Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

Missie: An Historical Biography of Annie Oakley. By Annie

Fern Swartwout. (Blanchester, Ohio, 1947. ²⁹⁸p., illustrations.

Cloth, $3.50.)

This little volume, written by a niece of "Annie Oakley," has

all the thrills but none of the fiction of the paper-back success

stories which, for many years, have fascinated the American reading

public. The author, against a background of local environment,

traces the life and activities of America's most famous marks-

woman, "Annie Oakley." Phoebe Ann Moses, the sixth child of

Susan and Jacob Moses, was born in a log cabin in Darke County,

Ohio, on August 13, 1860. When she was six years old her father

died, and until her mother remarried Annie experienced the story-

book trials and tribulations of an orphaned child. At the age of

ten she began her hunting career in the interest of increasing the

family income. The game she procured found a ready market in

Cincinnati, and within a brief time little Annie had gained a local

reputation as a sure shot.

Her initial success was achieved in 1875 when, at the sugges-

tion of her brother-in-law, the fifteen-year-old girl journeyed to

Cincinnati to shoot a match with Frank Butler, an Irish-born

vaudeville performer, and defeated him by a single point. In due

time she and Butler were married, and at a later date, when his

partner fell ill, Annie served as an assistant in his act. Their

success as a team was immediate and phenomenal.

While trooping with the Forepaugh and Sells Brothers' Circus

they played New Orleans where "Buffalo Bill" had an opportunity

to observe Annie's performance. In 1885 she and her husband

joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show where for seventeen years

"Missie" was the principal attraction. When the show visited

England in 1887 she gave a command performance for Queen

Victoria and other crowned celebrities. Two years later the show

played to enthusiastic audiences in France, Germany, Austria,

England, Spain, and Italy. Annie Oakley's success was temporarily

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324 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

retarded as the result of an American railroad accident in the fall

of 1901. She recovered, howover, and continued htr sensational

shooting record.

In addition to outlining the principal events in the life of

Annie Oakley the author presents vivid pen pictures of the compo-

nent parts of a typical American wild west show, including brass

bands, street parades, cowboys roping and branding steers, stage-

coaches, the overland mail, and special exhibitions of shooting

skill. More exciting, however, is the writer's description of Annie

shooting a cigarette from the lips of her husband and perforating

the spots on playing cards at almost unbelievable distances. Be-

cause of the popularity of the latter trick, complimentary tickets to

theatres and ball games soon won the sobriquet of "Annie Oakleys."

Mrs. Swartwout, having been a trooper herself, makes an

equally interesting story of the personalities with whom she asso-

ciated, including pressmen, publicity agents, authors, members of

the troop, and city officials. She explains the superstitions, the

jealousies, the joys, and the sorrows of those who found success or

failure as performers under the "Big Top." The volume concludes

with an interesting account of the actual operation of a wild west

show.

It is only fair to say that the author has made an interesting

rather than a major contribution to historical literature. While it

is evident that Mrs. Swartwout has examined some manuscript and

newspaper materials, she has neglected to document her narrative

and provide the reader with a bibliography. Then, too, there are

many lapses in grammar and proofreading. The value of the work

lies, perhaps, in the telling of an interesting story of an Ohio-born

girl who contributed her share in perpetuating the memory of

America's youngest and most colorful child, the American frontier.

The volume, well printed and substantally bound, contains

twenty pictures. There is no index.

JOHN 0. MARSH

Curator of History and Librarian

Ohio State Archaeological and

Historical Society

BOOK REVIEWS 325

Michigan: From Primitive Wilderness to Industrial Common-

wealth. By M. M. Quaife and Sidney Glazer. (New York,

Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1948. viii + 374p. Cloth, $5.35.)

This volume is the achievement of two well-known, scholarly

historians of Michigan. The portion dealing with the Indian,

colonial, and territorial periods (before 1837) is fittingly from the

pen of Milo M. Quaife, whose previous historical writings have

dealt principally with the region that came to be known as the Old

Northwest and especially with the Indian and French phases of the

history of that area. Dr. Quaife has recently edited the deservedly

popular American Lake Series and is the author of the volume

Lake Michigan in that series. For many years he served as editor

of the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library.

Part II of the volume deals with "The Developing Common-

wealth," or the period of statehood. The author, Dr. Sidney Glazer

of Wayne University, Detroit, has an excellent reputation as an

historian, having written a number of valuable articles on Michigan

state history.

This volume, according to the authors, "provides a compre-

hensive history of Michigan suited to the needs of classroom

students and of mature readers generally." It is written in an inter-

esting manner and is so "streamlined" in content that it can be

read fairly easily in a couple of evenings. Accordingly, it does not

provide quite the wealth of information that is found in some other

volumes of the Prentice-Hall state history series. Yet, the principal

events, movements, and personalities of Michigan's past are

presented with vividness and accuracy and not without much signi-

ficant detail.

Many readers will learn for the first time that Father Gabriel

Richard who served as delegate to congress from 1825 to 1829 was

the "only Catholic priest ever elected to Congress" (p. 145). Others

may find humor in such accounts as that of the frugality of an early

governor who refused to have a private secretary and is reputed to

have sold for three dollars the hay cut from the capitol grounds

(p. 186). Many, moreover, will find much of interest in those

chapters concerned with the great lumbering era (especially from

326 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

326 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

1870 to 1890) and with the development and modernization of

agriculture so that it "is estimated that approximately eighty-five

per cent of Michigan's farms are electrified" (p. 256). The emer-

gence of Detroit from the horse and buggy age (when it ranked

second among American cities in the carriage industry) to a

dominant position in the automobile industry is a fascinating aspect

of the story. The various phases of social, religious, and cultural

achievements also are not neglected.

One or two minor points in the volume may be questioned.

Thus, the reader may wonder concerning references (p. 79) to the

locality at the headwaters of the Maumee as "Fort Wayne" in 1747,

a generation before the establishment of that post. The Quebec

Act of 1774, moreover, while a marvel of religious toleration for

that period, did not make "Catholicism the State Church of

Canada" (p. 96). Actually Anglicanism was to be the official church,

but Catholicism was given only slightly inferior status.

The volume includes a large map of present-day Michigan,

excellent bibliographical references at the close of each chapter,

and a chronologically arranged list of the governors of the state.

FRANCIS PHELPS WEISENBURGER

Department of History

Ohio State University

The Conquest: Lucas County Historical Series, Vol. I. By Ran-

dolph C. Downes. (Toledo, the Historical Society of Northwestern

Ohio, 1948. x + 95p.)

This little volume, written by the author of Frontier Ohio and

Council Fires on the Upper Ohio, is the first in a series of a six-

volume history of Lucas County planned by the Historical Society

of Northwestern Ohio. In nineteen short chapters the author

reviews or more properly synthesizes the history of the territory

now included within the present bounds of Lucas County from the

age of "Rock" to the successful conclusion of the War of 1812.

After discussing geological formations and the emergence of the

land, the author turns his attention to the appearance of the

BOOK REVIEWS 327

"rampart" building Indians, the Indians of the historic period, and

the intertribal warfare occasioned by the desire for possession of

the rich Maumee Valley. Then follows an account of the explor-

ations of the French, the development of the valley into a link in

the French Canadian Empire, and the ensuing contest with the

English, who by the 1740's had penetrated within fifty miles of

present day Piqua, Ohio.

The elimination of the French by the Treaty of Paris (1763)

assured the English of possession not only of Canada but also of the

Ohio country. It is shown that following the conspiracy of Pontiac

the English adopted a successful Indian policy, which, because of

its fairness, kept the western tribes "true to the English until the end

of the War of 1812." Dr. Downes concludes that the English were

the main force behind the Indian attack on American outposts.

Following the American Revolution the Indians, meeting in

council at Lower Sandusky in 1783, accepted with mental reser-

vations the provisions of the Treaty of Paris. On the other hand,

the author indicates that Sir William Johnson of New York, the

English superintendent of Indian affairs, intimated that the English

would support the Indian claims to lands north of the Ohio River.

Then follows an account of the settlement of the Northwest Terri-

tory. The appearance of swarms of Americans in the territory, the

establishment of settlements at Marietta, Columbia, and Cincinnati,

and the survey of the Seven Ranges were conclusive evidence to

the Indians that a final day of reckoning with the Americans was at

hand. Attempts at American-Indian conciliation resulted in the un-

satisfactory treaties of Ft. Stanwix (1784), Ft. McIntosh (1785),

and Ft. Harmar (1789).

Despite treaty provisions both Americans and Indians engaged

in border raids. General St. Clair, concluding that certain tribes were

"irredeemable," authorized General Harmar to destroy the Miami

towns on the Maumee. The author relates in detail the principal

events in the defeat of Harmar and St. Clair and the ultimate victory

of "Mad Anthony" Wayne which resulted in the Treaty of Greene

Ville.

The study ends with an excellent summary of the immediate

and remote cause of the War of 1812, the Indians' last stand in the