Ohio History Journal

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES, 1824-1839

 

BY LUCILLE B. EMCH

 

In the Ohio Valley of the 1820's and 1830's there occurred a

stir of literary activity which for the time and character of the

events was most unusual. The perspective gained by the passing

of more than a century adds to rather than detracts from the

significance of the movement.

The publishing center of the West during the twenties and

thirties was Cincinnati, which, with a population of 24,831 in

1830, was by far the largest city in the trans-Allegheny region.

"Cincinnati now commands in a considerable measure the literary

resources of the Western valley," remarked the American Quar-

terly Observer in 1834.1 The Queen City had not always held

this position of superiority, for until the third decade of the

nineteenth century the literary capital of the West had been Lex-

ington, Kentucky. The focusing of intellectual and cultural life

at Lexington in the early days was due to the location there of

Transylvania University, the first institution of higher learning

west of the mountains.

The significance of the literary movement in the West can

best be judged against the background of what was happening in

the East. American literature at this period was just beginning

to take form. The "Era of Good Feeling" which followed the

War of 1812 had developed in the East the hope for a national

literature, a literature expressing America and independent of

England. In the field of fiction two precedents had just been

established, the one in the realm of the short story, the other in

the novel. The publication of Washington Irving's Sketch Book

(1819-1820) pointed the way to the charm of American legends

as backgrounds for tales.  The success of James Fenimore

Cooper's The Spy (1821) turned the attention of writers to the

1 III (July, 1834), 141.

209

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210   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

adaptability of American scenes and American materials to the

realm of fiction. Cooper had learned his use of the historical

and the local from Sir Walter Scott, whose border romances were

the most popular novels of the day.²

The demand for American authors and American materials

was echoed almost at once across the Alleghenies, but in a slightly

different form. While the eastern magazines were asking for a

national literature, the Westerners were calling for western writers

and western scenes. The individualism which is characteristic of

the frontier expressed its desire to be free from dependence on

the East. Dr. Daniel Drake, "the Franklin of Cincinnati,"³ wrote

in 1833, "We should foster western genius, encourage western

writers, patronize western publishers, augment the number of

western readers, and create a western heart."⁴  Dr. Drake was,

in effect, pleading for a regional literature in the West, which for

the purpose of fiction and poetry should be regarded as possessing

features distinct from those of the seaboard states.

The initiative for a western literature was undertaken by the

literary periodicals of the West, of which there was a surpris-

ingly large number. None survived for more than five years and

some no longer than a few months, but their voices, though brief,

were lusty. The two periodicals issued at Lexington, the Medley

(January-December, 1803) and the Western Review      (August,

1819-July, 1821) were not parts of the western movement, for

although they did not wholly neglect the West, they were con-

cerned mainly with academic subjects and foreign literature. The

Literary Cadet (1819-1820), "the pioneer literary leaf of the

Queen City," and the Ohio (1821-1822) made brief appearances

on the literary scene.⁵ On more solid ground was John P. Foote's

Cincinnati Literary Gazette, a weekly which "thrived" from Janu-

ary I, 1824, to October 29, 1825. Timothy Flint's Western

Monthly Review, of more dignified format, was issued at Cin-

cinnati from  May, 1827, to June, 1830. Judge James Hall's

 

2 See Harry R. Warfel and G. Harrison Orians, American Local-Color Stories (New

York, 1939), viii.

3 William Henry Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley (Cin-

cinnati, 1891), 304.

4 As quoted in New England Magazine, VI (April, 1833), 343.

5 Venable, Beginnings, 66.

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                     211

 

Illinois Monthly Magazine was published at Vandalia, Illinois,

from October, 1830, to September, 1832, and his Western Monthly

Magazine at Cincinnati from January, 1833, to November, 1837.6

The Cincinnati Mirror, in whose stormy career there were several

changes of editor, managed to survive from October I, 1831, to

September 17, 1836. William                D. Gallagher's Western Literary

Journal and Monthly Review                 (June-November, 1836) merged

after six months with the Western Monthly Magazine. The last

magazine to fall within the period, Gallagher's Hesperian (May,

1838-November, 1839) was issued first at Columbus, later at Cin-

cinnati. These periodicals, unlike their Lexington predecessors,

were in large part western in point of view, in subject matter and

in authorship. It is true that as each declined it was forced to

draw more and more upon eclectic materials, but this did not

affect the basic loyalty to the West.

The western periodicals which flourished in the eighteen

twenties and thirties were optimistic of the literary possibilities

of the trans-Allegheny region. In pleading for a school of belles-

lettres independent of that of the East, the magazinists developed

their theme along three lines: first, they claimed that writers of

great talent were living in the area across the mountains; second,

they pointed to the abundance of materials in the West for works

of the imagination; and third, they berated the attempts of eastern

writers to portray the western locale. The western critics insisted

that only native authors were capable of describing western scenes.

Writing   in  1827, Timothy    Flint stated  in the   Western

Monthly Review, "We are physically and from our peculiar modes

of existence, a scribbling and forth-putting people. Little, as

they have dreamed of the fact in the Atlantic country, we have

our thousand orators and poets."⁷ The Cincinnati Mirror, with a

self-confidence amounting almost to arrogance, said in 1833:

We feel a great interest in the literature of the West, which is now

assuming an appearance of some importance. We are strictly within the

bounds of truth, when we assert, that it is not ten years behind that of the

6 Hall was editor of the Western Monthly Magazine until June, 1836, J. R. Fry

from July - December, 1836. The Western Monthly was merged with Gallagher's

Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review and issued February - June, 1837, under

the title Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal. James B. Marshall, its pub-

lisher, and Gallagher were joint editors of the new publication.

7 I (May, 1827), 9.

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212 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Atlantic States. What Cooper, Bryant, Halleck, Paulding, Mrs. Hale, Miss

Sedgwick, and even Washington Irving, were to the lighter branches of the

literature of the East ten years ago, Flint, Hall, Neville, Curry, Dillon,

Little, B. Drake, and F. W. Thomas, Mrs. Dumont and Mrs. Hentz, now

are to the literature of the West--its ornaments and its leading spirits.

And what those are now, will these be before the expiration of the next

ten years--well known abroad, and justly appreciated at home.8

These were prideful assertions of the existence of inspired lit-

erary workers in the West, and were part of the national aspi-

rations aroused by Scott, Irving and Cooper.

Another aspect of regionalism expressed itself in the attempts

to designate the West as an area that possessed romantic materials

which could be treated in the current literary patterns. Much in

the manner of W. H. Gardiner,⁹ who in 1822 pointed to the

abundance of American materials for literary works, the West

called attention to the suitability of its scenes, characters and

events as subjects for belles-lettres.  Most eloquent in this con-

nection was the essay of Isaac Appleton Jewett in the Western

Monthly Magazine.¹⁰ Jewett pointed to the romantic materials

of the West, its thrilling history, its relics of antiquity, its beau-

tiful and varied scenery.   He hoped to "induce the writers of

western fiction to confine their range more within western boun-

daries, and to feel, that while the body of western literature is

fashioned from native materials, its spirit should be an inspiration

of western genius."¹¹

Not only was the West self-conscious regarding its place in

the literary field, but it was also sensitive of any effort on the

part of eastern writers to deal with its materials.     The West

argued that a realistic picture of trans-Allegheny life could come

only from the pens of writers personally acquainted with the

region.  In this respect its literary critics were anticipating the

demands of the local colorists--that tribe of short story writers

who flourished in the 1870's and 188o's--for native authors de-

scribing native scenes.   In accordance with this principle, the

West's reception of James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie (1828),

 

8 II (June 22, 1833), 158.

9 North American Review, XV (July, 1822), 250-282.

10 "Themes for Western Fiction," I (December, 1853), 574-88.

11 Ibid., 574.

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                       213

 

James Kirke Paulding's Westward Ho! (1832) and Robert Mont-

gomery Bird's Nick of the Woods (1837) was far from hos-

pitable.  Reviewing The Prairie in 1831, the Illinois Monthly

Magazine declared it "a complete failure."¹² Even more sarcastic

was the Cincinnati Mirror's notice of Westward Ho!, the re-

viewer calling it the "novelest novel" to reach his desk in many

a day.¹³ Nick of the Woods suffered a similar fate and was rated

"a failure" by the Western Monthly Magazine.¹⁴ Thus did the

West welcome three of the most important American novels of

the period, novels which still are read by students of American

literary history!15

The Cincinnati Literary Gazette and the western periodicals

which followed it gave emphasis to the short story as the form

of belles-lettres most suitable to the character and temper of their

publications. Of poetry there was more than enough16 but for

stories with scenes laid in the western country there were frequent

calls from  editors.  The Illinois Monthly Magazine promised to

its readers "Original tales, characteristic of the western people."17

The Western Monthly Magazine and the Cincinnati Mirror stimu-

lated interest by offering prizes for the best tales submitted, the

Mirror's editor suggesting to contributors "the propriety of con-

necting their Tales in some manner with the West, either his-

torically, or by laying the scene of action in the Great Valley.^"18

Another factor to encourage the writing of tales in both the

East and West was the appearance of literary gift-books or

annuals in which short stories were the most important feature.

With the publication at Philadelphia of the Atlantic Souvenir for

1826, began a literary fashion which assumed a position of im-

portance in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.         The

12 II (October, 1831), 23. The review of the Western Monthly Review, I (Sep-

tember, 1827), 308, was couched in equally uncomplimentary terms.

13 II (December 8, 1832), 47.

14 I (n.s., May, 1837), 272.

15 The West could laugh at the eccentricities of frontier characters, but only when

it Was on the giving--not the receiving--end of a story. The West loved its Davy

Crocketts, Mike Finks, and Colonel Plugs, rough and ready sons of the rivers and back-

woods.

16 The poetry of the West during this early period has been rescued from oblivion

through Gallagher's Selections from the Poetical Literature of the West (Cincinnati,

1841) and William T. Coggeshall's Poets and Poetry of the West (New York, 1864).

A few short stories have found their way into anthologies, but no collection of early

western tales has been published.

17 (October, 1830), 3.

18 II (September 29, 1832), 7.

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214   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

trans-Allegheny region was not unmindful of the stir caused in

the East by the arrival of the gift-books. Anxious to assert its

position on the literary scene and to be represented in this new

field, the West prepared for the publication of its own annual.

Only three years after the Atlantic Souvenir made its astonishing

debut at Philadelphia, the Western Souvenir appeared to a waiting

public at Cincinnati.   Bound in satin or tooled leather, the

Souvenir was a small octavo volume of three hundred twenty-

four pages, illustrated with six steel engravings.

The guiding spirit behind the Western Souvenir was James

Hall, who was living at this time in Vandalia, Illinois, carrying

on his duties as circuit judge and newspaper editor. While the

Atlantic Souvenirs, the Tokens and the Legendaries laid emphasis

on the American character of their contents, the Western Sou-

venir stressed the fact that it was western in materials and

authorship:

It will be seen, that this volume aspires to something beyond the ordi-

nary compilations of the day, and that we have endeavored to give it an

original character, by devoting its pages exclusively to our domestick

literature. It is written and published in the Western country, by Western

men, and is chiefly confined to subjects connected with the history and

character of the country which gives it birth.¹⁹

Of the eleven short stories in the Western Souvenir, all but

three have a western locale.

The second and only other gift-book to be published in the

trans-Allegheny region at this period is the Souvenir of the Lakes,

a tiny volume of thirty-nine pages issued at Detroit in January,

1831.20

Because of the prominence of Cincinnati on the literary scene,

most of the authors of western short stories were Cincinnatians

or men and women who at one time or another visited the Queen

City.  It is important to note that authors and editors did not

stress the fact that they were Cincinnatians, or Ohioans, but were

proud of being Westerners. It must be remembered that in the

1820's and 1830's the whole region across the Alleghenies was

 

19 P. iii.

20 Reprinted in Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio Quarterly Bulletin, XI

(April-July, 1939).

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                 215

 

known as the West. Ohio and her sister states were just begin-

ning to emerge from the pioneer stage. Cincinnati, however, as

the leading city of the West, had developed beyond pioneer ways

and was devoting more attention to the arts and to culture.

This study of the western short story will lay emphasis on

tales with scenes laid in Ohio. This should not be interpreted

as an indication that the majority of western stories dealt with

the Buckeye State; it is merely an attempt at selection from

the great amount of material to be considered.   Other states,

notably Kentucky of the dark and bloody ground" and Illinois,

were represented by a large number of tales, and the Far West

of Missouri, New Mexico and Arkansas was by no means

neglected.

When Gallagher's Hesperian ceased publication in 1839, it

heralded the close of the first period of the western tale. Five

years passed before the issuance of the next periodical to follow

in the same tradition, Judson and Hine's Western Literary Journal

and Monthly Review (November, 1844-April, 1845). The west-

ern tale of the forties and of later date was frequently a different

creation; it was likely to be a "tall tale" told by a "ring-tailed

roarer" or a wild western thriller of the dime novel class. Per-

haps the transformation was due to the fact that as the half-

century mark loomed on the horizon, the West of the early days

was fast becoming the Middle West as frontiers were driven

across the Mississippi.

 

BENJAMIN DRAKE, 1795-1841

To Benjamin Drake, lawyer, editor and biographer, goes the

honor of being the first western author of a western short story.

His "Bass-Island Cottage" appears in volume one, number one

(January 1, 1824) of the Cincinnati Literary Gazette under the

series caption "From the Portfolio of a Young Backwoodsman."

The name of Benjamin Drake21 has been more or less over-

shadowed by the brilliance of the career of his elder brother, Dr.

Daniel Drake. But Benjamin does not need to rely on family

 

21 The best account of Benjamin Drake's life is to be found in Edward Deering

Mansfield's Memoirs of the Life and Services of Daniel Drake, M.D. (Cincinnati,

Applegate, 1855), 297-302.

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216   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

relationship to be remembered by posterity, for his own life was

one of marked achievement. Benjamin spent his entire life in

the West. His parents, Isaac and Elizabeth Shotwell Drake, emi-

grated from New Jersey to Mays Lick, Kentucky, in 1788, one

year before the Bluegrass region was admitted to the Union.

Benjamin was born in 1795, spent his boyhood days on his father's

Kentucky farm, and moved to Cincinnati in 1814 to clerk in his

brother's drug store. Cincinnati became his permanent place of

residence and the scene of his literary activities. Benjamin had

begun the study of law in Mays Lick, continued it in Cincinnati,

and entered practice with William R. Moses about 1825. In 1826

in conjunction with Edward Deering Mansfield he compiled and

edited the handbook, Cincinnati in 1826, a descriptive guide to the

city designed to induce immigration. From 1826 to 1834, Drake

was editor of the Cincinnati Chronicle, a newspaper which he

helped to found. He was represented in James Hall's Western

Souvenir (1829), the pioneer literary annual of the trans-Alle-

gheny region, by the romantic tale "William Bancroft." Some

of Drake's short stories were collected in 1838 and issued as

Tales and Sketches from the Queen City. Drake was also the

author of two biographies of Indian chiefs, The Life and Adven-

tures of Black Hawk (1838) and Life of Tecumseh and of His

Brother the Prophet (1841).

It is fitting that the first western short story should be laid

at a scene certain to capture the imagination and stir the pride of

all westerners--at South Bass Island, where Perry's fleet had re-

turned victorious to Put-in-Bay harbor a little more than a decade

before. "Bass-Island" is narrated by a volunteer in Old Isaac

Shelby's army which had encamped on the Island previous to

the descent on Malden.

The story is inconsequential, although the description of the

Island and of the harbor is well done. The soldier discovers on

South Bass a dilapidated wooden house in an advanced stage of

decay. The sight arouses his curiosity, and he learns its story

from an old man he meets in Maiden. The house had been in-

habited by the family of an Englishman, who seemed to be

suffering from some great sorrow and wanted to withdraw from

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES               217

 

the world. The recluse, his wife, and child were drowned in

Lake Erie during a sudden squall, and the mystery surrounding

their lives was never solved.

Other of Drake's contributions to the Cincinnati Literary

Gazette were "The Antiquaries, in the West," "Arthur Fitzroy,"

"The Maniac," "A Border Legend of the Pictured Rocks" and

"The Lovers' Political Race, or a Kentucky Election." All of

these stories bear the series title "From the Portfolio of a Young

Backwoodsman" and all are western in setting. Only one, how-

ever, "The Antiquaries, in the West" has an Ohio locale. It

relates a dream which comes to the narrator as he sleeps on an

Indian mound in western Cincinnati, and is a satire directed

against scholars who attempt to reconstruct ancient civilizations

by means of a single relic.

Special mention should be made of "A Border Legend of the

Pictured Rocks" for it is an early example of the story based on

Indian legend. It is written in the clear-cut style characteristic

of the work of William Joseph Snelling, whose Tales of the

Northwest were to appear six years later. "A Border Legend"

is the tragic tale of Pulille, a Knistineaux Indian residing on the

southern banks of Lake Superior, and of Wabego, her forbidden

lover. Wabegois killed in battle, and Pulille commits suicide by

jumping off a high cliff.

While editor of the Cincinnati Chronicle, Drake published

several stories in its columns. One, "The Pirate's Death," has

its finale in Cincinnati, and is a highly moral tale of a young

Yale student who kills a man in a quarrel, flees to New Orleans

on a river boat, joins pirates in the Gulf, is shipwrecked and in-

jured, and finally dies in the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic

Asylum of Cincinnati, an inmate of public charity.

Passing now to Drake's volume of collected stories, one comes

to "The Queen City."   In the titular story a solitary hunter

stands on a hill overlooking the Ohio and contemplates the tran-

quillity of the view before him. Suddenly the backwoodsman is

stirred from his reveries by the sight of three Indians returning

across the Ohio from a raid in the "dark and bloody ground."

Stealthily following his enemies to their encampment, he succeeds

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218 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

in killing one and putting the others to flight. Many years pass

before the hunter returns to the scene of his youthful adventure.

What a change has taken place since his last visit! The hum of

"forty-thousand human beings, rich in the blessings both moral

and intellectual, of civilized life falls upon his listening ear."

Before him spreads busy Cincinnati, with its thousand factories,

stately mansions, its warehouses and magnificent temples. On

the very spot where he had killed the Indian stands a church, a

place for prayer and praise. At the close of the day the pioneer

crosses the Ohio to his humble cabin in Kentucky, taking his first

and last farewell of the Queen City of the West.

Drake turns to Gallipolis as the setting for another story,

"The Grave of Rosalie." "The Grave of Rosalie" describes the

disappointments of the French colonists who, lured to America

by the false promises of the Scioto Company, were finally given

land at Gallipolis, on the Ohio River. Added to their sufferings

from lack of food and experience was the danger of Indian

attack. Rosalie, the wife of a French artist named Telespon, is

taken captive by Indians. After several days' march, the rescue

party, led by an old Virginia hunter, overtakes the abductors at

the Falls of the Little Miami. Three of the four Indians are

killed, but the remaining one shoots the hunter through the heart.

Telespon rushes to the side of his wife, only to see her made the

victim of the tomahawk. In a hand-to-hand combat, Telespon

and the Indian fall over the precipice to be dashed on the rocks

below.

"The Flag Bearer" appears to be an historical sketch rather

than a work of fiction. In company with an interpreter and a

waiter, Major Alexander Trueman22 sets out from Fort Wash-

ington to bring the white flag of truce to the Indians on the

Maumee and the Au Glaize. Nearing their destination, the party

falls in with a group of three Indians. To show their good faith,

the white men permit one of their number, the waiter, to be

bound. The savages turn traitor, killing the officer and his ser-

vant, but permitting the interpreter to go free.

 

22 Beverley W. Bond, Jr., The Foundations of Ohio, Carl Wittke, ed., The History

of the State of Ohio (Columbus, 1941), I, 338, gives Trueman's rank as that of

captain.

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                 219

 

Drake scores another "first" in "Brindle and the Buckeyes,"

the first short story of western college life.  "Brindle and the

Buckeyes" descends to farce and slapstick comedy, but it proves

that even a century ago the young delighted in teasing their elders.

The students at Cincinnati College play a prank upon their be-

loved president.  When the learned doctor opens the door of

the chapel (located on the second floor) to conduct morning

prayer, he finds a cow under the pulpit leisurely chewing her cud.

The order to remove the animal at once is not easily carried out,

for the cow refuses to go down the stairway. A shock adminis-

tered by a galvanic battery, the proud possession of the president,

finally gives old brindle the necessary impetus to leave the

building.²³

Another story in the farcical vein is "Trying on a Shoe," a

sketch of young love in Cincinnati, which draws its theme from

the dialogue of Lady Easy and Lady Modish in Colley Cibber's

The Careless Husband.

The remaining stories in Tales and Sketches do not have an

Ohio locale, although all of them are western. Three may be

singled out as worthy of mention: "A Kentucky Election," which

is a clever satire on politics during Kentucky's early days as a

state; "Putting a Black-leg on Shore," which describes steamboat

travel on the Mississippi; and "The Yankee Colporteur," which

sums up the Westerners' attitude toward New England peddlers

and gives adequate basis for their prejudices.

Drake may be commended for the variety of his source ma-

terials and for his attempts to portray western character. He is

the author of more Ohio stories than any other writer of the

period. It is interesting to note that Drake's career in the short

story covers almost the whole of the period under consideration.

In 1824 his "Bass-Island Cottage" opens the study of the early

western tale, and his collected volume, published in 1838, comes

within one year of its closing date.

 

23 Dr. Daniel Drake, Benjamin's brother, was influential in the founding of Cin-

cincinnati College in 1819, organized its Medical Department, and was a member of its

faculty.

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220   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

TIMOTHY FLINT, 1780-1840

Timothy Flint was more familiar with the vast expanse of

the trans-Allegheny region than most of his contemporaries. A

Harvard graduate and theologian, he came to the West as a min-

ister of the gospel, working first under the auspices of the Mis-

sionary Society of Connecticut and later carrying on independ-

ently. With his wife and children, he left Massachusetts in 1815,

boarded a flatboat at Pittsburgh, and descended the Ohio. During

the next decade his religious activities centered in the valley of

the Mississippi; he traversed the great river from St. Louis to

New Orleans. The privation, sorrow and illness which accom-

panied his pilgrimage in the wilderness is vividly recorded in his

Recollections of the Last Ten Years, printed in Boston in 1826.

The success of the Recollections and of his first novel, Frances

Berrian (1826) caused him to forsake his ministerial duties and

devote his energies almost exclusively to his pen. From 1827 to

I833 he was a more or less permanent resident of Cincinnati.

While in the literary capital of the West, Flint issued the Western

Monthly Review, one of the pioneer literary magazines of the

Ohio Valley. During the latter part of 1833 he moved to New

York City to be editor for a brief time of the Knickerbocker.

Most of the remaining years of his life were spent at the seat

of his family, Alexandria, Louisiana.²⁴

Flint's novels are fairly well known, but his short stories

have never been collected from the periodicals and the annuals in

which they first appeared. Most of these forgotten stories deal

with definitely western materials and deserve to be brought to

light.

"Oolemba in Cincinnati," which is Flint's best story, was

contributed to Hall's Western Souvenir.     The title hero is a

kindly, wise, and pathetic old Delaware who is driven from his

home by the encroaching pioneers. In describing the retreat of

the red man before the advancing tide of the white, Flint uses a

theme popular among writers of fiction, especially during the

 

24 For a biography of Flint see John Ervin Kirkpatrick, Timothy Flint, Pioneer,

Missionary, Author, Editor, 1780-1840 (Cleveland, 1911) and the new edition of

Recollections of the Last Ten Years, edited, with an introduction by C. Hartley Grattan

(New York, 1932).

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                     221

 

eighteen-twenties and thirties. The romantic view of the Indian

as a vanishing race was first drawn by N. M. Hentz in Tadeus-

kund, the Last King of the Lenape (1825) and was soon followed

by Cooper's Last of the Mohicans (1826) and the Wept of the

Wish-Ton-Wish (1829), Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie

(1827) and many others.25      Flint's "Oolemba in Cincinnati" is

a particularly poignant and sympathetic treatment of this romantic

subject.

When the settlers seize upon his land in the Ohio Valley,

Oolemba bows his head to the inevitable and moves with his wife

and son to the land of the Shoshonees. Among his new friends

who dwell in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Oolemba and

his family find rest. The idyllic life among the Shoshonees ends

when a hostile tribe of savages descends upon the valley bringing

death and destruction. Oolemba's wife and child are killed. The

aged Indian, overcome with grief, wants to visit once more the

spot on the Ohio where his cabin nestled and where his son was

born. The weary journey by foot and by canoe is finally com-

pleted. What a change in scene awaits Oolemba! In the forty

years since he left home, the wilderness has been transformed into

a bustling city. The very place where his house had stood is occu-

pied by a cold building of stone--the white man's bank. Un-

willing to stay the night in this horrible place, he again turns his

face to the West to spend the remainder of his days among the

remnants of the Shoshonees.

"Oolemba in Cincinnati" may be compared with Drake's "The

Queen City," for the transformation of wilderness to metropolis

is the background of both stories. Drake's narrative, however,

lacks the emotional appeal and the dramatic power of Flint's tale.

To his Western Monthly Review, Flint contributed "Jemima

O'Keefy,--a Sentimental Tale." This is a witty and amusing

story in which Flint's propensity for satire was given free rein.²⁶

 

25 For a full treatment of this subject see G. Harrison Orians, "The Cult of the

Vanishing American; a Century View: 1834-1934," in Bulletin of the Universitty of

Toledo, XIII (November, 1935), no. 3.

26 Mrs. Trollope remarked, in one of the few instances in which she praised an

American: "The most agreeable acquaintance I made in Cincinnati, and indeed one of

the most talented men I ever met, was Mr. Flint, the author of several extremely

clever volumes, and the editor of the Western Monthly Review. His conversational

powers are of the higher order: he is the only person I remember to have known with

first-rate powers of satire, and even of sarcasm, whose kindness of nature and of manner

remained perfectly uninjured." Domestic Manners of the Americans (New York, n.d.),

I, 124.

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Jemima,an Irish vixen, by virtue of a hooked nose and a look of

defiance in her keen eye is master of any situation. She rules

her husband Jacob, a surly Dutchman of six feet two, and her

children with an iron hand. Jemima is stolen from Red Stone

by a wandering band of Shawnees, who carry her to the shores

of the Big Miami. While the Indians can keep her a captive,

they can by no means break her spirit. Five years later she

escapes from the camp and wanders on foot the hundred and

twenty leagues to her Pennsylvania home. On finding that Jacob

has married again and added several little ones to his progeny,

Jemima, a female Enoch Arden, retraces her steps to the Shawnee

village. Here she becomes the wife of To-ne-wa, a huge warrior

with painted face and silver nose jewel. "By hook she managed

his savage and fierce spirit this way, and by crook she swayed

him that way, until she had him as completely in check, as she

ever had Jacob." Against his will To-ne-wa builds a log cabin,

surrounds it with a neat fence, and plants an apple orchard and

corn field. Dressed in American fashion, the children of this

strange union are not permitted to follow savage ways but are

given schooling. Their father, who has been forced through the

years into civilized habits, finally boasts that his papooses read

better than white children and that his house and fields are the

most trim in the village.

Flint's other western tales (but not with Ohio settings) are

"Agnes Sorel de Merivanne, the Recluse Coquette," "The Hermit

of the Prairies," "The Indian Fighter," "Nimrod Buckskin, Esq.,"

"Violetta and Thoroughgrab," and George Mason, the Young

Backwoodsman (a novelette). His short stories constitute but

a minor part of his literary activities. In the decade from 1826

to 1836 he turned out a vast quantity of material; he wrote novels,

biographies, histories, travel sketches, essays, lectures and reviews.

Like James Hall, he considered the West his chief subject matter,

and most of the products of his pen deal with this region.

Flint's short stories, although few in number, exhibit a wide

range in style. He is sentimental and florid in "The Indian

Fighter," realistic (at times) in George Mason, the Young Back-

woodsman, sympathetic and appealing in "Oolemba in Cincinnati"

• 14
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                223

 

(his best story), and witty and satirical in "Jemima O'Keefy."

Flint could write and could write well. It is unfortunate that

he devoted so much energy to composing a great mass of litera-

ture and so little to polishing and perfecting that which he had

produced.

MORGAN NEVILLE, 1783-1840

If we were to select the single story most popular with west-

ern readers during the period under consideration, it would un-

doubtedly be "The Last of the Boatmen." Written by Morgan

Neville, this sketch of Mike Fink, the legendary hero of the Ohio

and the Mississippi, first appeared in the Western Souvenir

(1829). The figure of Mike, the hard-drinking, straight-shooting

braggart of the river, is an odd companion to the polished gen-

tlemen and dainty women who grace the other pages of the gift

book.

The passengers of an Ohio River steamboat are given an

opportunity to witness one of Fink's feats of skill when the vessel

makes a stop near Letart's Falls on its journey from Pittsburgh

to Cincinnati. Mike, a tall, muscular figure with tanned skin and

raven-black hair, bets a quart of whiskey that he can shoot a tin

cup off the head of his brother at a distance of thirty yards.

With utter confidence the Ohio William Tell takes aim and fires;

the bullet pierces the cup two inches from the skull of his willing

accomplice.

The story continues with a brief sketch of Mike's life. "The

hero of a hundred fights" and "the leader in a thousand adven-

tures" started life as an Indian scout. When the red men re-

treated beyond the Mississippi, Fink changed from roaming the

woods on foot to riding the rivers on board a keel-boat. He soon

became the acknowledged chief of that tribe of burly men who

navigated the western waters during the early days of inland

commerce. With the advent of the steamboat, an invention which

he viewed with scorn, Mike emigrated to the Missouri. Here

he met his fate in a characteristic way. Shooting at the tin cup

while under the influence of liquor, Fink aimed too low and killed

his companion. Suspecting foul play, a friend of the deceased

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224   OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

ended the career of the boatman by putting a bullet through his

heart.

The story gave, "as far as it went, a most exact and faithful

likeness of an actual personage of flesh and blood, once well

known on our waters, and now no more."27      With this initial

appearance of the king of the boatmen on the pages of fiction

began a long series of sketches, half-true and half-imaginary, in

which this picturesque figure was made the hero of many an ad-

venture.²⁸ To the stories of Mike Fink, the marksman, are added

the tales of Mike Fink the outlaw, the humorist, the trapper, the

lover. In contrast with the accounts which follow, Neville's Mike

Fink seems a mild and almost well-bred figure. "The Last of

the Boatmen" was the pioneer in the "tall story" tradition of the

frontier which was to flower in the Davy Crockett myths and

William T. Porter's collection, The Big Bear of Arkansas.

Westerners loved Mike Fink and references to his exciting

career are frequently found in the pages of western periodicals.

Other stories of river travel begin by paying a tribute to the king

of the inland waters. The Cincinnati Mirror reprinted "The Last

of the Boatmen" and called Mike a "true and legitimate son of

the 'far west' in earlier days," and a decided contrast to Paulding's

Sam Hugg of Westward Ho!29

Morgan Neville is a particularly interesting subject for west-

ern literary historians because he was the first notable writer of

fiction to be born across the Alleghenies.  His birthplace was

Pittsburgh, the date 1783. Neville came fom a well-known fam-

ily; his father, Major Presley Neville, was aide-de-camp to La-

fayette, and his maternal grandfather was General Daniel Morgan.

During the visit of the Duke of Orleans (later Louis Philippe) to

Pittsburgh in 1796, the boy became the favorite of the French

nobleman. Neville moved to Cincinnati in 1824, where for a

brief period during 1826 he edited the Cincinnati Commercial

Register, the first daily newspaper west of Philadelphia.  La-

fayette called on the son of his aide-de-camp when his tour

27 Western Monthly Review, III, 15. The article, furnished by a correspondent in

St. Louis, gives an account of further adventures of Mike Fink.

²⁸ For a compilation of the Fink legends see Walter Blair and Franklin J. Meine,

Mike Fink, King of Mississippi Keelboatmen (New York, 1933).

29 II (December 8, 1832), 49.

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OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                  22₅

 

brought him to Cincinnati; on hearing that Neville was ill and

in debt, the French general gave him stock in the United States

Bank to tide him over his difficulties.30

John T. Flanagan,³¹ writing in the Western Pennsylvania

Historical Magazine in 1938, claims that Neville was a member

of the party of fifteen youths who left Pittsburgh on December

13, 1806, to join Aaron Burr at New Orleans. This fact casts

a new light on Neville's "The Lady of Blennerhassett," published

in the Gift for 1836. "The Lady of Blennerhassett" chronicles

the events which follow when the young men from     Pittsburgh

are seized by the militia and brought to the mansion on the Island

to stand trial for treason. Harman Blennerhassett had deserted

his "castle" but a few days before. In the absence of the colonel

of the regiment, the youths are brought to trial before three

justices, described as being the most stupid representatives of

the western bar.  The boys plead their innocence of any un-

patriotic act, claiming to be interested only in forming a colony

similar to that of Robert Owen. Overwhelmed by the knowledge

of the law and the wit and intelligence of the prisoners, the judges

are forced to grant their release. In the meantime the militiamen

have wrought havoc in the mansion, breaking into the wine cellar

and destroying the furniture. In the midst of this destruction,

Madame Blennerhassett returns from    an unsuccessful visit to

Marietta, where she had hoped to get a keel-boat for a journey

down the Mississippi to join her husband. Colonel Phelps, arriv-

ing shortly after, berates his followers for their unseeming con-

duct; he describes Blennerhassett, not as a traitor to the American

cause, but as a visionary led astray by false promises.

"The Lady of Blennerhassett" appears to be Neville's attempt

to offer an explanation for his part in the Burr conspiracy. The

majority of the materials in the story are based on historical fact.³²

In "Poll Preble; or The Law of the Deer Hunt," which

appears in the Gift for 1839, Neville forsakes the simplicity of

style which marks "The Last of the Boatmen" and becomes ex-

 

30 Venable, Beginnings, 373-6.

31 "Morgan Neville, Early Western Chronicler," XXI (December, 1938), 257.

32 In "The Last of the Boatmen," the narrator of the story recalls the tragic history

of Blennerhassett as the steamboat passes the island.

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226   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

cessively florid and sentimental. It takes place on the banks of

the Ohio between the Great Scioto and the Little Miami. The

main portion of the story concerns the love affair of a visitor

from the East and an accomplished Kentucky maiden, whose

chief delight is reading Chateaubriand's Atala on the edge of the

river.

The story is saved from inanity by the description of Poll

Preble, the daughter of an Ohio River ferryman. Poll is one of

the first women in early fiction who is a living, breathing human

being. Poll is not the familiar ladylike figure of the drawing

room, but an outdoor girl who can row a boat and shoot a rifle

like an expert. Her courage and skill are shown during the

hunting "frolick," which is given in honor of the visitor from

the East. According to the law of the hunt, the game becomes

the property of the man who kills it. When four deer are driven

into the water by the hounds, Poll takes to her canoe and goes

after a large buck. Fearful that another may claim the prize,

she hangs on to its horns and calls to her sweetheart on the banks

to fire. Bill, confident of his ability as a marksman, shoots

straight, securing the buck for Poll and himself.

"The Exile of Mexico" appears in the Cincinnati Mirror

above the signature "N" and is probably the work of Neville. It

is the story of a political refugee from the Mexican revolution

of 1828, who comes to Cincinnati to await safer conditions in

his native country. Western (but not Ohio) is the "Remem-

brance of Pittsburgh," first published in the Cincinnati Chronicle

and later reprinted in Hall's Illinois Monthly Magazine. The

visit of the Duke of Orleans to the frontier settlement of Pitts-

burgh provides the chief plot ingredient. Other stories (not

western in setting) signed "N" in the Cincinnati Literary Gazette

and the Chronicle may also be Neville's.

Neville's tales, though few in number, show a wide variety

in plot and treatment, and each has its mark of individuality.

"The Last of the Boatmen" brings to the pages of fiction a charac-

ter who takes his place with Davy Crockett, Mike Shuck and

Colonel Plug as one of the definitely western products of the

frontier. "The Lady of Blennerhassett" softens the usual harsh

• 18
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES               227

 

view of the Burr conspirators by portraying them as men misled

by false ideals. "Poll Preble" is noteworthy for its picture of

the title heroine, a figure as western among women as Mike

Fink among men.

 

WILLIAM    D. GALLAGHER, 1808-1894

An outstanding figure in the early Cincinnati literary field

was William Davis Gallagher. With Judge James Hall, Galla-

gher ranks as one of the two men most responsible for the de-

velopment of literary talent in the West. Through the several

periodicals of which he was editor, Gallagher made frequent

appeals for the support of a Western literature.

William D. Gallagher was born in Philadelphia, August 21,

1808. He came to Cincinnati with his widowed mother and three

brothers in ISIS, making the journey down the Ohio on a flat-

boat. In Cincinnati, Gallagher early fell under the spell of printer's

ink; he was but thirteen when he learned to set type in the office

of a small paper, the Remembancer.

Gallagher's life was a long and eventful one, for at various

times he was printer, poet, journalist, editor, orator, short story

writer, publisher, politician and farmer. Usually he was occupied

with more than one task at a time. As a sponsor of western tales,

it is the 1830 decade of his life which is of most interest. In 1831

Gallagher began his career with the Cincinnati Mirror, leaving the

Xenia Backwoodsman to accept the editorship of the literary

journal. Gallagher, either alone or in conjunction with others, was

editor of the Mirror during the greatest share of its rather hectic

existence. At one time also he was, with Thomas H. Shreve, its

publisher.

The last issue of the Mirror for which Gallagher was respon-

sible was that of April 30, 1836. Less than two months later

found him editor of the Western Literary Journal and Monthly

Review, sponsored by Smith and Day. This short-lived venture

was sold after six months to James B. Marshall, who combined

it with his Western Monthly Magazine which he had recently

purchased. Gallagher became joint editor with Marshall of the

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228    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

new publication, the Western Monthly Magazine and Literary

Journal, of which only five issues were published.

Misfortunes did not easily daunt the young journalist, who

was convinced that the West could support a really good literary

monthly. A year later at Columbus, where he had gone to assist

his brother John on the Ohio State Journal, he, together with

Otway Curry, became editor of the Hesperian. Curry dropped out

at the end of six months, and Gallagher continued alone for the

next year, at the end of which time the periodical "folded." From

June-November, 1839, the Hesperian was issued at Cincinnati.³³

For the Cincinnati Mirror Gallagher wrote three stories of a

settlement founded by Pennsylvania Germans in the interior of

Ohio, which he names Rock-Hollow. The first of these, "The

Heiress of Rock-Hollow" is a hilarious tale of Johannes Puter-

baugh,³⁴ a stuttering and tyrannous Dutchman, and of his daughter

Mary. Mary "made the best smear-case and sour-kraut that were

to be had within half a week's ride, and could milk a cow in less

time than any other lass in the country." Trouble comes to the

Puterbaugh household when Johannes tries to make his daughter

wed Diederick, the handy man on the farm and a recent immigrant

from "der Faderland." Mary's choice is a "tam Yankee" school-

teacher, Edward Cunningham. Mary gets her way, of course, but

only after outwitting her father and Diederick by escaping from

her locked bedroom through a window.

At a later date Gallagher took "The Heiress of Rock-

Hollow"; combined it with parts of "Derrick Vandunk; or the

Dutch Philosopher"; changed the names of some of the charac-

ters; polished Mary's manners; gave the story an indefinite location

in the West; and expanded the whole into a novelette which he

 

33 Gallagher pours forth his troubles as editor in an excellent article in Judson and

line's Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review, 1, 1-9 (November, 1844). This

article was a revision of an earlier one in the Hesperian, II (May, 1838), 90-94. Gal-

lagher lists as causes underlying the failure of western periodicals (1) the general

indifference of the western newspaper press to these productions, (2) the failure of able

writers to submit materials, (3) the negligence of subscribers in paying for their

periodicals, and (4) the lack of enterprising publishers to handle the mechanical and

business details. The last he claimed to be the most important cause.

34 In the preface to the story, Gallagher writes, "In portraying the character of

Johannes Puterbaugh, the author was not indebted to fancy. There was an original

Johzanes,--a man of real flesh and blood,--(and who considered himself a marvel-

lously proper man too) and the likeness will be recognized by many in the interior ...

He will endeavour to give a correct portraiture of one of the most useful classes of the

inhabitants of the Backwoods,--the honest, sturdy, and thrifty Dutch farmer,--that may

be taken for a caricature, which is nearly a fac-simile."

• 20
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                  229

 

issued in four parts in the Hesperian. After all these labors, the

resulting product, "The Dutchman's Daughter," is a much less

charming tale than the original composition.

"The Militia Rivals," another chapter in the "Chronicles of

the Dutch Village," is written in the same satirical vein as "The

Heiress of Rock-Hollow." Two members of the militia, Captain

Hanse Van Schickle and Lieutenant Martin Schmidthammer, are

suitors for the hand of Betty Fromm. When Hanse orders the

militia to march past Betty's house in full array, Martin gives a

counter order to halt. The result is a split in the army into two

divisions, one going one way, one another. Betty solves the prob-

lem of rivalry by marrying an outsider, Charles Derffenderffer

of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

"Old Van--A Character," the third tale of Rock-Hollow, is

a serious sketch in which a father on his deathbed gives advice to

his wayward son.

"Cobe Slaco" has some Ohio materials. Two travelers on a

stage journey from Dayton to Cincinnati are joined by a third

member at Hamilton. The newcomer tells a story of the West,

but the scene of his sketch lies in Indiana. "The Deserted Cabin,"

Gallagher's only remaining western story, is the chronicle of the

misfortunes endured by a pioneer family in Illinois.

Gallagher's best story, of course, is the "Heiress of Rock-

Hollow." So many of the short stories of the period are serious

tales of sickness, misery and death, that a humorous sketch to

relieve the tension is more than welcome. In his choice of the

Dutch settlers as his characters, and of satire as his mode of ex-

pression, Gallagher follows the trail blazed by Washington Irving,

"the keeper of the Dutch tradition of the Hudson," of whose

work he was a great admirer.35

35 Gallagher remarks in Cincinnati Mirror, III (May 3, 1834), 229, that he "grew

merry over the incomparable 'Rip Van Winkle,' and drowsy over soporific 'Sleepy

Hollow'."

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230    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

MRS. JULIA L. DUMONT, 1794-1857

One of the most popular writers of tales and sketches in

the early days was Mrs. Julia L. Dumont, of Vevay, Indiana.

Mrs. Dumont was the first woman to achieve literary prominence

in the Ohio Valley. Her poems and tales were eagerly awaited

by readers of western journals, and the promise of a story by

her in a future issue of a periodical was considered sufficient

inducement for subscription. At a time when it was not the cus-

tom to copyright periodicals, many of her stories were copied in

the magazines of both East and West.

Ohio can claim    Mrs. Dumont equally with Indiana, for it

was on the banks of the Muskingum36 that Julia Louisa Cory

was born in October, 1794. Her parents37 were among the

original settlers of Marietta, coming with the Ohio Company from

their home in Rhode Island. A few months before Julia was

born, her father was found killed, it was believed at the hands of

Indians.³⁸ The next spring Mrs. Cory, carrying her infant daugh-

ter in a saddle bag, made the difficult trip across the wilderness

to New York State.

Mrs. Cory (later to become Mrs. Mandville) was a well-

educated woman for her day and the author of at least one book,

Lucinda, or the Mountain Mourner. She saw to it that her daugh-

ter received an excellent education and that she had access to the

best books. Julia attended Milton Academy, Saratoga County,

New York.

Julia Cory began at an early age to teach school in New York

State. Her literary efforts also began early, for it is known that

on July 4, 1812, while the growing tension between Great

Britain and the United States was at its peak, she wrote a patriotic

poem at Saratoga, New York. It was through the medium of her

poetry that Julia met John Dumont, whom she married in August,

 

36 Mrs. Lucille Skelcher in "Julia L. Dumont and Her Descendents," a paper read

at the Switzerland County Historical Meeting of January 13, 1938 (printed in Vevay-

Reveille-Enterprise, February 10, 1938), gives Marietta as her birthplace. Edward

Thomson in Coggeshall Poets and Poetry, 43, says that she was born at Waterford,

Washington County, Ohio.

37 Thomas W. Lewis, History of Southeastern Ohio and the Muskingum Valley,

1788-1928 (Chicago, 1928), 62, lists Ebenezer Corry as one of the forty-seven original

colonists of Marietta. Mrs. Skelcher, "Julia L. Dumont," the great-granddaughter of

Mrs. Dumont, is the authority for the spelling of Mrs. Dumont's maiden name as

"Cory." There are other divergent spellings.

38 Skelcher, "Julia L. Dumont."

• 22
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES              231

 

1812, at Greenfield, New York. Dumont had been so impressed

by a poem of hers which he had read, that he wrote to the youthful

teacher, and later met and courted her.39

The Dumonts moved to Cincinnati in the spring of 1813,

where John served as land agent for General William  Henry

Harrison.⁴⁰ The next year the couple settled at Vevay, Indiana,

in Switzerland County, which became their permanent home. It

was here that Julia Dumont raised a large family, taught school

for thirty-five years, and found a few leisure moments to devote

to a literary career. Her husband, a lawyer, was a prominent figure

in early Indiana politics, serving in the state legislature, both in

the House and Senate, for several years. He ran for governor of

the state against David Wallace but was defeated.

The first story of which it is certain Mrs. Dumont is the

author is "Theodore Harland," a prize tale which she wrote for

the Saturday Evening Chronicle. "Theodore Harland" appears

in the issue of the Chronicle for April 21, 1827, and was copied

by the Rural Repository under date of October 13, 1827. Other

of her stories which were published in the Chronicle are "The

Soldier's Son" reprinted from the Crystal and the Casket, "The

Orphans" (from the Philadelphia Souvenir), a story without title

(reprinted from  the Casket), by which magazine it had been

awarded a prize), and "Scenes of the Wilderness" (from the

Cincinnati Mirror). Only one of these stories, the last named,

deals with western materials. Mrs. Dumont, however, may be

the author of five earlier stories published in the Cincinnati

Literary Gazette in 1824-1825, a periodical to which she submitted

several poems. The signature at the end of the stories is in each

case the initial "D," the same means by which Mrs. Dumont signs

her work in the Chronicle.

Mrs. Dumont wrote extensively for the Cincinnati Mirror.

Of her stories in the Mirror, it is "Ashton Grey" which is of

most interest, even though its plot is involved and confusing. The

title hero is an Ohio River boatman, a member of the celebrated

tribe of Mike Fink. Whereas Mike Fink was a crude and uncouth

 

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

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232 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

figure, Ashton bears the marks of a well-bred and educated gen-

tleman. The scene of the story is in the frontier town of Cincinnati.

Ashton, because of circumstantial evidence, is accused of the mur-

der of a man whose body was found in the Ohio. At the trial,

all the evidence points to Ashton's guilt and he is about to be

sentenced. At the last moment his father (whom the reader learns

later is really his foster father) confesses to the crime. Ashton is

reunited with his sweetheart, who is the ward of a man who turns

out to be Ashton's own father.

"Scenes of the Wilderness" and "Boonesborough" are two

western (but not Ohio) stories of Mrs. Dumont's which appeared

in the Mirror. "Boonesborough" won for its author a prize of

fifty dollars for the best original tale submitted.

For the Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review she

wrote "The Picture," a tale of Fort Washington at the time of

the Indian uprisings. Edith Lennox, a Kentucky maiden, is a

visitor at the Fort, where she is courted by Major Armar. Edith's

real love, however, is Russell Carr, a Kentucky backwoodsman.

also stationed at the Fort, whom she had known in childhood.

Both Armar and Carr are members of St. Clair's tragic army

which meets defeat at the site of Fort Recovery. When Armar is

wounded in battle, Carr comes to his assistance and is himself

more seriously wounded. Both men are brought back to Fort

Washington, where Armar recovers quickly, but Carr lies close

to death. Carr, given a zest for living by Edith's declaration of

love, is finally nursed back to health. Edith and Carr become

early settlers of Cincinnati.

"A Family History," appearing in Judson and Hine's West-

ern Literary Journal (November, 1844), falls beyond the closing

date of this article, but because it stresses the use of western

materials may well be included. When an old lady offered to pro-

vide the plot for a story, the author replied, "Let it be Western,

however . . . we go in distinctly for consumption of home mate-

rials." "A Family History" takes place at Cincinnati, "not a

hundred paces from the center of our queen and queenly city."

It concerns George Ellesly, a true son of the West, who, although

illy treated by his family in his youth, returns incognito to aid

his half-brother and his father when they are in trouble.

• 24
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                    233

 

The work of Mrs. Dumont is significant only in reflecting

the popularity of the sentimental tale in the thirties. Following

closely the Lady's Book pattern set by feminine writers in the

East, Mrs. Dumont peoples her stories with saintly heroes and

Dresden china heroines. The polished characters of the drawing

room seem especially ludicrous when set against the crude and

rough background of the frontier. To bring tears to the eyes

of her readers by relating a tragic tale of love seems to be Mrs.

Dumont's objective in writing fiction. Her language is at all times

stilted and florid; elaborate similies and metaphors crowd every

page. Coincidence--frequently a highly incredible factor--is the

chief plot ingredient. The author is concerned with "uplifting"

her public; the good, although subjected to many trials, always

emerge triumphant.⁴¹

But perhaps this is too harsh a criticism of the first woman

writer of the West. Edward Eggleston, the Hoosier novelist,

who was one of her pupils at Vevay, writes of Mrs. Dumont in

Scribner's Monthly:42

Mrs. Julia L. Dumont is, like all our Western writers of that day,

except Prentice, almost entirely forgotten. But in the time, before rail-

ways, when the West, shut in by the Alleghenies, had an incipient litera-

ture, Mrs. Dumont occupied no mean place as a writer of poetry and prose

tales. Eminent litterateurs of the time, from Philadelphia and Cincinnati,

used to come to Vevay to see her; but they themselves--these great lights

of ancient American literature away back in the forties--are also for-

gotten. Who remembers Gallagher and the rest today?

 

MRS. PAMILLA W. BALL

Another feminine writer of the thirties was Mrs. Pamilla W.

Ball of Zanesville. A widowed lady, Mrs. Ball became editor of

the Zanesville Evening Visitor, a Saturday newspaper, in 1837

in an attempt to earn a living for herself and her children. The

pen must not have proved a lucrative tool, however, for the paper

lasted but a few months. Mrs. Ball submitted several stories to

 

41 In an article in the Cincinnati Mirror "Brief Notices of Western Writers, no. IV.

Mrs. Julia L. Dumont" (III, May 3, 1834), 229, William D. Gallagher comments

favorably on the work of Mrs. Dumont, but criticizes her ornate style and long,

involved sentences.

⁴2 "Some Western School Masters," Scribner's Monthly, XVII (March, 1879), 750.

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234   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

the Cincinnati Mirror, several of which concern the hardships

endured by women in pioneer days.⁴³

"Woman's Destiny," the first of her stories in the Mirror, is

a western tale of a young wife whose life is ruined by a drinking

husband. In "Man and Woman," the heroine must bear not only

the drinking of her husband, but his infidelity as well. The title

hero of the "Recluse of the Desert" is a tired and broken man

whose daughter has married an Indian warrior. "Chapter in the

Life of a Pioneer's Wife" is the story of an attack by bandits of a

pioneer party crossing the mountains on their way to the West.

Of higher calibre is Mrs. Ball's "The Haunted Tree," which

takes place on the banks of the Muskingum. Onaloosa, an old

chief of eighty winters, believes that his tribe should leave its

hunting grounds before the advance of the pioneers. As he is

talking to his men, the song of the boatmen is heard and a white

girl and her husband are seen approaching in the boat as passen-

gers. The girl is captured and killed by the Indians against the

wishes and advice of Onaloosa. Following this deed, the old

Indian gives up his symbols of authority and supervises the burial

of the girl beneath a spreading sycamore tree.

Two other Ohio stories which Mrs. Ball wrote for the Mirror

are "A Tale of the Early Times" and "Woman's Trials." The

first concerns a Virginian of good family who marries a poor

servant girl he finds in a pioneer's cabin. The main plot con-

stituents of "Woman's Trials" are drink, intrigue, false identity

and infidelity--a heady potion to say the least.

 

OTWAY CURRY, 1804-1855

Otway Curry is of interest to this study chiefly on the basis

of a single story, "The Wolf Hunter" which appeared in the

Hesperian.⁴⁴ Curry was joint editor with Gallagher of the Hespe-

rian during the first six months of its existence. A native of

Highland County, Ohio, Curry enjoyed a large measure of fame

in his day as a poet.

 

43 Western Monthly Magazine, n.s. I (April, 1837), 215.

44 Two other sketches which Curry contributed to the Hesperian, "The Doomed

Wyandott," an account of the death of the Indian chief Leatherlips, and "Sketch of a

Pioneer," the life of Samuel Davis, are in the realm of history rather than fiction. One

other story "Prize Writing," a tale of Louisiana, appeared in the Cincinnati Mirror.

• 26
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                 235

 

Most of the action of "The Wolf Hunter" takes place in the

vicinity of what is now Toledo. The narrator of the tale is

making a journey by stage coach from Lower Sandusky (Fre-

mont) through the Black Swamp to Detroit. Arriving on the

banks of the Maumee (or the Miami of the Lakes) at the end of

the second day, he decides to board a schooner for the remainder

of the trip. Since the boat is not due to sail until the morrow,

he accepts the invitation of the supercargo to spend the night at

his home "near half a score of miles below the rapids, in a small

village which stood immediately on the bay shore."⁴⁵ The next

day, to wile away the hours until the arrival of the vessel, the

traveler rows a small skiff across the bay to the opposite side.

Here he finds the wigwam of an Indian and is so interested in

talking to its occupants, a white man (Louis Vincent) and an

Indian chief (Red Mingo) that he misses the schooner. The

narrator decides to accompany his newly-made friends on a wolf-

hunting expedition up the river to a spot near the "fallen timber."

During the three days that it takes the trio to reach their desti-

nation, the traveler learns that Vincent is plotting revenge against

Red Mingo for the murder of his father. In the high grass of the

hunting grounds, the men erect a scaffold to protect themselves

from the wolves. Red Mingo is sent to arouse the animals, while

the traveler and Vincent remain atop the tower. When the Indian

returns with the wolves howling at his heels, Vincent prevents his

climbing the scaffold. Before the frightened eyes of the narrator,

the savage is torn to pieces by the wild animals.

"The Wolf Hunter" contains much which is of value his-

torically. The account of the journey through the Black Swamp

with its attendant trials and discomforts is graphically done. Also

well drawn is the description of the site of the Battle of Fallen

Timbers, near which the wolf hunt took place. The story of the

wolf hunt is by no means pure fiction, because wolves were

numerous in northwestern Ohio in the first quarter of the nine-

teenth century.⁴⁶ At one time a bounty was paid by the State

for their destruction. Finally, "The Wolf Hunter" deserves

 

45 Probably Manhattan.

46 Francis P. Weisenburger, Passing of the Frontier, Wittke, ed., History of the

State of Ohio, III, 6.

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236   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

special mention because it is the first and only story of the period

which is laid at the scene of the infant Toledo. Curry had made

a trip to Detroit in the summer of 1823, and it may be that he

himself visited the territory which he describes.

 

THOMAS H. SHREVE, 1808-1853

JAMES H. PERKINS, 1810-1849

Briefly should be mentioned Thomas H. Shreve and James

H. Perkins, two close associates of William D. Gallagher, both

of whom contributed numerous western short stories to western

periodicals. loth served with Gallagher for short periods in the

editorship of the Mirror. The stories of Shreve and Perkins are

for the most part moral tales in which the scene of action has

little to do with the plot.

Shreve wrote three Ohio stories. Two of them "The Wages

of Ambition" and "The Rise and the Fall," chronicle events in the

lives of two young lawyers who suffer the consequences of their

own ambition and lust for pleasure. In quite a different vein is

"'Black-Eyed Sue'" (of Cincinnati), a satirical love story in

which the Queen City belle forsakes her handsome lover for a

wealthy bachelor.

James H. Perkins, author of Annals of the West (1846) and

a Unitarian minister in the Queen City, entered almost imme-

diately into the literary life of Cincinnati upon his arrival from

Boston in 1832. The greater share of his work appeared in the

Western Messenger, the organ of the Unitarian movement in the

West.

Even before he entered the pulpit, Perkins was interested in

pointing the way to the good life, using his pen whenever pos-

sible. Three Ohio stories are "The Winning and the Gaining

Candidate," "The Ball Room" and "Alms-Giving and Loaning."

In the first, Samuel White, a young Ohio lawyer, runs for the

office of State senator, but is defeated. His old uncle Stephen,

confidant and adviser, insists that he meet his successful rival

and congratulate him. Samuel profits by this advice and as a

result "gains heaven." "The Ball Room" follows the misfortunes

• 28
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                  237

 

of a young couple, who are led on the road to destruction by

attending a Birth Night Ball at Bazaar Hall in Cincinnati. In

"Alms-Giving and Loaning," a poor engraver in Cincinnati is

saved from the crime of counterfeiting by the intervention of a

charitable man.

 

JAMES HALL, 1793-1868

But what of James Hall? It is agreed that no one did more

than he to encourage western writers and western literature. As

editor of the Illinois Monthly Magazine and the Western Monthly

Magazine, he called continually for new talent to assert itself. It

was he, too, who sired the Western Souvenir, the first literary

annual to be published west of the Alleghenies. As an author,

Hall regarded the West as his chief subject matter and devoted his

energies almost exclusively to it.

The number of Hall's stories dealing with the trans-Alle-

gheny region far exceeds that of any other writer at the period.

Of the stories collected in the four volumes: Legends of the

West (1832), The Soldier's Bride and Other Tales (1833), Tales

of the Border (1835), and The Wilderness and the War Path

(1846), more than two-thirds have western characters and west-

ern settings.

Except in "The War Belt,"⁴⁷ Hall did not lay the scenes of

his stories in Ohio. Most of his tales grew out of his experiences

in Illinois, where for eight years in the 1820's he rode the circuit

as prosecuting attorney and judge in the southern part of the

state. Several of his stories have an indefinite locale in the Ohio

Valley and describe journeys on Ohio River boats, but this does

not provide sufficient evidence to claim them for Ohio. Perhaps

Hall's failure to write of Ohio in fiction is due to the fact that he

did not move to Cincinnati until ¹⁸33; by this date the larger

share of his labors in the short story had been accomplished,

and he was turning his talents to other fields.

It may be well to mention the names of other contributors to

western periodicals who, although they wrote of the West, did

 

47 More properly in the realm of history than fiction, "The War Belt" is a sketch

of George Rogers Clark in his dealings with the Indians at North Bend in 1786.

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238   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

not locate their tales in the Buckeye State. They are Mrs. Caroline

Lee Hentz, Mrs. H. S. Haynes,⁴⁸ Anna Peyre Dinnies ("Moina"),

James B. Marshall, John A. McClung and John Russell.

 

ANONYMOUS OHIO STORIES

Published in the early western periodicals are several tales

with Ohio locales whose authorship is unknown. "Tecumseh,"49

appearing in the Cincinnati Literary Gazette, is the tale of the

love and marriage of Onewequa and Elohama, and of the birth

of their son, Tecumseh, near the Muskingum. After the death of

of Onewequa at the hands of white men, Elohama takes her son

to her husband's grave. Here the four-year-old Tecumseh vows

eternal vengeance on the white man for the murder of his father.

Five anonymous Ohio stories are to be found in the Cincinnati

Mirror: "Alice Leslie, the Young Artist," "The Adopted," "The

Bohemian Girl," "The Little Pacer; or, Going Without Break-

fast," and "The Wampum Belt." Two of these are worthy of

comment. In "The Adopted" a white girl is cared for by an In-

dian chief, Te-huck-ne-hu, at a spot near the Falls of the Miami.

"The Wampum Belt" is an above-the-average tale of Indian love

and sacrifice which takes place between the Great and the Little

Miamis.

Anonymous Ohio stories in the Western Monthly Magazine

include: "A Border Narrative," "Circumstantial Evidence," "Love

and Mosquitoes," "Youth and Womanhood," "James Kirrwood"

and "Seth Bushnell." The best of these is "A Border Narrative,"

an account of Indian troubles following St. Clair's defeat and of

a renegade who repents of his actions and returns to help the

settlers at Colerain. The hero of the tale, who for some months

is held by the Indians, escapes from his captors and furnishes

General Wayne with information concerning Indian movements.

 

48 Mrs. Hentz's "Origin of the White Indians" has some Ohio materials.

49 This story is signed "D" and may be the work of Dumont or Drake, both of

whom were interested in the Indian chief Tecumseh. Gallagher, in his article on

Mrs. Dumont (Cincinnati Mirror, III, May 3, 1834, 229) says that she "has on hand

a manuscript Life of Tecumseh, which is a work of much interest. Besides what was to

be gathered from the common sources of information relating to this celebrated Indian

chief, she has obtained many interesting particulars of his early life, from an individual

who was a captive among the Shawanoese during the boyhood of Tecumseh." Drake,

of course, was the author of a biography of Tecumseh.

• 30
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                239

 

Wayne sends the backwoodsman to Fort Washington as the

bearer of important despatches.

 

OHIO STORIES PUBLISHED IN THE EAST

CHANDLER ROBBINS GILMAN

There were three men in the eighteen-thirties who wrote

stories with Ohio backgrounds, but whose works were published in

the East. All three, however, were familiar with Ohio: one was

born at Marietta, one lived on the banks of the Muskingum, and

the third, a New Yorker, toured the West and visited Cincinnati.

The men were Chandler Robbins Gilman, Mark Bancroft and

Charles Fenno Hoffman.

Chandler Robbins Gilman was born at Marietta in 1802; his

ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Ohio. After the re-

moval of his family to Philadelphia, Gilman entered the Univer-

sity of Pennsylvania, where he received the degree of Doctor of

Medicine in 1824. He began the practice of his profession in

New York City, his permanent place of residence from that time

on. During his busy life as a physician, he found some moments

to devote to literary activities. Associated for a time with Charles

Fenno Hoffman on the American Monthly Magazine, he con-

tributed stories to that periodical. Gilman's Legends of a Log

Cabin "by a Western man" was published anonymously in New

York City in 1835. He was also author of a work of travel in

the West, Life on the Lakes; Being Tales and Sketches Collected

During a Trip to the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior (1836).

Legends of a Log Cabin is a collection of short stories pur-

ported to have been told in the home of a pioneer to wile away

the long winter evenings. In the cabin of Bart Williams, an old

hunter, in the upper Wabash country, are gathered a Methodist

circuit rider, an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Yankee peddler, an

old Negro and a Wyandot Indian. Each is asked to tell a story,

and each responds with a characteristic yarn. The stories told by

Old Bart and Chargha, the Wyandot, have Ohio locales.

"The Hunter's Vow," Old Bart's contribution, takes place

near Harmar on the banks of the Ohio, shortly after the defeat

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240   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of St. Clair. John Cass, a Virginian, settles here with his wife,

two sons and a niece. His wife and elder son die with the fever

during the "sickly year" and Hamilton, the younger boy, is weak-

ened by the disease. During his long convalescence, Hamilton is

taught to read by his doctor and spends much of his time poring

over books. On recovering his health, the boy refuses to learn

the manly sports--hunting, riding, shooting and the like--but

continues to devote himself to study. One day, contrary to his

usual custom, Ham accompanies his father on a hunting expedi-

tion. The father is attacked by an Indian, and Ham, picking up

the rifle at his side, fires at the savage but misses him by several

yards. Unsuccessful in reloading his gun, he is forced to stand

useless while the Indian tears the scalp from the old man's head

and buries a knife in his heart. Ham resolves to get revenge.

After practicing with a rifle until he becomes an expert shot, the

youth sets out in search of the murderer. One month later, worn

and wasted, he returns to the burial ground of his father. His

revenge is complete for with him he carries the skull of his

enemy.

While marred by many digressions, "The Hunter's Vow"

has a charm which is undeniable. The author has a mild humor

which he uses to relieve the horror of the main theme. He smil-

ingly describes the frontiersmen of Harmar: there is old Hezekiah

Curtis, the tailor of the settlement and a former school teacher,

who speaks for the superiority of the "eddicated" man; Sip, the

Squire's black servant, whose propensity for hunting bear leads

him into difficulties; Jim Johnson, the Indian hater, who pouts

when the hunting party gives him no chance to collect a single

scalp; and Joe Davis, another pioneer, who, in criticizing Ham's

search for revenge, thinks one Indian's scalp is as good as

another's.

"The Wyandot's Story," Chargha's tale, gives the Indian's

view of the white man's cruelty and is based in part on historical

fact. Chargha's father, on a hunting expedition to the Blue Licks,

is shot by a Long Knife, merely because his bosom makes a good

mark for the pioneer's rifle. Two brothers also are victims of

the Long Knives. Chargha's mother, unable to bear further sor-

• 32
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                 241

 

row, commits suicide by drowning in the Ohio. Orphaned by

these sad events, Chargha and his sister Outesie set out for the

Great Lakes to join relatives there. Reaching the Muskingum

after a journey of three days, Outesie is captured by the white

men, while Chargha is shot in the arm. The boy follows closely

on the heels of the abductors, hoping to secure the release of his

sister. Finding that the Indian maiden is a burden to the group,

one of the Americans orders the girl to stand up and face him

while he takes aim. As the bullet pierces the body of Outesie,

she sees her brother in the bushes and with her last expiring

breath calls vainly to him for help.

 

MARK BANCROFT

Mark Bancroft is the author of numerous western short

stories which he contributed to Atkinson's Casket published in

Philadelphia. According to bits of autobiography which he scat-

ters through his tales, Bancroft came to the West as a child of

six when his parents settled near Washington, Pennsylvania, in

1781.50 During these early days the Indians were causing much

disturbance on the border, and on one occasion the Bancroft

family was forced to fly to Wolf's Blockhouse for safety. Of

the Moravian massacre of 1782 Mark heard first-hand accounts,

because Washington County was the headquarters for the regi-

ment which campaigned against the Christian Indians.⁵1 When

Bancroft was mature, he moved to Ohio, where he purchased a

farm on the banks of the Muskingum.⁵² The author remained in

the West until 1815, or until he was forty years old. In justifica-

tion of the references to personal history he remarks, "Self-

biography is introduced to establish the fact . . . that I am writing

of events, to which I was either an eye witness, or a very close

hearer."53

Two of Bancroft's stories deal with the treatment of the

Christian Indians who founded the towns of Schoenbrunn,

Coschocton and Gnadenhutten in eastern Ohio. "Letburn Park-

 

50 Casket, IX (December, 1834), 543.

51 Casket, VIII (May, 1833), 196.

52 Casket, IV (July, 1829), 367.

53 Casket, IX  (July, 1834), 302.

• 33
 

242    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

man; or, The Maniac," has its historical background in the expe-

dition under Colonel Andrew Brodhead which was directed

against the Delawares at Coshocton in 1781. Lucy Ryland, a

maiden living in Washington County, Pennsylvania, braves her

father's anger and another suitor's ill will to marry Letburn

Parkman, a "hunter-warrior." Dressed in men's clothes and under

the name of "Isaac Carr," Lucy joins her husband as a member

of Brodhead's army. Eli Bringham, the disappointed suitor, is

also in the regiment. On the return from         Coshocton, Eli, over-

come with blood-lust, aims his tomahawk at a defenceless Indian

squaw who is being held captive. "Isaac Carr" springs forward

to protect the woman and receives the full force of the blow.

Witnessing the attack and believing that his wife has been killed,

Letburn Parkman is overcome by the tragedy and turns into a

raving maniac. Although Lucy does not die immediately, she

succumbs sometime later as a result of the wounds.

From the many accounts he had heard as a boy of the mas-

sacre of the Delawares on the Tuscarawas, Bancroft gathered his

material for "The Moravian Indians.^"54 A few years before this

sad event, Saul Garvin, the victim of an unhappy love affair, had

fled from   home to join the Moravians at Schoenbrunn. Saul

adopted the name of "Peter," married one of the Indian maidens,

and soon became a leader in the tribe. Saul lived contentedly with

his new friends until 1782, the fatal year. It was at this time that

the pioneers, aroused by border warfare, sent a party of soldiers

to wipe out the Indian menace. The innocent and peaceful Mora-

vians, through no fault but their red skins, were easy victims of

the militiamen. Saul was among the group of nearly one hundred

54 In the preface to "The Moravian Indians," Bancroft remarks: "The murder of

the Moravian, or Christian Indians on the Tuscarawas, in 1782, was amongst those acts

which make a nation blush; but like all other acts of man it has been discolored. The

name of Col. David Williamson, who was the nominal commander of the party who

were the perpetrators, has been held up to infamy as a monster. This preface and the

Tale which follows, were neither of them written to excuse the deed of horror, nor

have I ever heard a single voice raised in its justification, though I was bred from a

child to mature years near Washington, Pennsylvania, and of course in the very section

from whence the actors proceeded.

". . . With many of the actors I was personally acquainted, and must say, that

the result of the expedition could never have been premeditated, except by a few if

by any single person.

". . . In the Tale my object has been to paint the times, and give the feelings

of the men as they were then agitated. Those feelings had their play in my presence

at an age when impressions are not simply deep, but indelible."

Bancroft mentions several points in which he differs from Heckewelder's

description of the massacre.

• 34
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                243

 

who were murdered at one fell swoop. Loyal to his adopted race,

he refused to ask for mercy from his white brethren.

Bancroft's three remaining Ohio tales are of less interest.

"The Vendue" takes place on the Muskingum River. Mrs. Swan-

sey, a deserted wife and the mother of two children, is about to

lose her home through a sheriff's sale when her husband, missing

for eighteen years, returns to save the family from destitution.

"The Wedding" is a melodramatic tale in which Powers Osborne,

a soldier left on the field as dead following Crawford's defeat

near Upper Sandusky in 1782, returns nine years later to prevent

the marriage of his "widow," Anna Osborne, to Matthew Johnson.

Matthew had been with Osborne during the battle and had stolen

his friend's horse to make his get-away. Osborne, captured and

held by the Indians during the intervening years, finally makes

his escape and arrives in time to save his wife from a disgraceful

marriage. "Ann Dillon," the biography of one of the settlers on

the Muskingum, is full of hair-raising episodes, and describes the

journey of the widowed Ann, her two children, and her niece

down the Ohio and the Mississippi to Natchez.

The chief interest in the work of Bancroft lies in his use of

historical materials as the backgrounds for fiction. His references

to events of the early West appear to be accurate and well-

authenticated. From the standpoint of literary value, however, his

stories are completely lacking in merit, for they are overdrawn,

sentimental and melodramatic. They are even more absurd and

fantastic than those of Mrs. Dumont. Bancroft gives free rein to

a vivid imagination in constructing his plots; the result is a suc-

cession of illogical and wholly incredible happenings.

 

CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN

In his discussion of the Semicolon Club, a literary society

which thrived in the Cincinnati of the eighteen-thirties, Venable

remarks, "The Semicolon Club had its eastern lion, who, however,

was both hunter and hunted. He was none other than Charles

Feno [sic!] Hoffman, of New York. This versatile and pleasing

author visited Cincinnati and was a frequent guest of the club."55

 

55 Venable, Beginnings, 420.

• 35
 

244     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Hoffman made a tour of the West on horseback and published the

results of his experiences in A Winter in the West (1835). Wild

Scenes in the Forest and Prairie, a collection of Hoffman's short

stories issued in 1839, includes five western tales, two of which

have scenes laid in Ohio.

Both of Hoffman's Ohio stories deal with the difficulties en-

countered in training and disciplining the early armies of the

West. "The Twin-Doomed" takes place on the banks of the Ohio,

where General Wayne establishes his camp prior to his Indian

campaign in the Northwest. "Mad" Anthony, in an effort to pre-

vent desertions from his ranks, establishes martial law and pro-

claims that any man, of any rank, who passes beyond the lines

without a special permit will be tried as a deserter. Twin brothers,

Ernest and Rupert Dewitt, Indian fighters, are present at the

reading of the orders. Rupert's name is entered on the muster-

roll, but Ernest decides not to join. After saying goodbye to his

brother, Rupert discovers a fresh moccasin print on the trail

which he decides to follow. Missing from camp, he is listed as a

deserter. It is Ernest, however, and not Rupert, who is arrested,

brought to trial, and sentenced to be shot. As Ernest faces the

firing squad, Rupert leaps in front of the deadly muzzles, and

both boys are killed as the order to fire is given.

The protagonist of "The Major's Story" is a dealer in patent

medicines who serves as a doctor in the Western Army of the War

of 1812. Totally ignorant of the fundamentals of his alleged pro-

fession, "Dr. Peabody" causes the death of many patients through

neglect and malpractice. The doctor is attached to the western

forces at Urbana and proceeds with the army to the Miami of the

Lakes. Until the surrender of Detroit, he serves in a fever hos-

pital there; he buries as many soldiers as he cures. In his last

official action he is a member of General Winchester's army which

fights at the Battle of the River Raisin. His description of the

events of that fatal January day is graphically drawn. For his

"services" in the War, "Dr. Peabody" is awarded a large share of

western lands.

• 36
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                  245

 

CONCLUSION

The demand for a regional literature in the West, a literature

by western authors devoted to the western scene, was in itself

unusual. So was its answer. In the field of the short story alone,

more than two hundred and fifty tales from 1824 to 1839 have

locales laid in the trans-Allegheny region. Ohio is well repre-

sented in this number, for at least fifty-five may be claimed for

the Buckeye State.

It is true that the western magazines which were the chief

sponsors of the western movement failed to survive. This is in

no sense an indictment of the literary activities of the West. On

the contrary, it is a tribute to the region that they were founded

at all. In the 1830's the territory across the Alleghenies was still

in a pioneer stage; many of the inhabitants were busy clearing the

land, ploughing virgin fields and making homespun garments.

Lack of adequate transportation facilities made it difficult to

secure printing supplies and to deliver the magazines to sub-

scribers. In the face of these trials the courage of the early editors

must be recognized. "A publishing ambition outrunning the abil-

ity of the constituency to support it is one of the truest char-

acteristics of a good frontier city," says Mott.⁵6 Cincinnati, the

publishing center of the West, was a "good frontier city."

While Westerners insisted that a faithful picture of trans-

Allegheny life could come only from the pens of native authors,

they themselves did little to portray the West realistically. Their

attitude towards their materials was chiefly one of romance. For

the most part, they were interested in depicting the West as a

promised land, where honest hearts beat under rough exteriors. A

favorite device was to pit an educated Easterner against a hardy

backwoodsman; in knowledge and courtesy the son of the fron-

tier was more than a match for his eastern brother.

The ingredients of the western short stories of the period are

so fundamentally the same that they may be reduced to a formula.

Mrs. Dumont, in effect, does this very thing in the introduction to

her tale "The Picture":

 

56 Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (New York,

Appleton, 1930), 387.

• 37
 

246   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Now what was this Sketch to be? Romantic it must certainly be, and

pathetic, and chivalrous, and tender, and glowing, and imaginative; and

above all it must be western. It was for a western magazine--it was in-

tended for western readers--and the writer, said I, drawing myself up with

the thought, to all intents and purposes, western.

The search for romantic materials in Ohio ended in many

cases on the author's own doorstep. A large proportion of the

tales written by Cincinnati authors are about the Queen City itself,

her settlers, her early history, her inhabitants. The Ohio River is

glowingly described in many stories. Other favorite spots for the

imagination of the early fictionists are the borders of the Musk-

ingum and the Miamis. Ohio's troubles with the Indians and her

part in the War of 1812 serve as backgrounds in several stories.

With relatively few exceptions, no one would choose to read

the western stories of the twenties and thirties for enjoyment or

relaxation, but stripped of excess verbiage and undue sentimen-

tality, they reveal a framework which is not without its merits. If

one were to compile an anthology of Ohio stories of the period,

the volume should include: Drake's "Bass-Island Cottage" (the

first Ohio story) and his "The Queen City"; both of Flint's Ohio

stories, "Jemima O'Keefy" and "Oolemba in Cincinnati"; Neville's

"The Last of the Boatmen"; Mrs. Dumont's "Ashton Grey";

Mrs. Ball's "The Haunted Tree"; Gallagher's "The Heiress of

Rock-Hollow"; Curry's "The Wolf Hunter"; Bancroft's "The

Moravian Indians"; Gilman's "The Hunter's Vow"; and Hoff-

man's "The Twin-Doomed." Anonymous stories should by no

means be excluded; the best ones are "A Border Narrative,"

"Tecumseh," and "The Wampum Belt."

 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES, 1824-1839

Under each author's name, short stories are arranged alpha-

betically by title. Anonymous stories are arranged alphabetically

by title following the list under authors.

To avoid repetition of the facts of publication, the full infor-

mation for each collection of short stories is given only under the

first entry of the volume in the bibliography.

This is not a bibliography of short stories by Ohio authors,

• 38
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                        247

but a bibliography of short stories with Ohio locales, most of

which (but not all) were written by Ohioans.

BALL, Mrs. Pamilla W.

"The Haunted Tree"

in Cincinnati Mirror III (June 7, 1834), 269

"A Tale of the Early Times"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV  (March 28, 1835), 173-4

"Woman's Trials"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV  (September 5, 1835), 360-2

BANCROFT, Mark

"Ann Dillon"

in Casket [V] (February, 1830), 52-9

"Letburn Parkman; or, The Maniac"

in Saturday Evening Post

Casket [X] (February, 1835), 73-81

"The Moravian Indians"

in Casket [VIII] (May, 1833), 196-201

"The Vendue"

in Saturday Evening Post

Casket [IV] (July-August, 1829), 317-23, 345-9, 367-70

"The Wedding"

in Casket [XI] (July, 1836), 349-57

CURRY, Otway

"The Wolf Hunter"

in Hesperian I (June, 1838), 128-36

DRAKE, Benjamin

"The Antiquaries, in the West"

in Cincinnati Literary Gazette I (January 24, 1824), 27-8

"Bass-Island Cottage"

in Cincinnati Literary Gazette I (January 1, 1824), 2-4

"Brindle and the Buckeyes"

in his Tales and Sketches from the Queen City (Cincinnati: Mor-

gan, 1838)

"The Flag Bearer"

in his Tales and Sketches from the Queen City

"The Grave of Rosalie"

in his Tales and Sketches from the Queen City

"The Pirate's Death"

in Saturday Evening Chronicle I (August 18, 1827), 1

"The Queen City"

in his Tales and Sketches from the Queen City

"Trying on a Shoe"

in his Tales and Sketches from the Queen City

• 39
 

248 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

DUMONT, Mrs. Julia L.

"Ashton Grey"

in Cincinnati Mirror I (May 12, 1832), 132-4

her Life Sketches from Common Paths (New York: Apple-

ton, 1856)

"A Family History"

in Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review I (November,

1844), 34-46

"The Picture"

in Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review I (October,

1836), 289-309

FLINT, Timothy

"Jemima O'Keefy,--A Sentimental Tale"

in Western Monthly Review I (November, 1827), 384-93

"Oolemba in Cincinnati"

in Western Souvenir for 1829 (Cincinnati: Guilford, 1829)

GALLAGHER, William Davis

"Cobe Slaco"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV (January 31, 1835), 110-1

"The Heiress of Rock-Hollow"

in Cincinnati Mirror III (October 5, 1833), 1-4

"The Militia Rivals"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV (November 22, 1834), 37-9

"Old Van--'A Character'"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV (May 30, 1835), 248-9

GILMAN, Chandler Robbins

"The Hunter's Vow"

in his Legends of a Log Cabin (New York: Dearborn, 1835)

Abridgement under title of "The Hunter's Perils" in Casket

[XI] (January, 1836), 33-4

"The Wyandot's Story"

in his Legends of a Log Cabin

Casket [XI] (May, 1836), 222-5

HAYNES, Mrs. H. S.

"Origin of the White Indians"

in Cincinnati Mirror III (February 8, 1834), 132-4

HOFFMAN, Charles Fenno

"The Major's Story"

in his Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie (London: Bentley,

1839)

"The Twin-Doomed"

in New York Mirror XIV, 329-30

Casket [XII] (July, 1837), 326-30

his Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie

• 40
 

OHIO IN SHORT STORIES                        249

 

NEVILLE, Morgan

"Exile of Mexico"

in Cincinnati Mirror I (October 1, 1831), 1-2

"The Last of the Boatmen"

in Western Souvenir for 1829

Mary Russell Mitford, ed., Lights and Shadows of American

Life, III, 331-44 (London: Colburn and Bentley, 1830)

Cincinnati Mirror III (December 22, 1832), 49-57

Samuel Cummings, The Western Pilot (Cincinnati: Guilford,

1829). Other editions: 1832, 1834

Banyard's Panorama of the Mississippi (Boston: Putnam,

1847)

Hiram   Kaine, Cincinnati Miscellany, or Antiquities of the

West (October, 1845), 31-2

A. de Puy Van Buren, Jottings of a Year's Sojourn in the

South (Battle Creek, Michigan: 1859), 305-12

V. L. 0. Chittick, ed., Ring-Tailed Roarers (Caldwell, Idaho:

Caxton, 1941), 287-302

"Poll Preble; or, The Law of the Deer Hunt"

in Gift for 1839 (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1838)

"The Lady of Blennerhassett"

in Gift for 1836 (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, n.d.)

PERKINS, James H.

"Alms-Giving and Loaning"

in Hesperian III (October, 1839), 407-10

"The Ball Room"

in Western Messenger

Hesperian III (August, 1839), 233-5

"The Winning and the Gaining Candidate"

in Cincinnati Mirror V (March 5, 1836), 44

SHREVE, Thomas H.

"'Black-Eyed Sue'"

in Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review I (July, 1836),

92-100

"The Rise and the Fall"

in Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review I, 257-60

"The Wages of Ambition"

in Cincinnati Mirror II (March 30, 1833), 105-9

ANONYMOUS

"The Adopted"

in Cincinnati Mirror III (October 12, 1833), 11-2

"Alice Leslie, the Young Artist"

in Cincinnati Mirror III (February 22, 1834), 145-7

"A Border Narrative"

in Western Monthly Magazine n. s. I (April, 1837), 172-80

• 41
 

250    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

"The Bohemian Girl"

in Cincinnati Mirror II (September 13, 1833), 201-2

"Circumstantial Evidence"

in Western Monthly Magazine V (November, 1836), 678-82

"Croghan; or, The Hero of Fort Sandusky"

in Casket [VIII] (April, 1833), 147-54

"James Kirrwood"

in Western Monthly Magazine III (August, 1834), 423-6

"The Little Pacer; or, Going Without a Breakfast"

in Cincinnati Mirror IV (May 2, 1835), 213-4

"Love and Mosquitoes"

in Western Monthly Magazine IV     (October, 1835), 227-31

"Maria--A Scene in Ohio"

in Cincinnati Chronicle V  (April 16, 1831), 1

"Seth Bushnell"

in Western Monthly Magazine III (August, 1834), 426-9

"Tecumseh"

in Cincinnati Literary Gazette II (October 9, 1824), 113-5

"The Wampum Belt"

in Cincinnati Mirror II (June 22, 1833), 153-5

"Youth and Womanhood"

in Western Monthly Magazine III (June, 1834), 281-95

 

PERIODICALS EXAMINED

Casket [II]-XV, January, 1827-December, 1839

Cincinnati Chronicle I-IX, December 30, 1826-April, 1835      (1826-

November, 1827 as Saturday Evening Chronicle)

Cincinnati Literary Gazette I-IV, January 1, 1824-October 29, 1825

Cincinnati Mirror I-V, October 1, 1831-September 17, 1836

Hesperian I-III, May 1838-November, 1839

Illinois Monthly Magazine I-II, October, 1830-September, 1832

Knickerbocker Magazine I-XIV, January, 1833-December, 1839

New England Magazine I-IX, July, 1831-December, 1835

Western Monthly Magazine I-V, January, 1833-December, 1836; n. s.

I, February-June, 1837

Western Literary Journal and Monthly Review I, June-November,

1836

Western    Monthly Review I-III, May, 1827-June, 1830

• 42