William S. Sulli-
vant and Leo Lesquereux."
The story of the development of the
science of bryology (the
study of mosses), the story of a
prominent pioneer family, the
story of the founding of a city and the
growth of frontier indus-
tries are all portrayed in Andrew Denny
Rodger's biography of
William Starling Sullivant. The book
contains a bibliography
with references to the text and a list
of new species of mosses
and liverworts described by
Sullivant. K. W. M.
176 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
For Us the Living. By Bruce Lancaster. (New York, Frederick
A. Stokes Company, 1940. 556p. $2.75.)
"We got a country here. Reckon it's
a purty good one. How
we git it? We got it 'cause folks riz up
an' fought ag'in the
English King. . . . Now them folks as
went out ag'in the King,
they knowed a sight more'd go out than'd
come back. Every one
of 'em knowed he might be one of
them as wouldn't come back.
But they was willin' to do thet so's the
rest c'd live like they fig-
gered folks ought to live. . . . They
done it fer us--all of us. . . .
That's it. Fer us--the livin'." And
so Mr. Bruce Lancaster's Abe
Lincoln, an awkward, ignorant frontier
boy, decided that he must
have been meant to live like "folks
ought to"--to learn and mean
something--to do "more'n jes' grub
an' dub in somebody's field,
hopin' they'll be 'nough with thet an'
what we git to home to keep
us from starvin'." Abe dug out an
education the heart-breaking
way, but the way people were bound to
admire--the way that
made them know he was sincere-that made
them know he could
be trusted in their government--that
made them want him for
their representative.
For Us the Living is the story of Hugh Brace, who was born
with two great handicaps, an arm that
wouldn't grow as it should
and a worse than "good for
nothing" father. How he overcame
them and became a solid useful citizen
of the great and growing
West is worth the price of admission.
But what makes the saga
something special is the scenery and the
supporting characters.
Abe Lincoln stalking across the back of
the stage set with real life
sketches of pioneer Kentucky, southern
Indiana and Illinois, all
but steals the show, as he is meant to
but he keeps his place sur-
prisingly well among the red-blooded
crowd of homespun fron-
tiersmen. The glimpses of New Harmony
and the Owenites, of
revivals and frontier social
institutions in the background are
vivid far above the average.
Thousands of biographies, plays, and
novels have been written
about Lincoln but even if you've read a
hundred you'll enjoy this
one. And if Abe Lincoln isn't now your favorite
hero from his-
tory he will be once you've read For
Us the Living. K. W. M.
BOOK REVIEWS 177
Big Sandy. By Jean Thomas. (New York, Henry Holt and
Company, 1940. 302p.)
Big Sandy is the sixth book in which Jean Thomas has in-
terpreted mountain folk and their ways
to the world-at-large. In
it she tells of the people who live in
the valley watered by the Big
Sandy River, which rises in the west of
Virginia, passes through
the Cumberland Gap, and then flows
northward into the Ohio,
forming as it goes the boundary between
West Virginia and
Kentucky.
Originally settled by English and Scotch
families from Vir-
ginia, the valley was isolated for years
and its inhabitants became
noted for their fierce and independent
temper, well expressed by
their rallying cry of "Big Sandy
against the world."
The region was significant, too, because
its solitariness kept
inviolate among its people for almost
two hundred years eighteenth
century forms of speech, ballads, folk
arts and handicrafts. Pres-
ent-day building of roads through the
valley and the development
of natural resources are inevitably
modifying the terrain of the
country and the habits of the Big
Sandyites, and Miss Thomas's
book, interesting and valuable in
itself, gains in importance because
it portrays a changing scene.
Survivals of odd customs and archaic
expressions are faith-
fully recorded, and the activities and
pastimes which contributed
to the building up of Big Sandy's
distinct culture are graphically
described--"feudin', singin',
minin', churchin', larnin', makin',"
etc.
As readers familiar with Aliss Thomas's
earlier writings will
anticipate, Big Sandy contains
several ballads and folk-tales, fea-
tures which add to the book's interest
and enhance its worth so
far as place among the literature of
provincial America is con-
cerned. L. R. H.
Labor Sculpture. By Max Kalish. Introduction by Emily Gen-
auer. (New York, 1938.)
This volume contains 43 excellent
photographs of the bronze
figures of Max Kalish, an
internationally known sculptor, who
178 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
spent his early years in Cleveland. His
work is realistic but not
"modernistic," and since the
figures are modeled rather than cut
in stone, they have received some
criticism from expressionists.
But both in subject matter and execution
the work is "dis-
tinguished probably most markedly by its
crisp quality of new-
ness." He is interested in labor
for two reasons: first, because in
this highly industrialized age workers
in factories and in the open
are a dominant American type, and
second, because in the per-
formance of their daily tasks, the
structural steel workers swing-
ing on their beams high in the air, the
riveter's controlled muscular
activity and the straining lines of his
stooping body as he thrusts
his pulsating machine into solid stone,
Kalish sees rhythm, grace,
and beauty.
He is also known for his heroic
twelve-foot bronze statue of
Lincoln delivering his Gettysburg
address which stands in the
Public Square in Cleveland. He has done
portraits of distin-
guished international personalities and
his works are represented
in museums and collections all over the
country.
W. D. O.
Schoolmaster of Yesterday. By Millard Fillmore Kennedy and
Alvin E. Harlow. (New York, Whittlesey House, 1940.
359P.)
The glorification of rural and village
life of a generation or
so ago continues. In recent months
publishers have deluged us
with biographic and autobiographic
portrayals of the country
lawyer, the country preacher, the
country doctor, the country ed-
itor. Now comes another--the country
teacher.
Like its predecessors, Schoolmaster
of Yesterday is a homely
book, calculated to bring a flood of
nostalgic memories to all who
know, either at first hand or from the
tales of parents and grand-
parents, what school days were like in
the period when "lickin'
was larnin', and larnin', lickin'."
The narrator is Millard Fillmore, third
and last of the Ken-
nedys to fill the rostrum of a dirict
school in rural Indiana,
though it was Thomas, his grandfather,
who began the three-gen-
BOOK REVIEWS
179
eration dynasty which lasted from 1820 until 1919. His only
formal education "a snatch or two
at a rustic school," Thomas
was nevertheless adjudged by the elders
of his community as "the
very man to instruct their young."
But he had other qualities es-
sential to the backwoods teacher--poise,
and muscle, and decision,
and a happy faculty for enjoying himself
and helping others to do
the same, whether in the rough and
tumble games of the school-
yard or the rustic frolics of the adult
community.
Luxuries were unknown, necessities kept
down to the mini-
mum in those hardy days. Thomas taught,
in an isolated log
cabin, a conglomerate group of pupils,
studying from whatever
books they could assemble from friends
and relatives. The cur-
riculum was dependent upon the whim of
the teacher, for whom
no qualifications were set--except the
ability to control his school,
an undertaking which often called for
brawn as well as brains!
Thomas, however, differed from his
generation by distrusting the
efficacy of corporal punishment, basing
his faith instead on
"moral suasion," a method
which sometimes brought startling and
amusing results.
Benjamin, son to Thomas, was only
seventeen when he began
teaching at the very school where he had
himself been pupil, but
his youth was offset by the fact that he
had spent two years at
Asbury College (now DePauw University).
Customs and equip-
ment were still primitive, but the
revolution in education which
followed the setting up in 1848, of
free, state-supported schools
was on its way. Benjamin even had to get
a teacher's certificate,
issued following a street conversation
with the examiner ques-
tioning him regarding the gender of
these nouns: boys, girls,
child, and books!
All of the Kennedys had distinct
personalities, especially Ben,
a whimsical individualist, slight of
frame but strong of character.
He put in fifty years at teaching before
he retired, known and
loved throughout the countryside. Of him
his son says: "To the
end of his career, his love for the
company of young people, his
delight in giving instruction, never
slackened .... Unostenta-
tious, softspoken, not a great genius,
he had nevertheless made
180 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
his impress and one not soon to be
erased, upon the little world
where he had his being." And what
was said of him could with
justice be said of all the teaching
Kennedys.
Franklin College provided the only
"higher education" Mil-
lard Fillmore ever got (two and a half
months) before he rang
the bell to call his first pupils to
duty in 1883. Certain practises
and pastimes were the same as those
habitual to his father and
grandfather. Teacher and pupils still
played strenuously at re-
cess, "to treat or not to
treat" was a grave problem of the Christ-
mas season, etc., but in general the old
order was going, and go-
ing fast. In 1883, education in Johnson
County was conducted
in ninety one-room buildings; by 1919,
it was being carried on in
nine centralized township units. And
that was but one of the
many changes which occurred within the
limits of Millard Fill-
more's tenureships! The author's
discussion of twentieth century
"streamlining" in education is
balanced, a cool and just evalua-
tion of gain vs. loss, without
resort to pathos.
The success of the Kennedys as teachers
came mainly be-
cause they were modest and fearless and
fun loving, and the re-
flection of those traits in this book is
what gives Schoolmaster of
Yesterday its charm. L. R. H.
William Salter: Western Torchbearer. By Philip Dillon Jordan.
Men of America Series, I. (Oxford, Ohio, Mississippi Val-
ley Press, 1940. 273p.)
One of the results of the increasing
study of American his-
tory is the production of numerous
biographies of so-called "lesser
figures." These are men of
influence within a limited sphere in-
stead of national. Among them are to be
found particularly edu-
cators, ministers, and state or local
politicos. Such a figure was
William Salter (1821-1910), whose work and influence belong to
Iowa, and especially to Burlington, and
to the Congregational
Church in that state.
Salter came of a seafaring New England
family. Graduated
from the University of the City of New
York in 1840, he at-
tended Union and Andover theological
seminaries, graduating
BOOK REVIEWS 181
from the latter in 1843. In the fall of
that year, Salter, and nine
other Andover students, were sent by the
American Home Mis-
sionary Society to Iowa Territory to
preach the Gospel to the in-
creasing population of that frontier
area.
There Salter and his colleagues found an
unreligious at-
mosphere. One Maquoketa resident
informed Salter who had
asked him if he knew Jesus Christ:
"No, sir, don't think he lives
in the timber, I reckon he must live on
the prairie." Several chap-
ters are devoted to Salter's efforts to
bring religion to the Iowa
frontier, especially through the agency
of the Congregational
Church. Located at Maquoketa, Salter
rode circuit until 1846,
when he became pastor of First
Congregational Church of Burl-
ington. He held the latter position for
sixty-four years until his
death.
The story of Salter's life is also the
story of the evolution of
a frontier into its place in modern
America. Religious indiffer-
ence, religious hysteria, intemperance,
vulgarities, the spirit of
conquest, these characteristics of the
frontier, Salter fought with
the vigor of a New England puritan. He
hated slavery, but at
first opposed a war to eradicate the
evil. By 1861, however, his
opinion had changed, and he supported
the war. He contributed
to the cause of higher education in Iowa
by assisting in founding
and building Iowa College at Davenport.
This school moved to
Grinnell in 1859, although its name was
not changed until 1909.
As the United States expanded,
prosperity came to Iowa.
Salter, Burlington, and his church
flourished. He won for him-
self a respected place in Burlington
society, and economic security
brought him opportunity for new work. He
led in the organiza-
tion of the public library, served as
president of the school board,
wrote on the lives of senators James W.
Grimes and Augustus
C. Dodge, contributed articles and
reviews to the Annals of Iowa
and the Hawkeye, and finally
produced his Iowa: The First Free
State in the Louisiana Purchase and his Sixty Years.
Any attempt to evaluate the influence
and contributions of
William Salter, of course, must take
into consideration the time
and arena of his work. As compared with
such ministers of the
182
OHI0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
social Gospel as Washington Gladden and
Walter Rauschenbusch,
this reviewer feels that Salter can
scarcely be called "candle-
bearer." However, his contributions
to religious and cultural life
in Iowa are worthy of note.
This biography is written with a vigor
which enhances its in-
terest. A minimum of errors was noted,
including date discrep-
ancies on pp. 23, 24, and 27, and a
typographical error on p. 26.
Abundant foot-note references are to be
found after the text,
followed by an essay on authorities and
a listing of sources, and
an adequate index. JAMES H. RODABAUGH.
Indians of the United States; Four
Centuries of Their History
and Culture. By Clark Wissler. The American Museum of
Natural History, Science Series. (New
York, Doubleday,
Doran & Company, 1940. 319P. Illus.)
"Are the Indians dying off? No. For many years they
have been increasing, according to the
records of the United States
Indian Service: in 1937, 337,366; in
1938, 342,497. A few tribes
are declining, however." The
Questions and Answers in the Ap-
pendix of this book, written by the
curator of anthropology of the
American Museum of Natural History,
typify the informative
nature of the book as a whole. It is a
book for the general reader
in which the author has depicted the
role of the American Indian
during the constantly advancing
frontier, their way of life, and
the changes in their culture due to
their contact with the white
man.
The book is divided into three parts,
the first dealing with the
Indians in prehistoric times. In this
section the author treats of
the origin of the Indians, their
antiquity in the New World, and
surveys, in a general way, many of the
prehistoric cultures rep-
resented in the United States. In the
second part, which makes
up the major portion of the book, the
writer discusses the great
Indian families of America, the
Algonkin, Iroquois, Muskhogean,
Caddoan, Siouan, Dene, Uto-Aztecan and
Penutian, and their
various tribes and sub-tribes. Their
individual roles in frontier
life are evaluated, their cultures
briefly described and their out-
BOOK REVIEWS 183
standing leaders depicted. In the third
part Wissler tells of The
Indian Way of Life, When the White Man
Went Indian, Three
Strange Gifts from the White Man, The
Mystery of the Indian
Mind, and Life on a Reservation. In the
final chapter of this sec-
tion entitled, Did the Indian Live in
Vain?, the author points out
the achievements of the Indian in the
field of invention and agri-
culture and lists their important
contributions to our present-day
life.
Preceding the Appendix is a list of
references for those wish-
ing to learn more about the American
Indians. Among the sev-
enteen illustrations is a map showing
the original habitats of the
various Indian tribes. The book also
contains a Preface, Intro-
duction and Index.
Written in non-technical language, the Indians
of the United
States is a valuable contribution to a subject which is of
such
general interest to the American
public. R. G. M.
Stories and Legends of the Bering
Strait Eskimos. By Clark M.
Garber.
(Boston, Christopher Publishing
House, 1940.
260p., 37 illus.)
The legends and stories of a people have
a double appeal, for
they are not only interesting in
themselves but also often contain
hints of origins and migrations. Those
who are concerned with
the origin of the American Indian are
especially interested in the
Bering Straits region for it was by this
route that the New World
was populated.
Mr. Garber spent eight years among the
Bering Strait Es-
kimo as superintendent of Eskimo
education, medical relief and
reindeer in Alaska for the United States
Bureau of Education.
Realizing that the native Eskimo culture
was rapidly disappearing
he decided to record their stories and
legends before it was too
late. In this book he has selected
thirty-one of the tales as being
representative of the many which he
secured from native in-
formants. As pointed out in the Foreword
by Dr. John P. Har-
rington, the legends may be grouped
under seven major headings:
184 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Cosmology, Magic, Personal Adventure,
Marriage Customs, In-
dividual Prowess, Murder and
Cannibalism, and Warfare.
The Eskimo live along the coast on both
sides of the Bering
Straits, in the Canadian Arctic and as
far east as Greenland.
While there are many diverse colonies
speaking separate dialects
they all apparently stem from one
parental group, hence, it is to be
expected that certain stories would have
a wide distribution among
them. One of the wide-spread legends is
the story of "How the
Raven Brought Daylight to the Innuits
(Eskimo)." Other tales
are restricted to specific localities or
colonies.
Mr. Garber uses certain common Eskimo
terms in the stories
to retain as much as possible of the
native atmosphere. The
meanings of the words and terms are
explained in a Glossary and
their sparing use does not detract from
the smooth flow of the
text. There are numerous photographs of
Eskimo life and sev-
eral maps pertaining to the Bering
Straits area. This collection
of tales is a distinct contribution to
native American folk-lore
and should be of interest to both the
student and the general
reader. R. G. M.
On Arctic Ice. By Frederick Machetanz. (New York, Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1940. 105p. Illus. by
the author. $1.50.)
This is the story of an Alaskan Eskimo
boy who, with his
father and other companions, goes to the
Arctic on the annual
hunt for seal, walrus and whale. It is
an independent sequel to
Panuck, Eskimo Sled Dog, which Machetanz published in 1939
(for review see Volume XLVIII, p. 179).
He writes of first-
hand knowledge of Alaska, and his
descriptions of life and meth-
ods of hunting are interesting and
authentic. Although primarily
an artist, he writes a good adventure
story, making the book
absorbing to adults as well as to
children, for whom it was
designed.
Panuck was enthusiastically received both here and abroad
as a true account of life in the more
temperate part of Alaska.
The author was elected to the Explorer's
Club in New York in
recognition of his knowledge and writing
of the North, and a fel-
BOOK REVIEWS 185
low member, an arctic explorer, said of Panuck,
that it was the
next best thing to a visit to the North
that he had seen. On
Arctic Ice should be recognized as an important contribution to
our knowledge of life in Arctic Alaska.
The volume has 38 il-
lustrations, four of which are in
color. W. D. 0.
Pioneer Life in Western Pennsylvania.
By J. E. Wright and
Doris S. Corbett. (Pittsburgh,
University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1940. 251p. Illus. $2.50.)
This book fulfills the need for an
adequately illustrated
treatment of life on the middle western
frontier. Although it
deals specifically with western
Pennsylvania in the 18th and early
19th centuries, its seventeen chapters
on education, religion, medi-
cine, recreation among others, describe
manners and customs which
were typical of the early Middle West.
It is profusely illustrated
with accurate marginal drawings not
lacking in artistic merit.
The statement on page 14, "But
except for a visit in 1691 by
the Albany trader, Arnold Viele, the
Ohio country was unknown
to white men until 1720," is highly
questionable. The visit ap-
parently took place in 1692-4 and there
is considerable evidence
to substantiate claims that La Hontan
explored the Ohio shores in
1688 and the Bourgmont occupied the
present site of the city of
Cleveland for a short time about 1705,
not to mention other early
explorers and traders, especially
Englishmen, who have been left
out of recorded history. Some archaic
words which were used in
the text (fustian, page 57, and
blancmange, page 62, etc.) have
been omitted from an otherwise useful
Glossary. But aside from
minor errors and omissions the volume is
accurate and based upon
careful research. It is on a par with
some other products of
the University of Pittsburgh Press in
respect to its paper, binding
and typography. W. D. O.
In Those Days. By Prentis Mournian. (New York, The Mac-
millan Company, 1939. 326p. $2.50.)
Hiram H. Reynolds, who was born in 1829
and lived to be
108 years old, told the author those
things he remembered of his
186 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
youth and those things he could recall
from the stories his grand-
parents and other relatives had told
him. The author has Reynolds
act as narrator and his words are used
as nearly as possible. The
author tells us, however, a not
inconsiderable portion of the mate-
rial came from other sources, because
Reynolds' memory was
sometimes vague and uncertain; yet, the
author adds, "hints he
dropped, when traced down, often led to
valuable and interesting
material."
The story begins with "The New
Hampshire Grants" and
continues through the War of 1812. The last two
chapters tell the
stories of the Reynolds and Miers
families, the grandparents of
Hiram H. Reynolds.
Here the reader finds an excellent
picture of frontier America
with its hates and loves, virtues and
vices, and religion and super-
stitions, as well as stories of frontier
weddings, funerals, and
medical practises and beliefs. Some of
the anecdotes are absurd
as, for instance, the several stories of
the personal appearance of
the devil. But to the frontiersman the
devil was a real personage
and the picture of frontier life would
be incomplete without such
absurdities.
It is possible that the book would be
more valuable if the
author had distinguished between the
results of her research and
Reynolds' memories. To have done so, of
course, the book would
have lost much of its charm.
Nevertheless, when the narrator
speaks of Dr. Samuel Adams and says,
"Just like any Adams he
figured he was the biggest frog in any
puddle he found himself
a-settin' in," the reader would
like to know whose opinion is being
expressed.
One opinion has unusual interest because
it challenges the
thesis of Professor Pratt's Expansionists
of 1812 (New York,
1925). Professor Pratt states (p. 9),
"That the United States
went to war with Great Britain in 1812 at the
insistence of western
and southern men," and yet the
author permits Reynolds to ad-
vance the claim that the West, especially
western New York, was
opposed to the war. He says,
"Right-thinkin' men wanted to call
it off, and there was lots of 'em that
didn't want no blood shed,
BOOK REVIEWS 187
but those in power wouldn't listen to
nothin' like that! Hadn't
wise ones got their money into nuskets
and powder and balls?
Hadn't many of 'em stores of tents and
blankets piled up a'ready
and waitin' to sell to the government?
Hadn't they got factories
a-waitin' for orders for more? Warn't
there tons of food, hosses
and oxen, whole warehouses filled with
hogsheads of rum, bought
up ahead by speculators? Warn't they
a-goin' to make bags and
bags of gold pieces, and them and theirs
get richer'n mud? . . .
They had to do something to fool the
people, and keep the war
a-goin'. So they set their orators to
work. ... They beat drums
and waved the flags, and men throwed
down their tools and en-
listed to fight for the 'freedom of the
seas'--the poor dullards!"
Naturally the reader would like to know
how general was this
belief in western New York.
The publisher of this book is to be
commended highly for
giving the reading public this story of
an America that no longer
exists. And this reviewer believes that
the author's hope is ful-
filled and that this book does "add
to American folklore and give
some readers a better understanding of
the pioneers who won for
us, and gave to us, our homeland,
America."
EUGENE O. PORTER.
American Husbandry. Edited
by Harry J. Carman. (New
York, Columbia University Press, 1939.
lxi, 582p. $5.00.)
This eighteenth century description of
colonial agricultural
and rural life, written by an unknown
author and first published
in London in 1775, is one of the most
useful source documents
recently made available to the social
and economic historian. Care-
fully edited and amply annotated by
Professor Carman, the vol-
ume describes farm practises in Nova
Scotia, Canada, the Atlantic
coastal states, and the West Indies. The
region "west of the
mountains" and extending to the
banks of the Mississippi River
is interpreted as a land of great
natural resources.
The English author of American
Husbandry was quick to
see and to condemn the wasteful,
inefficient methods of tilling the
soil, and he pointed out that, if such
procedure continued, the
188 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
colonies would soon exhaust the very
foundation of their eco-
nomic riches. But he also saw in America
a land of opportunity,
a place where men of the lower classes
could, by dint of their own
efforts, live a more complete life than
in Europe; at the same time,
he pointed out that America could not
hope to give the same high
standard of daily living to wealthy men
who emigrated to the col-
onies expecting the ease and material
comfort to which they had
been accustomed in England. Mention is
made of the abundance
of land and its cheapness, but it also
is noted that labor to till the
soil was scarce and expensive.
To the student interested in commercial
relations between
the colonies and the mother country,
there is much of value. The
rise of the Yankee trader, engaged in
both coastwise and trans-
Atlantic carrying, is presented in a
stimulating manner. There
can be little doubt that the author of
the volume understood fully
the economic and competitive factors
which were making for dis-
union between England, the world's most
successful manufactur-
ing and carrying nation, and the
colonies, which were rapidly be-
coming contenders for first place.
Certainly, the student will
gain an intimate understanding of the
mercantile system from a
careful study of this volume. PHILIP
D. JORDAN.
Robert Dale Owen; A Biography. By Richard William Leopold.
(Cambridge, Harvard University Press;
London, Humphrey
Milford, Oxford University Press, 1940.
470p.)
Except to the special student of
American history, Robert
Owen and Robert Dale Owen are one, not
father and son. The
contribution of Robert Owen to the
British Isles and to the United
States is well known, but that of his
son relatively unknown. To
lift the son from what he believes to be
an undeserved obscurity,
Mr. Leopold has written this biography.
He has meticulously
woven the activities of Owen the
reformer, the politician, and the
spiritualist into the social, economic,
political, and religious fabric
of the United States from the years 1825
to 1877. The only
unity to be found in Owen's life is his
essentially rationalistic out-
look. Consistency in life style is
lacking; conflict is even present.
BOOK REVIEWS 189
As a young man of prosperous Welsh and
Scotch parents, trained
by tutors and the progressive educators
of his time, he was a re-
former. As an old man, he was an ardent
spiritualist. In his early
years he sponsored the cause of labor;
in his late years he propa-
gandized at one time for a large banking
company and lobbied
in Congress for the same interest.
Robert Dale Owen's career in America
from beginning to end
was an active, varied, and important
one. In 1825 he left his
native land, Scotland, with his father
to take part in a social ex-
periment at New Harmony, Indiana,
believing fervently in the
perfectibility of human nature. From
that time until 1833 he
worked at New Harmony in various capacities:
he sponsored.
Frances Wright and her community at
Nashoba, Tennessee; agi-
tated for labor and for workers'
education in New York; edited a
daily newspaper; conducted a weekly
gazette; published books;
lectured on astronomy, chemistry,
anatomy, physiology; attacked
sectarianism and preached skepticism;
questioned the traditional
marriage system, and lent his support to
birth control in his book,
Moral Physiology, as an aid to the workers' cause and to women's
rights.
After 1833 when the New Harmony
experiment was clearly
a failure and when the perfectibility of
human nature was demon-
strated to be an ideal, Owen began to
settle down in Indiana with
his new wife. He finally became a true
western settler and en-
tered politics to sponsor political acts
that would aid western set-
tlement and western expansion. In
Indiana for the most part a
"machine" man, he worked hard
for the building of roads and
canals, for the establishment of public
works and schools on a
sound fiscal basis, for the revision of
the law as applied to the
property inheritance of married women.
In the national arena as
a Congressman from 1843 to 1847 he was a
vigorous expansionist,
an exponent of Manifest Destiny. On the
slavery question he
took the middle of the road. The
establishment of the Smith-
sonian Institution owed much to the
labors of Owen. As a mem-
ber of the Indiana Constitutional
Convention, 1850-I, his con-
tribution was significant. Among other
things he worked for
190 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
legal reforms, the schools, and the
property rights of married
women.
In 1853 Owen was rewarded for his
loyalty to party by an
appointment as charge d'affaires to
Naples, where he remained
until 1858 absorbing the beauty of Italy
and indulging his aes-
thetic senses. After 1858 he became
interested in table rapping
and spiritualism in all its
manifestations, landing for a time two
years before his death in an insane
asylum. In spite of his ab-
sorption in the spirit world, he did
participate to some extent in
national affairs during and after the
Civil War. He was ap-
pointed ordnance commissioner and a
member of the American
Freedmans' Inquiry Commission. In 1865 he was a paid
propa-
gandist for a banking firm to stimulate
the sale of Mexican bonds
and lobbied in Congress to have the
United States pay the bond-
holders in case of default by Mexico.
But the closing years ot
his life were devoted to lecturing and
writing about spiritualism--
and that at a time when great economic
and social forces were in
a state of upheaval in the United
States!
It is unfortunate that Mr. Leopold, with
his profound knowl-
edge of Owen's life, with the facts from
the political, social, eco-
nomic, and religious levels, did not
present the psychological fac-
tors which were unquestionably present
in the sources. Rational
factors are in his book, but not the
irrational, purposive factors.
Owen certainly approached as near
"pure intellect," as it seems
possible for the hybrid animal, Man, to
do, but beneath this crust
were certainly the subconscious, the
"unknowable" (to Owen) ele-
ments which were present in his actions
from birth to death. Had
we known these, the three contrasting
phases of Owen's life would
not stand in separate cubicles,
relatively unrelated and ununder-
standable. We might understand in terms
of his own personality,
why he attacked religion as a young man
and embraced it as an
old man, and why he went insane and was
confined in an asylum.
As it stands the only psychological
unity that appears to exist in
Owen's life is simply a rational,
intellectual outlook and approach
to all the particular incidents in his
life. In all phases only one
strain persists, the use of his
"mind" to explore all in the universe
BOOK REVIEWS 191
from social problems to the spirit world
and life hereafter. Could
this be the complete, living man, judged
in the light of modern
psychological knowledge? As it stands,
however, this biography
sets such a high standard of scholarly
excellence that few bi-
ographers will be able to equal it and
still fewer approximate it.
EUNICE SCHUSTER BALLIS.
Little Symphony and Other Poems. By Andrew D. Rodgers, III.
(Los Angeles, Calif., The Ward Ritchie
Press, c1940. 55p.
Cloth. $1.50.)
Rocks Before the Mansion. By Andrew D. Rodgers, III. (Los
Angeles, Calif., The Ward Ritchie Press,
c1940. 112p.
Cloth. $2.00.)
Mr. Andrew D. Rodgers, III, author of
these two volumes
of poetry, is a native of Columbus,
Ohio. He has a B. A. degree
from Ohio Wesleyan University, 1922, and an LL. B. degree from
Ohio State University, 1925. After
practising law in Columbus
for eight years he did graduate work at
Northwestern University,
and now devotes his time to writing. His
biography of William
Starling Sullivant, "Noble
Fellow," was recently published by G.
P. Putnam's Sons, and he is at present
working on a biography of
John Torrey.
Little Symphony contains close to 50 lyrics on various sub-
jects, ranging from nature to music, in
a variety of verse forms,
treated in a sincere manner.
Rocks Before the Mansion is a series of episodes treated
poetically, with a display of much
dramatic feeling. It is, as a
whole, a blank verse historical epic of
Ohio and her place in the
Nation. The symbolism is well worked out
and points the path
for future-building by describing the
nobility of the past.
A glance at the titles to some of the
episodes will give a hint
of the contents: Two Young Indian
Captives, 1797; Lucas Sulli-
vant and Lyne Starling Discuss a
Proposed Location of Ohio's
Capital; Sarah Sullivant Talks with
William Domigan, 1813;
Mr. John R. Parish and Mr. Gustavus Swan
Discuss the Effect
of the Opinion of Mr. Justice John
Marshall in the Cause, Os-
192
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
born, Auditor of Ohio, versus The
Bank of the United States;
Mr. Alfred Kelley Meditates to Save the
Honor of Ohio; Chief
Justice Swan Meditates the Opinion He Is
Now to Prepare after
Hearing of the Cause, ex parte Bushnell,
et al.; Mr. Justice Noah
H. Swayne Reflects upon the Cause, ex
parte Vallandigham; Mr.
Leo Lesquereux Writes concerning a
Fellow Scientist, Mr. Wil-
liam Starling Sullivant; Mr. Richard A.
Harrison and Mr. David
K. Watson Discuss, State of Ohio ex
rel. Attorney-General vs.
Standard Oil Company; Dr. Joseph R.
Taylor and Mr. George
Wesley Bellows Converse together
concerning the Craft of Paint-
ing; The Ghost of Dr. James Hoge,
Pioneer Missionary and Min-
ister, and Life-long Advocate of Common
Schools, Salutes the
Century from the Grave; Americana;
United States.
Although the primary interest is local
(City of Columbus,
Ohio, and State of Ohio), yet because
the city may, and was in-
tended to, be taken as a type for any
American city, and the State
may be taken as a symbol of any state,
the work can be of absorb-
ing interest to the Nation as a whole.
The author states in his Foreword that
"the claim of this
book is not primarily to history but to
poetry," yet at the same
time "an attempt has been made to
keep all of the material . . .
historically accurate. . . . In many
instances, the writings of the
characters . . . have been taken"
as the basis for their speeches.
Both works are issued in limited
editions of 250 copies,
beautifully designed and well
printed. C. L. W.
Jacoby's Corners. By Jake Falstaff. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1940. 242p. $2.50.)
The boyhood memories of Herman Fetzer
(better known by
his pseudonym of Jake Falstaff) are to
be found in the posthum-
ous publication entitled Jacoby's
Corners. Dedicated to the mem-
ory of Falstaff's maternal grandmother
(who appears in the book
as Grandma Nadeli) Jacoby's Corners chronicles
the events which
occurred during the summer which Lemuel
Hayden, a twelve-
year-old New York City boy, spent
visiting his country relatives
in Ohio His was not an exceptional
vacation but it was a de-
BOOK REVIEWS 193
lightful one, made up of farm tasks and
frolics, of friendships
warm and enduring, of knowledge
sometimes garnered the hard
way. "The glory of the
commonplace," that is what Jake Fal-
staff brings us in Jacoby's Corners,
nostalgic reminiscences of the
scene and mood of his own boyhood
experiences so well and so
lovingly done that they serve as a
portrait of our country's com-
mon denominator of a generation
ago--rural and small town
America. A number of the stories of
Lemuel were first published
in the Cleveland Press and the Ladies'
Home Journal.
L. R. H.
Trumpet in the Wilderness. By Robert S. Harper. (New York,
M. S. Mill Co., Inc., c1940. 346p.
Map on lining papers.
$2.50.)
This is a novel of Ohio in the stirring
times of the War of
1812. Its pages are
replete with persons who actually lived, many
of whom contributed greatly to the
development of the State--
such persons as Colonel Lewis Cass,
Colonel Duncan McArthur,
Colonel James Findlay, Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry, Gov-
ernor Return Jonathan Meigs, Tecumseh,
Lucas Sullivant, Lynne
Starling, Johnny Appleseed and many
others.
The central personages are Jubal Johnson
and Ann Sessions,
ficticious characters, who, the author says,
are "prototypal" since
the land was "filled with their
kind." Be that as it may, their
romance and his adventures make a very
absorbing story suitable
for the entertainment of most ages and
both sexes. The character-
ization rings true, the setting reveals
a very good picture of an
early day, the action tells the story of
historic incident, and the
style is natural. The high point in the
story is the Battle of Lake
Erie, one of the most stirring scenes in
Ohio's history.
The author, Robert S. Harper, is city
editor of the Ohio
State Journal (Columbus). C. L. W.
The Sun Shines Bright. By Jean Thomas. (New York, Prent-
ice-Hall, Inc., 1940. 275p. $2.50.)
In her seventh published volume, Jean
Thomas, Kentucky's
194 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
"Traipsin' Woman," departs
somewhat from the pattern estab-
lished in her previous books, which
dealt almost exclusively with
the folkways of the mountaineers. The
Sun Shines Bright is
autobiographical and as such does
contain some narration of vo-
cational experiences not immediately
associated with the Ken-
tucky scene. But by her own confession,
Jean Thomas pursues
"an intriguing, three-fold
avocation of ballad huntin', of present-
ing the Singin' Gatherin' each June at
the Traipsin' Woman
cabin on the Mayo Trail in the foothills
of Kentucky, and of fash-
ioning betimes a tale of the finest, but
the least understood, of
American citizens--the Kentucky
mountaineers." And her life-
story has much to say about her
three-fold avocation.
Her story begins in the 'nineties, in
her home town of Ash-
land, Kentucky, which she left to act as
court stenographer to a
judge whose circuit was among the
mountain courts. Her work
gave her opportunity to learn the ways
of the mountain people, to
become their friend, and to "sot
down" their songs and stories.
Next she went to Columbus, Ohio, as
secretary to Joe Tinker,
president of the Columbus Baseball Club;
then to New York City,
where she did free-lance writing and
acted as press agent to Gloria
Gould and Texas Guinan. But she harked
back often to the
mountain folk, made trips to Kentucky to
record their ballads,
established the Annual American Folk
Song Festival, instituted
the public appearances of her protegees,
and had much to do with
the present-day vogue for mountain
music. She now lives in
Kentucky, at the "Traipsin' Woman
cabin," doing all she can to
advance the cause of the folk culture
she has done so much to
preserve and disseminate.
Her autobiography is not only a record
of the full and varied
career of a strong, resourceful woman
but also of an entire people
carrying on a way of life which in this
mid-twentieth century is
practically an anachronism. L. R. H.
Singing Valleys, the Story of Corn. By Dorothy Giles. (New
York, Random House, c1940. 361p.
$3.00.)
One of the more interesting books in the
general literature,
BOOK REVIEWS 195
non-fiction, class is Miss Giles Singing
Valleys, the Story of Corn,
which has been written with a style and
vividness that carries the
reader's interest forward with much the
same pace as a novel.
In the history of corn, we can trace the
history of America,
from the days of the Mayan civilization
when the word by which it
was known, maize, meant "She Who
Sustains Us," to the present,
when it has been symbolized as
"seeds of American liberty." (See
author's dedication.)
Besides the historical chapters showing
how corn was the
source of strength for early Mexico, how
it saved the American
colonies from perishing, how it, in
conjunction with the fertile
soil of the Middle West, built up the
new American nation to a
power to be reckoned with, there are
chapters, describing how the
plant and its product were improved by
research and experiment,
some on its relation to man's nurture
and his social culture, others
on the folklore and religious
significance of corn, and some on its
various uses.
"For corn is bread and ham and eggs
and milk and cream
and cheese. Corn is sugar and starch.
Corn is clothing for men's
bodies and shelter above their heads.
Corn is oil and wine. Corn
is life. Its life is the life of men.
Sown in weakness, it is raised
in power. It dies, yet it lives. It is
eaten; and lo! of it there
springs a greater life. . . . To us, in
America, it is the strength
of our past, the power of our present,
the security of our future
· . . the symbol of American
democracy." Thus lyrically the au-
thor writes of corn, an object of use so
common we take it for
granted, yet with a history that is
romantic, full of adventure, and
with a destiny inseparable from our own.
There is a bibliography and index. C. L. W.
Rosscommon. By Charles Allen Smart. (New York, Random
House, 1940. 201p. $2.00.)
The well-known author of R. F. D. gives
us another picture
of rural Ohio (this time an idealized
one) in his latest book,
Rosscommon, listed somewhat inaccurately as a novel. In it Mr.
Smart has indulged in some interesting
day dreams and has set
196 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
forth what seems to him the pattern of
life which best meets his
own requirements for Utopia.
The book is the story of a man and his
farm, David Mac-
donald and Rosscommon, once the pride of
the countryside, but
now "fallen upon evil days."
His land lost, Macdonald prepares
to sell the farm's live stock, grain,
tools, household furnishings,
etc., and to leave the State. On the
evening preceding this public
auction, Mr. Smart and a young friend of
his called on Mac-
donald to say good-bye and to wish him
well, but instead they
spent most of the night listening to
Macdonald unfold his dream
of what Rosscommon might have been, a
"Community in the his-
toric sense," giving its members
security but not denying them
responsibility, emphasizing cooperation
but not at the expense of
initiative.
Told in the first person and with its
underlying philosophy
demonstrated through people, not
theories, the book is extraord-
inarily vivid in spite of the fact that
it is set halfway in fact, half-
way in fancy. Whether Mr. Smart's Utopia
fulfills all our own
standards is something readers must
answer for themselves. None-
the-less, it is stimulating to compare
and contrast ideas and ideals,
and even a casual reading of Rosscommon
is sure to lead to at least
a few thoughts beyond the pale of our
run-of-the-mill, day-by-day
musings. L. R. H.
William Byrd's Natural History of
Virginia. Edited and trans-
lated from a German version by Richmond
C. Beatty and
William J. Mulloy. (Richmond, Virginia,
The Dietz Press,
1940. 109p. $4.00.)
Originally published in Basel,
Switzerland, in 1737, and titled
Newly Found Eden, this two-century-old document is here pro-
duced for the first time in English. The
book consists of an ac-
count of the climate, inhabitants,
government, trade, food costs,
plants, flowers, herbs, roots, animals,
fowl, fish and trees of
eighteenth century Virginia, assembled
by the debt-harassed Mr.
Byrd to attract settlers to the land he
owned in the New World.
Aside from its intrinsic value, the book
is of interest because it
BOOK REVIEWS 197
was written by William Byrd, who in many
respects epitomized
the finest elements in colonial
Virginia's culture. The book is hand-
somely printed and bound. L. R. H.
Drovers East. By Pitt L. Fitzgerald. (Philadelphia, Macrae-
Smith Company, 1940. 352p. $2.00.)
To speak very exactly, Drovers East is
a boys' book, an ex-
cellent one, filled with adventures
occurring against a setting, the
historical accuracy of which stands up
well after checking. It is
the story of sixteen-year-old Andy
O'Farrell, who in 181O was
one of the persons charged with taking
his father's herd of cattle
from the Scioto woodlands of Ohio to the
Baltimore, Maryland,
market, five hundred miles away. Also,
it is the story of the other
three drovers, grown men, and of Pence
Yeoman, Andy's chum,
who trailed the cattle caravan, working
his way east as a "Jack-of-
all-trades." It was a long journey
but not a monotonous one:
cattle driving in itself was arduous;
there were the many varied
encounters of the road; while always
with them was the menace
of the red-bearded stranger.
Well-written and trustworthy, Mr.
Fitzgerald's reproduction of life in the
Scioto woodlands and along
the Drovers' Road makes interesting
reading for both young and
old. The author's sketches which head
each chapter are a help
in vivifying the narrative. L. R. H.
Westward the Tide. By Harold Sinclair. (New York, Double-
day, Doran & Co., Inc. 1940. 359p. $2.50.)
Westward the Tide is a stirring tale of a too little-known
campaign, George Rogers Clark's
successful expedition into the
Northwest where with a "beggared
and hungry handful of men"
he fought the War of the Revolution in
the wilderness beyond the
mountains, and took from the British a
territory as large as all
Europe. Small thanks he got for his
achievements, although his
victories contributed materially to the
formation of our Union.
Told in the first person by Philip
Guard, a young Connecticut
ensign enlisted with Clark, the book
recounts the stirring story of
the capture of the backwoods posts which
gave Britain control
198 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the trans-Allegheny region; the heat
and hunger endured on
the summer march to Kaskaskia, the cold
and hunger undergone
on the winter trek to Vincennes; the
difficulties put in Clark's
way by Strukker, the Prussian spy; and
the story of the love be-
tween the narrator and Marie LeMoine,
the French girl who
sought the protection of Clark's men in
her journey to her Kas-
kaskian relatives.
The whole book is dominated by Clark,
his person and his
personality. He was tall and commanding,
with "great shoulders,
a craggy head, flaming red hair, an
eagle's beak of a nose, and
the bluest eyes imaginable." His
men loved and feared him and
followed him anywhere.
"As far as possible," asserts
the author, "the actual historical
line has been followed
scrupulously." Dates, routes, events, place
and personal names are those found in
the records of the period.
There are, of course, gaps in the
contemporary accounts, and the
book might easily have been a patchwork
of fact and fiction. That
it is not is due largely to the author's
command of his material, his
faithfulness to his sources, and his
sympathetic, skillful filling in
of historical gaps. His tale of Clark
and his "Long Rifles" in the
Illinois Territory is one to enjoy--and
to trust. L. R. H.
With Custer's Cavalry. By Katherine Gibson Fougera. (Cald-
well, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd.,
1940. 285p.
$3.00.)
In the lists of outstanding Ohioans,
George Armstrong
Custer is unique. A colorful figure, his
career was spectacular,
both in its achievements and its
failures. Seldom is it the lot of
one man to occasion, before and after
death, so much controversy,
to be considered simultaneously a
maligned hero and an untrust-
worthy zealot. But those are subjects
which belong to military
history and which already have been
carefully and fully dealt
with in other books.
This present work is a personal
narrative, the story of Kath-
erine Gibson (the author's mother) who
went west to visit her
sister and stayed to marry Lieutenant
Francis M. Gibson of the
Seventh Cavalry.
BOOK REVIEWS 199
The Custers and the Gibsons were friends
as well as profes-
sional colleagues and it is from the
personal angle that Custer is
presented. The book portrays vividly the
details of western regi-
mental life in the 'eighties: a wedding
on the plains, an escape
from an angry buffalo, an encounter with
a desperado, a smallpox
epidemic--to mention but a few. It also
gives a fresh perspective
on the Custer Massacre, when the entire
command was annihilated,
the only living thing left on the
battlefield being one of the military
horses. There were no eyewitnesses to
this tragedy, this book's
version being based on the letters of
Lieutenant Gibson written
from Montana Territory and on the
memories of Mrs. Gibson of
the anxious waiting and grief endured by
the women in the army
posts during and following that
ill-fated expedition.
The book is interesting and convincing,
a worthwhile addition
to previous works on Custer. L. R. H.
The Wilderness Lives Again: Carl
Akeley and the Great Ad-
venture. By Mary L. Jobe Akeley. Foreword by F. Trubee
Davison. (New York, Dodd, Mead &
Company, 1940. 411p.
Illus., map on lining papers. $3.00.)
This is the story of Carl Akeley, one of
the greatest names
in the field of taxidermy, the man who
created the superb habitat
groups to be found in the American
Museum of Natural History,
New York, and the Field Museum, Chicago.
He was an inventor
in his field, having developed a camera
to fill his special needs, and
worked out many original methods of
collecting, preserving and
displaying specimens.
Not only do his natural history groups
cause the wilderness
to live again for all who gaze, but the
story of his expedition to
the Belgian Congo makes the wilderness
live again for those who
read.
This is, indeed, a fitting memorial by a
wife, who shared in
her husband's adventurous life and his
valuable work, to a man
whose story should interest a wide
public.
The volume contains 31 illustrations,
and Appendix, Glossary,
Footnotes, Bibliography and Index. C. L. W.
200 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Ohio Guide. Compiled by the workers of the Writers' Pro-
gram of the Work Projects Administration
in the State of
Ohio. American Guide Series. Sponsored
by the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society.
(New York, Oxford
University Press, 1940. 634p. Maps and
illus. $2.75.)
This volume combines the features of a
handbook for tourists
and a reference work on Ohio. The
traveler will find it indis-
pensable and it should have its place in
the automobile of every
touring Ohioan. It is made up of three
main divisions. The first
comprises 17 essays on the historical,
economic, industrial, and
cultural life of the State. Nineteen
cities have been grouped in
section two for individual treatment,
each with its short historical
sketch, points of interest, and map. The
third division, the most
valuable in the reviewer's opinion,
comprises the tours. These are
arranged so that the traveler will find
points of interest unfold as
he drives along most any one of the main
highways of the State.
In any work of this magnitude, and on
which a large number
of people have been engaged, the
critical reader will discover many
errors. And where the problem of
selection has been acute, as it
must have been, many specialists will be
disappointed that more
material along the lines of their
peculiar interests have not been
included. The resident of Mansfield, for
instance, may not think
that the "most significant"
points of interest have been selected
for his town, and the resident of
Carrollton may wonder why
neither his town nor any mention of the
fighting McCooks are in
the index. In the Cincinnati treatment
there is no mention of the
Historical and Philosophical Society of
Ohio, the oldest and one
of the most important institutions of
its kind in the State. These
are errors of omission. But there are
errors in fact, too many to
be tabulated in this review, and many of
these should have been
caught in reading proof.
In the chapter on the First Peoples,
dealing with the Mound-
Builders, the statement that the Fort
Ancient culture is the "earli-
est of the three cultures" (p. 9)
is not consistent with the state-
ment on the following page that the
Hopewell people were "the
oldest of the mound builders".
Apparently the copy as read and
BOOK REVIEWS 201
approved by the advisor on archaeology
was not the same as that
submitted to the printer. Proper names
such as Weisenburger
(pp. 12,
13) and Celoron de Bienville (pp. 17, 134)
are mis-
spelled. Calvin B. Brice appears as
Calvin B. Price on page 30.
The date of the establishment of Ohio
University is wrongly given
as 1802 (p. 21) but correctly
cited as 1804 (p. 118). The Hanby
Home in Westerville is on W. Main Street
and not on College
Ave. (p. 482) and Hanby died in Chicago
and not in Westerville
(ibid). The careful reader of the essay on
"Architecture," one
of the best of the seventeen, will be
disappointed in that about a
dozen of the architectural features
there mentioned are not to be
found in the city and tour treatments.
The tourist should be
advised to see these outstanding
examples of good architecture as
well as read about them.
There never has been a perfect index,
and like most indices
for works containing a large number of
facts this one is inade-
quate. To cite but two samples, there is
no reference to the
Garfield House in Mentor (p. 360) under Garfield,
nor any refer-
ence to the Harding Memorial (p. 563)
under Harding. The
art work and the illustrations are good.
However in the matter
of photographs several are wrongly
attributed as to photographer,
and in the case of the building
"Old Kenyon," illustrated on one
of the plates following page 248,
Bulfinch is not the architect as
indicated. But these errors of fact may
be corrected in another
edition and the editors. while taking
the responsibility for all the
faults of the book, should be given
credit for a painstaking piece
of work. W. D. O.
Minnesota Farmers' Diaries. Introduction and Notes by Rodney
C. Loehr. (Saint Paul, The Minnesota Historical Society,
1939. 247p.)
These two diaries of William R. Brown, 1845-46, and
Mitchell Y. Jackson, 1852-63, make
available to the public the
farmers' own records which present the
homely authentic detail of
every-day pioneer life. The book
contains the text of two actual
diaries kept by American farmers. The
book has a unique interest
202 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
because of the subject matter presented
and the fact that these
diaries present not only local pictures
but a picture of the problems
and difficulties of pioneer American
farmers wherever located.
Both men were born in Ohio which gives
an added interest for the
Ohio reader. H. L.
I Believe in America: An American
Manifesto. By Ray W.
Sherman. (New York, Oskar Piest, 1940. 189p. $1.50.)
This stimulating book is worthy the
attention of every one
interested in the problems of today. The
author emphasizes the
point that the first step in
"trying to peer through the mists to-
wards tomorrow is to go back over our
yesterdays and see what
we can find there on which to base
predictions." The book at-
tempts to do this very thing and in a
clear, forceful way. Mr.
Sherman takes up the great depression of
today and the America
in which we live. He shows that the
much-talked-about "good old
days" will not return but predicts
that a new day will come by
which the old will seem pale, and he
proceeds to form his thesis
by tracing the history of the great
crises of the past. He shows
that depressions always end and with
them America and the world
have gone higher and enjoyed greater
prosperity. He discusses
the racket of the "Isms" and
shows why Communism won't work.
He gives a clear picture of why America
is what it is, and em-
phasizes the importance of a true,
vigorous, responsible Ameri-
canism. H. L.
The Story of a Hoosier Immigration. By Mary Elizabeth Peddle.
(Harwinton, Connecticut, The Brookside
Press, 1939. 576p.
and Appendix.)
This book is a brief sketch of the
settling of Indiana and
Illinois as recorded by Mary Elizabeth
Peddle who continued a
task begun by Caroline Peddle Ball. The
book is illustrated. The
story tells how a mother and her
children left New York State in
1816 to found a home in the new state of
Indiana. The story as
originally written was never intended
for publication but was
written merely as a record for her
family. The story was written
BOOK REVIEWS 203
in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1904, from
information gained from
her mother, aunts and uncles. An
appendix of three pages of
notes adds value to the narrative. H. L.
The Wright Mounds. By William S. Webb. With Chapters on
Pottery by William G. Haag, and Physical
Anthropology by
H. T. E. Hertzberg. Publications of
the Department of An-
thropology and Archaeology, University
of Kentucky. Re-
ports in Anthropology, Vol. V, No. 1. (Lexington, 1940.
134p. Illus., maps.)
The two Adena mounds described in this
report were located
near Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and were
explored under the general
direction of Dr. Webb in 1937 and 1938.
The actual excavations
were carried on by John L. Buckner and
Claude Johnston with
labor furnished by the Work Projects
Administration. The re-
port, therefore, is a joint product of
the various individuals on the
field and museum staff.
The large mound (Mm 6), thirty-one feet
in height, proved
to be a compound mound built in four
different stages. It con-
tained fourteen log tombs of four types,
some of which were super-
imposed. Twenty-one burials were found
in the mound, eighteen
of which were in log tombs. Among the
artifacts with the burials
were copper bracelets, a copper ring, a
copper head-dress, shell
beads, a conch shell, abrading stones, a
mica crescent, bone combs,
tubular pipes, bone spatulae, and
fabrics. Other artifacts (includ-
ing an inscribed tablet) and potsherds
were found in the mound
fill and in the village deposit beneath
the mound.
In the clay underlying the village
deposit were found numer-
ous post-mould patterns indicating
several circular structures and
one rectangular structure. Most of the
post-moulds occurred in
pairs. The larger structures were over
one hundred feet in diam-
eter and the smaller ones varied from
about forty to sixty feet in
diameter. The author suggests that the
larger patterns may rep-
resent palisades and that smaller
structures may have been erected
against the palisades on the interior.
Especially significant is the large
number of potsherds re-
204
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
covered from the site, for previously
excavated Adena mounds
have produced very little pottery. Mr.
Haag states that the ma-
jority of the sherds are of a single
type which he terms the
"Adena Plain." The vessels of
this type were not decorated and
had flattened bases with a small
percentage having feet.
Hertzberg's analysis of the human
skeletal material shows that
these Adena peoples were a round-,
large-headed group which
practised occipital deformation.
The small mound (Mm 7) produced two
burials, one of
which was cremated. A circular
post-mould pattern (29.5 feet in
diameter), with paired holes which
inclined outward, was found
beneath the mound. Among the objects
found in the mound were
sandstone tablets, a celt, a discoidal,
a bone comb, a bone flaker
and numerous projectile points.
The inscribed tablet (with a bird
design) found in the large
mound is compared with the Cincinnati,
Kiefer, Berlin and Wil-
mington tablets from Ohio and with other
tablets from Kentucky
and West Virginia. The author points out
their similarities with
one another and states that they seem to
be related in design and
concept to carved ornaments of the
Hopewell culture.
The report is well illustrated with
photographs, maps, and
diagrams. It also contains detailed
trait lists and a cultural table
showing the relationship of the Wright
Mounds to other Adena
mounds.
The exploration of the Wright Mounds has
furnished the
archaeologist with valuable new
information concerning the Adena
culture and the volume is a distinct
contribution to the archaeology
of the area. R. G. M.
BOOK REVIEWS
Guide to the Material in The National
Archives. (Washington,
D. C., Government Printing Office, 1940. 303p. Paper,
40¢;
cloth, 70??.)
The first general guide to the materials
in The National Ar-
chives made its appearance in 1938 as an
Appendix to the Third
Annual Report of the Archivist of the United States. The present
work is the successor to that initial
guide and constitutes a key to
some 320,000 linear feet of records, or
those accessioned up to
December 31, 1939. It must be kept in
mind that the task of
organizing, classifying and cataloging
this mass of records is still
incomplete and that the guide is
tentative.
In the main portion of the guide only
those groups of rec-
ords are included where sufficient time
has elapsed to afford an
adequate description. Unarranged or
complex groups are listed
in the Appendix. In both the main
portion and the Appendix,
entries are made under the names of
government agencies. In the
former, an effort has been made to enter
the description of the
records under the names of the agencies
that last performed the
functions reflected by the records,
while in the Appendix the ar-
rangement is by the names of the
agencies from which the records
were received. The main section is
divided into four parts: the
Congress, the executive departments, the
independent agencies,
and the judiciary.
There is a brief introductory statement
for each agency deal-
ing with its history and functions.
Following the introductory
statement are descriptions of record
groups, which provide infor-
mation on such points as the type,
subject matter, chronological
coverage, quantity, completeness, and
arrangement of the records.
The index contains a large number of
cross references to re-
lated material and will be useful in
bringing together records deal-
ing with the same subject matter. The
user should be warned,
however, that the index refers only to
names and subjects men-
(171)