Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Library of the Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Society. By Elizabeth C. Biggert. (Columbus,

Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1953. x-153p.; index.

Paper, $1.50; cloth, $2.50.)

The social, economic, and political history of Ohio is well represented in

the manuscript collections of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical

Society Library, which totals approximately 1,500,000 separate pieces. This

library is the repository for certain groups of the archives of the state of

Ohio, which include papers dealing with the government of the Northwest

Territory and the correspondence of the governors of Ohio.

The entries in this guide are arranged in 'alphabetical order by the title of

the collection. A collection may be represented by one piece or a number of

volumes or boxes. The term "box" may include as few as five or six pieces,

or as many as two hundred pieces. This varied method of designation results

in the listing of 1,128 manuscript collections.

The descriptions are brief, giving concise contents notes, often listing

special features of the collections, and including pertinent biographical data.

Reference to published letters is made. Miss Elizabeth C. Biggert, manuscripts

librarian, has given an excellent idea of the contents of the collections. The

Preface states that details concerning any collection may be procured from

the library's card catalog or from the manuscripts librarian.

The Index is very complete, containing entries for persons, places, and

subjects. Subheadings under the names of counties and larger cities bring

together many topics relating to their history and development. A special

feature of the Index is the listing of material under both the name of the

county and that of the township. Another feature is the completeness of the

subject entries, which include references to courts, medicine, pioneer life,

railroads in Ohio, and religion in Ohio, to mention only a few.

The collections described in this guide are of particular importance to

students of Ohio's history. The political history of the state is represented

by the papers of Ohio senators, representatives in congress, Ohio governors,

and members of the Ohio General Assembly. The institutional development

is found in the records of the various churches and sects, of the courts and

schools. The history of business and industry is included in collections

relating to small businesses and large industries. The steady development

of internal improvements is well represented by many collections relating

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78       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

to roads, railroads, and accounts of overland and river travel.

Of special interest are the papers of several public figures whose influence

has extended beyond the geographical boundaries of the state. Among these

collections are the papers of Joshua Reed Giddings, noted Whig abolitionist;

of Thomas Worthington, leader in Ohio's struggle for statehood; of John

Brown, the abolitionist; and of Jay Cooke, Civil War financier.

While all periods of Ohio history are included, the Civil War period is

especially well represented. There are letters, diaries, poems, songs, and

reminiscences of participants in the war.

This guide will be of great interest to students of the history of the

Northwest Territory, the state of Ohio, and the public figures and citizens

whose activities have contributed to its growth and development.

Clements Library                                 WILLIAM S. EWING

 

The Indian Tribes of North America. By     ohn R. Swanton. Bureau of

American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institutio , Bulletin 145. (Washington,

United States Government Printing Office, 1952. vi+726p., maps, bibli-

ography, and index. $3.50.)

From the time of the European discovery of the New World to the present,

explorers, missionaries, government agents, escaped captives, travelers, an-

thropologists, ethnologists, and historians have accumulated and recorded

tremendous quantities of data on the Amer can Indian. Some of this in-

formation is accurate and reliable, some is so biased as to be of little value.

Some of the material is presented in works dealing with the Indian as a sub-

ject, but a great deal of it is buried in the obscurity or detail of works on

other subjects. Research-wise, this means that the study of the American

Indian remains a gold mine.

One of the primary difficulties is the vastness of the subject, a situation

which tends to discourage all but the intensely interested scholar. By

prodigious and painstaking labors, however, the field has been surveyed

and mapped. Almost a half century ago Frederick W. Hodge compiled the

encyclopedic Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Although

subsequent research has revised many of its details, and although much of it

is now out of date, Hodge's work is still regarded as the standard in the

field. Of a similar nature, but dealing with a more restricted area, is the

Handbook of the Indians of California by Alfred L. Kroeber, which ap-

peared in 1925.

Another landmark with a different approach to the subject is Kroeber's

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Book Reviews                           79

 

Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, published in 1939.

Kroeber, in this work, is concerned with a division of the American Indian

into cultures and the effect of historical events and environment on them.

In some respects the present volume is basically a reshuffling of Hodge

and Kroeber to get a gazetteer-type presentation. It is much more than this,

however. Swanton has added the knowledge gained by a lifetime of fruit-

ful study and the findings of the accumulated scholarship of others. Un-

fortunately, it includes very little of the material published since he retired

from the Bureau of American Ethnology, now perhaps a decade ago.

The subject matter of this volume is treated by geographic divisions--

states of the United States, Alaska, Canada, and so on. The sections on the

West Indies, Mexico, and Central America are little more than listings of

tribes or bands with brief identifying sentences. Under each geographic

division are listed the tribes associated with it. Full treatment of a particular

tribe is made in the division in which that tribe principally centered, with

the year 1650 as the general period of reference. For example, the principal

entry for the Erie is given in the Ohio section. A "see also" reference is

made to Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania. Under each of these three

states is an Erie entry which explains briefly their location or role and a

"see Ohio" reference indicating the location of the principal entry. (Since

Swanton has written this work "from the point of view of the United States,"

some tribes with centers in Canada have been treated under states. The main

entry for the Huron appears under Ohio.)

The principal entry for a tribe includes the etymology of its name,

synonymy, linguistic family connection, location (including names and lo-

cations of subdivisions, small bands, and villages), history, population

statistics, historical prominence, and present-day geographic names derived

from it.

Ohio readers will find principal entries for the Erie, Mosopelea, and

Wyandot (Huron) under the Ohio division. Brief entries explaining the

location and association with Ohio are also made for the Chippewa, Dela-

ware, Honniasont, Illinois, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Miami, Neutrals, Ottawa,

Potawatomi, Seneca, and Shawnee. Some of these played major roles in

Ohio history; others merely occupied fringe areas without making any

consequential contribution.

The Indian Tribes of North America will serve the layman as a ready

reference tool. For the scholar it is a textual accompaniment to Swanton's

tribal map of North America. (The continent is divided into four folded

maps which are rather awkwardly bound into the volume at illogical places.)

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80       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Also of considerable value is the forty-page bibliography of hundreds of

references from which the material was obtained. Its limitation is that it

contains very few entries for the last fifteen years. But this is not a serious

handicap to those working in the field.

Miami University                                      DWIGHT L. SMITH

Papiers Contrecoeur et Autres Documents Concernant le Conflit Anglo-

Francais sur l'Ohio de 1745 a 1756. Edites par Fernand Grenier. Universite

Laval, Publications des Archives du Seminaire de Quebec, I. (Quebec,

Les Presses Universitaires Laval, 1952. xxxiv+485p.; illustrations, end

maps, abbreviations, bibliography, and index. $10.00.)

Scholars have long known of the significant possibilities of French archival

materials in North American repositories for the study of United States

history. Little has been done, however, to utilize this valuable source. In fact,

the French side of the picture has often been slighted in American history.

Language has not been the principal barrier. Instead, other factors have dis-

couraged the use of these documents--ignorance of existence and location,

inaccessibility, and inadequate calendars or guides.

While repositories have always been interested in purchasing, copying,

or acquiring by gift or legislative enactment manuscript collections of his-

torical significance, curators and scholars are frequently surprised to discover

unknown or forgotten documents of considerable importance tucked in some

vault, basement, attic, or other storage space, having gone unnoticed probably

since their acquisition. Then there are considerable collections and bodies of

documentary material with restricted-usage conditions placed upon them by

the donors or by the rules of the institutiton in which they are deposited.

The third factor which discourages use of the French documents on American

history is the general lack of calendars or guides to these collections.

Combing through literally hundreds of items is a time-consuming process

that should be accomplished in advance by trained archival personnel rather

than by each harried scholar whose time is usually at a premium and who

would like to determine the pertinence of a collection to his project as

quickly as possible.

It is gratifying to note that these difficulties are being surmounted in some

instances. For example, the Public Archives of Canada has recently (1952)

issued a preliminary inventory, Fonds des Manuscrits No 1, Archive

Nationales, Paris Archives des Colonies, which is an annotated bibliograph

of its vast holdings of transcripts from French archives pertaining to th

French regime in America. It is now possible to determine at a glance th

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Book Reviews                            81

 

scope of the archives' holdings in this field, and to eliminate considerable

preliminary correspondence and effort for the scholar who wishes to con-

sider the potentialities of this institution to his research.

The volume of this review is even more valuable. It represents the com-

bined efforts of the Archives du Seminaire de Quebec, the Institut d'Histoire

et de Geographie de 1'Universite Laval, the Pennsylvania Historical and

Museum Commission, and the Presses Universitaires Laval, consisting of

edited documents concerning the last stand of the French in the Ohio Valley

in mid-eighteenth century.

The manuscripts are selected from the considerable holdings of two

French-Canadian Lyman C. Drapers--Jacques Viger and l'abbe Hospice-

Anthelme Verreau. They consist primarily of letters, journals, and council

proceedings, but also include military orders, rosters, expense accounts, and

other miscellany. Of the over two hundred documents, about three-fourths

are those received or sent by Contrecoeur.

Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecoeur figured in the occupation of the

Ohio Valley, and in 1754 was made commandant of all French posts on

the Ohio. It was under his direction that the English were ousted from

the forks of the Ohio and that Fort Duquesne was built upon the site. He

successfully resisted the English and maintained French control of the

Ohio Valley. In ill health, he returned to Montreal in 1756. The life and

death clash of France and Britain for their colonial empires with the focus

on the struggle for control of the Ohio Valley, to Braddock's defeat (1755),

in which Contrecoeur played an important role, is the subject of this volume.

An amazing amount of information is contained in the documents. The

French occupation of the Ohio Valley is portrayed in intimate detail. There

is considerable material on the Indians of the area. The documents are of

tremendous significance to the early history of Ohio. Not the least valuable

part of the book is the annotated bibliography, especially that of the source

materials. The editorial notes and explanations of M. Grenier are quite

helpful and pertinent and give many suggestions for further development of

deas.

Of even more importance than the immediate contents of this book

is the fact that it represents a cooperative venture of four organizations

whose mutual interests are in this field. Otherwise, circumstances would have

precluded its accomplishment and publication. It is hoped that other

endeavors materialize into such valuable end-results. Historical scholarship

will be the better for such.

Miami University                                  DWIGHT L. SMITH

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82       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Collection of Western Americana Founded

by William Robertson Coe, Yale University Library. Compiled by Mary C.

Withington. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1952. x+398p.; frontis-

piece, map, and index. $10.00.)

One of my favorite collectors, the late O. Andreas Garson of Oak Park

Illinois, gathered an astonishingly fine collection of great menus. Mr

Garson, as an autograph collector, was interested especially in the signature

of the guests inscribed on the menus at the times of the dinners. My

pleasure in the menus was vicariously gastronomic. I used to come away

from a session with Mr. Garson's collection placid with pleasure, dreaming

of the rich and wonderful foods which, singly or in combination, could

induce a most delectable torpor.

The Coe Catalogue impressed me in almost the same fashion. Reading the

descriptions of the various manuscripts collected by Mr. Coe and the other

western Americana manuscripts owned by Yale University was quite similar

to perusing menus of late nineteenth century banquets. Such riches! Such

delicacies! Such an overpowering abundance! Such indefatigable industry to

dig out and acquire those rarities! Why, the eyes fairly smart to get at the

originals and revel in the thousands of pages of original manuscripts de-

tailing the story of our westward expansion. Surely no comparable collection

exists-nor, for that matter, could another collection to equal this one ever

be brought together now. There is scarcely a name among the legends or

facts about the country west of the Mississippi that is not represented in

superb example. Much of the history of our old West may now be re-

written by today's and tomorrow's scholars with more certainty that facts

are provable than in former times. With the Coe Collection to draw upon

there will be no necessity to guess about what happened. We shall have

fewer "fine flights of fancy."

The Coe Catalogue, as a bookmaking venture, is a fine piece of work. In

the first place, Carl P. Rollins designed the volume, and that invariabe

means a distinguished product. In the second place, Yale University Press

is the publisher, and that indicates quality work. Miss Mary C. Withington

the compiler, approached the problem of describing the 542 entries (in-

cluding single items and many collections of large size) in a sensible

straightforward fashion. Miss Withington did not follow current practice

nor did she use all of the accepted terminology, in describing the individual

letters and manuscripts. Unfortunately, the carefully devised manual in

the Library of Congress for descriptions of manuscript collections at

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Book Reviews                            83

 

individual manuscripts was not available when Miss Withington was com-

piling the catalog. Still, her descriptions are clear, and the essential in-

formation is always present. Everyone associated with this enterprise deserves

high praise.

Clements Library                                     COLTON STORM

 

The Shaker Cook Book: Not by Bread Alone. By Caroline B. Piercy. (New

York, Crown Publishers, 1953. 283p.; end-paper map, illustrations, and

index. $3.00.)

Caroline B. Piercy has set down in modern, usable form a fascinating

lot of recipes used in Shaker communities from the late eighteenth century

to the present day which should make a fine addition to any kitchen book-

shelf. But there is also a place for The Shaker Cook Book: Not by Bread

Alone in the library of the historian or folklorist. For its author has garnished

the publication of her collection with age-old lore of the ingredients used

in the recipes. It is flavored with authentic material of the people who

produced these ingredients, the "Kitchen Sisters" who prepared them, and

those who partook of the Shakers' food and drink when the communities

were at their height during the nineteenth century. Today, those concerned

with modern developments in agriculture, nutrition, hygiene, economics,

sociology, and even labor-saving devices would find interest in Mrs. Piercy's

account of how these were furthered and disseminated through Shaker

practices.

The ritual singing and dancing of the Shakers was, in itself, true folk

art. It was these "exercises" which caused these Believers in Christ's Second

Appearing to become commonly known as "Shaking Quakers," or "Shakers."

Mrs. Piercy's end-paper map of the nineteen Shaker communities--scattered

from New England to eastern Indiana in the early 1800's--which influenced

early American cookery, includes the four in Ohio. The first and parent

community of western Shakerdom was Union, near Lebanon, established in

1805. Watervliet and Whitewater were also in the southwestern part of the

state, and North Union, or "The Valley of God's Pleasure," was near

Cleveland, now the site of Shaker Heights. The cleanliness and peace of

the model democracies set up by these kindly, honest, frugal, celibate folk,

attracted many converts at the turn of the nineteenth century, partly in

reaction to the Great Kentucky Revival and to other excesses of frontier

?ife. Whatever psychologists might make of their beliefs and form of

worship, to many it proved a sincere religious fulfilment. Considering the

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84       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

fates of many Utopias, before and since, it is amazing that the Shaker

strength continued so long. Before the end of the century, however, the

religious dance had ceased, their hymns conventionalized, and the western

communities had begun to be disbanded: North Union in 1910; Union in

1912. In 1922, when the last remaining western community, South Union,

Kentucky, popularly known as "Shakertown," was disbanded, the survivors

who desired to, went to the parent society at Mt. Lebanon, New York,

established by the founder of Shakerism, Mother Ann Lee, in 1777.

The initial source and inspiration of Carolyn Piercy's Shaker recipe col-

lection came from the little old manuscript cookbook in which her mother

had written this tasty lore, learned from frequent visits to North Union,

which was near her girlhood home. As mother and daughter prepared these

recipes together, the mother would reminisce about the community. Thus,

Mrs. Piercy writes that to the little cookbook "I owe my interest in all

things Shaker." This interest eventually led Carolyn Piercy to become one

of the originators and secretary of the Shaker Historical Society and the

author of The Valley of God's Pleasure and other books concerning the

Believers and their lore. She has also collected and saved many pieces of

Shakerana, which she hopes someday to have in a Shaker museum. In addi-

tion to her mother's collection, Mrs. Piercy's source material for her cook-

book included other manuscript recipes: rare books, such as The Shake??

Housekeeper, written by Eldress Mary Whitcher, who died in 1797; Shaker

nineteenth-century publications, which had frequent agricultural and cookery

notes; and recipes and lore given by four Shaker sisters still living and

cooking in present-day eastern Shaker communities.

In putting into practice the establishing of "Heavens on Earth," th??

Believers became craftsmen of complete honesty and great skill. Their

cleanliness and abhorrence of waste led to canning and preserving practice

as well as to boiling vegetables in peels and using "pot-licker" to good and

tasty advantage. The delicious meatless recipes concocted by the "Kitche

Sisters" during a twelve-year meat ban in the late 1830's, continued to be

enjoyed many years after the ban was officially over. Always believers ??

temperance, the Shakers, through an edict in 1828, finally even relegate?

their far-famed cider "to the vinegar barrel, to be used in salads, sauc??

and pickles, or boiled down and bottled for use on steam puddings or ??

making mincemeat or for 'applesass.'" And this was the time when hea??

drinking was taken as a matter of course, particularly on the frontier, and

milk and water considered unsafe, usually with good reason. But the Shak??

Brethren, who spent double the allotted time in working out the road t??

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Book Reviews                            85

 

in order to be exempt from military service, needed plenty of liquid re-

freshment. Hence cooling methods and many tempting varieties of non-

alcoholic beverages were developed. Many people were introduced to these,

as well as to green vegetables, fruits, cereals, eggs, and dairy products, in

the days when heavy meat diets, salt pork and corn, and whiskey were

accepted food and drink. The Shakers fed many "World People," or

non-Shakers, as well as their own members. Thousands of meals were

served during the period of the western migration; orphans were sheltered,

raised, and taught in the communities; and the poor and unemployed were

fed during financial depressions, such as that of 1873. There was frequent

travel and interchange of administrative personnel between the communities.

Shaker peddlers ranged far, and their fine products even farther. Thus the

sect's methods of producing, preparing, and preserving food and drink

became widely known.

Mrs. Piercy has scaled the recipes, originally meant for a Shaker "family,"

or communal group, of from thirty to one hundred hard workers, to the

modern family's needs, proportions, and equipment. Standard measurements

were reached from such directions as "butter the size of a walnut" or "a

large coffee cupfull." Temperatures are stated for today's thermostatically

controlled ovens for baking done by the Shakers in their huge and ingeniously

revolving ovens. One envies Mrs. Piercy's family and guests, who have

been privileged to partake of the immediate results of her kitchen laboratory

research. "New" approaches to even such common favorites as boiled corn

produce exciting and delicious eating when done the Shaker way.

Attractive illustrations of Shaker life by Virginia Filsen Walsh are used

as chapter headings, as are several choice old prints, an advertisement for

Shaker double-distilled rosewater, and packet covers for the famous Shaker

seeds, including planting directions. Food and cooking terms in general use

throughout pioneer times give an authentic and sometimes amusing flavor

to the quality of the book.

All of which should inspire fresh interest, practical to both laymen and

scholars, in the history and folkways of the nineteenth century, as well as

in the lore of the Shakers. And, even in these days of frozen foods, pressure

cookers, and ready-mixes, jaded appetites may relish such culinary Shaker

heights as rosewater-flavored apple pie, leg of lamb laved in hot butter with

a bunch of freshly plucked rosemary, Eldress Clymena's blue flower omelet,

Sister Lisset's tea loaf, Shaker Johnny Cake, or even Ohio lemon pie.

Columbus, Ohio                                        ANNE GRIMES

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86       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Grant and His Generals. By Clarence Edward Macartney. (New York,

McBride Company, 1953. xiv+352p.; illustrations, end-paper maps, bibli-

ography, and index, $5.00.)

To the recent rash of volumes dealing with Civil War military history,

Clarence E. Macartney has added another. In seeking to answer the ques-

tion of why Grant was successful in war, after he had failed as an officer

in the old army, as a farmer, as a real estate agent, and as he would later

fail as president, author Macartney examines Grant's relations with his

fellow officers during the war. The search for the key to Grant's military

success leads the author to declare that, although he writes of battles and

campaigns, "my purpose, however, has been to probe deeper." He adds,

quoting Plutarch, that "the most glorious exploits do not always furnish

us with the clearest discoveries of virtue and vice in man. Sometimes a

matter of lesser moment, an expression, a jest, informs us better of their

characters and inclinations."

Giving a chapter to each, this volume deals with thirteen of Grant's

generals: George H. Thomas, George G. Meade, James B. McPherson,

John A. Rawlins, John A. Logan, Philip H. Sheridan, James H. Wilson,

Henry W. Halleck, Benjamin F. Butler, William     F. ("Baldy") Smith,

John A. McClernand, Ambrose E. Burnside, and William T. Sherman. A

fourteenth chapter considers "Grant and His Commander-in-Chief."

The coverage on each general is extensive. Each chapter presents first the

pre-war career of the general under consideration, followed by a play-by-play

account of the part that general played in the war's campaigns and battles.

Sherman, Wilson, Sheridan, Smith, and McPherson receive the author's

greatest praise for their contributions to success. Understandably, Halleck,

Butler, and McClernand fall under the severest criticism. Of special interest

to Ohio readers are the chapters on Sherman, Sheridan, and McPherson.

The author is at his best in relating intimate, personal stories illustrating

how each leader operated: Rawlins smashing the bottles of liquor found at

Grant's tent; Butler browbeating Grant into restoring Butler's command

during the campaign against Richmond; and McClernand threatening Grant

with political retributiton. Of the many quotations in the book, perhaps

the most revealing is O. O. Howard's observation contrasting Grant and

Sherman: "Grant in command was . . . habitually reticent. Sherman was

never so. Grant meditated . . . withholding his opinion. . . . Sherman

quickly, brilliantly gave you half a dozen. Grant appeared more inclined to

systematize and simplify; . . . take promptly the offensive; follow up a

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Book Reviews                            87

 

victory. It made Grant the man for campaign and battle. Sherman was

always at his best in campaign--in general manoeuvres--better than in actual

battle."

Since the Civil War careers of these generals were closely intertwined,

the book, organized as it is, contains much repetition, backtracking, and

duplication. A more coherent result might have been achieved had the

author chosen to follow Douglas Freeman's example in Lee's Lieutenants.

In preparing this volume Macartney appears to have searched widely in

such sources as government documents, manuscripts, and newspapers, as

well as having talked personally with Civil War survivors when he wrote

Lincoln and His Generals (Philadelphia, 1925). One previously unused

source tapped in this work is William ("Baldy") Smith's privately owned

papers and unfinished autobiography. The author seems to have relied with

greater credence than prudence on autobiographies and memoirs by the

leading participants, in some instances quoting as fact items in memoirs

written twenty years after the event.

Unfortunately for the historian, the book contains only thirty biblio-

graphical footnotes, leaving the sources of many quotes and incidents

obscure. The reader might well wish for more color and life in the de-

scriptions of active, robust men and fewer extraneous diversions into material

giving no immediate connection with the book's main theme.

How well has the author achieved his purpose? If his purpose had been

simply to relate enlightening incidents and to trace military careers, he

would have been eminently successful. But having set himself the task to

probe deeper" to account for Grant's military success, he forces the reader

to  concur with Sherman's view: "Yet to me, he [Grant] is a mystery, and

believe he is a mystery to himself."

Baldwin-Wallace College                    DAVID LINDSEY

 

Paddlewheeler Saga: A Chronicle of Steamboating. By Ralph Nading Hill.

(New York, Rinehart & Company, 1953. xii+342p.; illustrations, bibliog-

raphy, and index. $5.00.) '

Mr. Hill has produced an excellent book, which, unfortunately, has a

misleading title.

When the average reader thinks of steamboating, his thoughts are of

the craft which plied the Ohio, the Mississippi, and, when sand bars and

snags permitted, the broad Missouri. He expects a word of praise for Henry

Shreve, who made steamboating a practical business, and a repetition, with

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88       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

or without credit, of some of the anecdotes Samuel Langhorne Clemens

first published in Life on the Mississippi.

Neither the name of Capt. Shreve nor that of Mr. Clemens appears in

the Index (the former, in the opinion of this reviewer, being an omission

which shouldn't occur in any account of the development of steamboat

transportation of freight and passengers), and Mr. Hill has strayed far in

other ways from the pattern of most of the many previous books on his

subject, good, indifferent, and not infrequently very bad.

For, after half a dozen chapters on the development of the steamboat,

in which the partisans of John Fitch will find the sins of Robert Fulton

touched upon too lightly for their taste, he takes up the development of

the ocean-going sidewheeler and gives the reader something new, unhack-

neyed, and most interesting.

The doings of the shipping magnates who introduced steam to the ports

of the world have been chronicled before, but their activities have been

scattered through enough volumes of biography and history to overflow

one of Dr. Eliot's celebrated five-foot shelves. Mr. Hill has concentrated

their most important essence in this single volume, from the first all-steam

crossing of the Atlantic by Junius Smith in the chartered Sirius, through

the building of the elephantine (white) British Great Eastern, to the

Ticonderoga, recently saved by public subscription for further service or

Lake Champlain.

It's all very interesting, amply illustrated, and documented in scholarly

style--but it should have had a different title if Mr. Hill is to reap the

full benefit of his originality. The appetite of many a reader, jaded by

rehashed Life on the Mississippi, which has been served up so often, should

have been titillated by a title that would help give the book a better chance

to receive the attention it well deserves.

Crawfordsville, Indiana                                 R. E. BANTA

 

The People Called Shakers: A Search for the Perfect Society. By Edward

Deming Andrews. (New York, Oxford University Press, 1953. xvi+

309p.; illustrations, appendices, bibliography, and index. $6.00.)

It is most timely that Edward Andrews' book, The People Called Shaker

reaches us here in Ohio during the sesquicentennial, for within its pages we

are made keenly aware of the valuable contributions this socio-religious sect

made in the building of our state and our republic. It was in the log-cabin

wilderness on the Ohio frontier that the first theological work on Shaker's

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Book Reviews                            89

 

often referred to as the Shaker Bible, The Testimony of Christ's Second

Appearance, was written in 1806. Here in the crude meetinghouse at Turtle

Creek (Lebanon) Richard McNemar, a noted preacher and classical scholar,

became the father of Shaker hymnology and song. This unique gospel of

"hands to work and hearts to God" took root among our pioneers when

our state was but two years old.

Mr. Andrews has compiled out of the vast literature, both by and about

the Shakers, a comprehensive and definitive account of this unique sect.

With the aid of three fellowships given him for that purpose, he has over

the span of more than twenty-five years carried on a thorough research on

every phase of Shaker life. This interest was awakened when he was

temporary curator of the New York State Museum at a time when certain

of the Shaker communities of that state were being dismantled. A large

amount of material was painstakingly studied by him. He avows his in-

debtedness to the Believers themselves, many of whom he has known

throughout his years of research.

On the origin of the Shaking-Quakers and the early life of their leader,

Ann Lee, a cotton-mill worker of Manchester, England, he has thrown

new light which helps us to better understand this remarkable woman, who,

though so illiterate that she signed her marriage bans with a cross, possessed

a rare intelligence and remarkable spiritual power that made her the effective

and inspired leader of a new religious sect. She and seven of her followers

arrived on these hostile shores not long after the Boston Tea Party.

Realizing it was not the time to preach a new religion, they withdrew to

the Niskeyuna wilderness, just above Albany. Here in 1780 during the

Eastern Revival, those who failed to find salvation in other religious move-

ments eagerly turned to Shakerism.

Mr. Andrews points out that it was not until after Mother Ann Lee's

death in 1784, only a decade after her arrival, that the converts themselves--

good Americans, many of whom had helped win the Revolutionary War--

formed into these socio-religious communities. He makes it clear that among

the many strange experiments in communal life which developed in our

young nation, the Shaker experiment was unique and the most successful.

It greatly differed from many, such as the Labadist, Ephrata, Zoar, Amana,

Harmony, and others, who came to our shores as organized old world

groups, where they settled in some secluded nook and carried on their old

world customs, traditions, and language. This was not the case with the

Shakers, who were Yankees inspired by Mother Ann's zeal to establish the

"Perfect Society."

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90       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

The feature which made Shakerism distinct from the many other social

experiments in our land was celibacy. This tenet is often wrongly attributed

as the chief factor in the decline of the order. The fact is clear that celibacy

was the chief tenet that held the order together and made their communal

effort succeed. By this rule family competition and cupidity were eliminated

and each celibate gave forth his full and best effort for the good of the

larger family-the Shaker community.

Mr. Andrews has richly documented this valuable contribution to American

history by reviewing the bitterly adverse and biased opinion of the dis-

satisfied apostate and critic as well as that of the consecrated member of

the order. He has also given countless excerpts from manuscripts--just

commonplace records of Shaker daily life. "Only by the honest treatment

of all data may the heritage of the order be most clearly revealed," we

read in the Introduction.

The Millennial Laws of the sect, which have never before been pub-

lished, are included, and although many of them may sound ridiculous and

trivial, they emphasize the fact that to the Believer who was constantly

striving to establish God's kingdom on earth, nothing was too trivial to

do in the best possible way. The illustrations from old prints are numerous

and give us delightful glimpses into the well-ordered routine of Shaker

life. It was left to the genius of Edward Andrews to discover that the works

of Shaker hands were "animated" and "make us aware of the kinship

between the spirit of these people and the quality of their craft." To the

student of American history he has given a most worthwhile book.

Cleveland, Ohio                                CAROLINE B. PIERCY

 

Economic Geography of Ohio. By Alfred J. Wright. Division of Geological

Survey, Fourth Series, Bulletin 50. (Columbus, Ohio State Archaeological

and Historical Society, 1953. xi+217p.; bibliography and index. $1.00.)

Ever since the little volume entitled Geography of Ohio by Roderick

Peattie appeared as Bulletin 27 of the fourth series of publications of the

Geological Survey of Ohio in 1923, there has been published no satisfactory

over-all survey of the geography of the state except geographical material

compiled for the publication of Ohio--An Empire Within an Empire. The

present volume by Dr. Wright of the department of geography of Ohio

State University therefore meets a very important need in presenting current

geographic conditions in Ohio. The writer has particularly welcomed this

volume because he has been teaching a course in the geography of Ohio, and

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Book Reviews                            91

 

there has been no up-to-date text for college students until it appeared.

After an Introduction in which surface features, climate, original surveys,

early settlement, and similar materials are presented, Dr. Wright has pro-

vided a chapter on Ohio agriculture, including descriptions of soil types,

type-of-farming areas, farm income, crops, and animal husbandry. Dr.

Wright would be the first to admit that the treatment of this subject is far

from complete, but there are advantages in having the material in compact

form. He writes concisely and the student should be prepared to read much

between lines in order to obtain a comprehensive view of our farm resources.

Almost every page contains at least one map and these are thoroughly

legible.

The contents of Chapter 3 concern the mineral industries, and here again

the maps and diagrams provide a wealth of material, making it unnecessary

to burden the reader with a mass of statistical detail. The fourth chapter

is somewhat longer than the preceding and deals with Ohio's manufactures.

Here Dr. Wright brings his excellent background of historical geography to

bear, and throughout the discussion he makes clear Ohio's past and present

industrial life. Ohio's progress in commerce and transportation is covered

at some length, with particular attention to conditions prevailing in the

state since the close of the war in 1945. Railways, airways, and highways

are all given their fair share of attention, and at this point the first part

of the book comes to an end.

Succeeding chapters deal with regional aspects of our geography. Data

were based upon county statistics, and hence Dr. Wright's division of

the state into a group of southwestern counties ("The Miami Valley"),

northeastern Ohio (all of the Western Reserve plus Columbiana, Stark,

Wayne, Holmes, Ashland, and Richland counties), southeastern Ohio, and

northwestern and central Ohio, fails to conform to any real regional design.

As a geographer, the reviewer is disappointed that Dr. Wright has used the

expression "Miami Valley" for one of these chapters and then has failed to

follow through with such divisions as Scioto Valley, Maumee Valley,

Muskingum Valley, and the like.

Certain shortcomings are apparent throughout the book, and it is hoped

that some discrepancies will be corrected in future printings. Figure 19,

showing the sales of vegetable crops in $1,000 values, fails to indicate what

years the figures cover, and whether these figures include the production of

greenhouse crops. Figure 24, Acreage in Tenant-Operated Farms, omits the

figure for Pike County entirely. The discussion of manufacturing in Mansfield

appears in the chapter on northeastern Ohio, but the map of northwestern

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92       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Ohio shows Mansfield within that region. These and other points are

little more than minor quibbling in view of the monumental task of

synthesizing the statistical material.

The appearance of the volume is attractive, and it has been my experience

that students take to its use as a text very readily, with particular appre-

ciation for the large amount of tabular and cartographic material that has

been included. The author and the publishers are to be congratulated on

this volume and deserve the thanks of all residents of Ohio for the work

done in preparing this over-all view of the geography of our economic life.

Kent State University                                     H. F. RAUP

 

Royal Bob: The Life of Robert G. Ingersoll. By C. H. Cramer. (Indianapolis,

Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1952. ³¹⁴p.; bibliography and index. $3.75.)

Easily the most captivating figure in that convulsive nineteenth-century

struggle between science and religion was Robert G. Ingersoll. Thousands

of believers, non-believers, and unclassified, paid thousands of dollars to

hear the "Great Agnostic" ridicule the Bible, flay the clergy, and scold the

public. Slightly over the average in height, fluctuating between 200-280

pounds in weight, Ingersoll cut a striking figure on the platform. Standing

alone, speaking without notes, he hit hard, biting and humorous, mocking

and sarcastic. In this readable, informative, and highly entertaining study,

Professor Cramer of Western Reserve University has restored "Royal Bob"

(President Garfield was responsible for the appellation) to his proper place

on the history bookshelf.

Ingersoll pursued three careers--he was a lecturer, a lawyer, and a

Republican. His lecturing was devoted principally to debunking the Bible,

a pastime which involved him in magazine debates with a variety of clergy-

men, in addition to two lawsuits. His most famous legal case occurred in

1882-83, when he defended Stephen Dorsey, the A-1 conspirator in the

notorious Star Route Frauds. His stump-speaking contributions to the Re-

publican party were considerable until 1884. He might have swung New

York to Blaine in that year by a single appearance had he not been alienated

from his former friend.

While the book has great merit, it lacks critical and interpretive values

Ingersoll's wild fulminations of 1876 are only mechanically denounced

and his defense of the Star Routers is passed over without comment, it

is his receipt of a ranch in New Mexico from his client Dorsey. Not near

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Book Reviews                            93

 

enough is said about the glaring inconsistencies in Ingersoll's own thought

and behavior. Whereas he was true to his principles with regard to religion

and family, he had no principles in his political activity. Ingersoll con-

sidered himself, and he was, a defender of the downtrodden, but at the

same time he was a corporation lawyer, militant protectionist, and outspoken

imperialist. When rejected by Blaine he took up with Henry George on the

rebound. He came out fighting for gold in 1896, missing the deeper mean-

ing of Bryanism. These contradictions go unnoticed.

One minor factual error. Speaking of the Mulligan Letters, the author

twice on page 78 refers to Blaine's ties with the Fort Worth and Little Rock

Railroad. This, of course, should have read the Little Rock and Fort Smith

Railroad. In spite of its limitations, the book is well worth one's while and

should be read by all students of the period.

Rio Grande College                             EUGENE C. MURDOCK

 

History of Lake Shore Ohio. By Randolph C. Downes. Three volumes. (New

York, Lewis Publishing Company, 1953. xv+432p.; ⁴32p.; 570p.; illus-

trations and indexes. $25.00.)

These volumes, like many local histories of former years, have apparently

been financed in large part by the familiar device of devoting the last volume

to biographical sketches of successful individuals in the region. The author,

however, unlike many who have undertaken similar ventures in the past,

is a trained historian. Director of the Historical Society of Northwestern

Ohio, editor of that society's quarterly, member of the history faculty of the

University of Toledo, Dr. Downes is also the author of various meritorious

historical works, including a history of Lucas County, Ohio, now in process

of publication and eventually to be complete in six volumes.

The author has earnestly endeavored to present a balanced account of

the political, social, economic, and cultural development of the region from

the earliest times to the present day. Interest for the reader may be stimulated

by the use of paragraph headings followed by rather brief treatment of

topics not always intimately related to each other. Considerable attention has

been given to newspaper sources to ascertain local reactions to events and

trends of historical importance during various decades.

The area, including Toledo and Cleveland, embraces of course one of the

highly industrialized sections of the country, and the importance of iron and

steel and a host of industries related to the modern mechanized age is

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94       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

properly emphasized. Included also are rather extensive sections on the

problems of American imperialism, neutrality, war, and international co-

operation since 1898, with pertinent comment from newspapers of the

Ohio lake shore region.

Certain difficulties were inherent in the project, including that of con-

sistently following a concept as to the distance that the lake shore region

extends into the interior. Accurate information, moreover, is available for

some periods to a greater degree than for others, as is illustrated by the fact

that the political developments of the last forty years (not yet carefully

analyzed by scholars) are treated with noticeable brevity.

The maps and illustrations have been selected with discrimination, though

the map of the War of 1812 (I, p. 66) locates Ft. Wayne very inexactly.

In the text, other minor errors will be noted. Ft. Defiance was hardly

"rebuilt" as Ft. Winchester during the War of 1812 (I, p. 160), for it was

located some little distance away. To term a "total loss" the sums that had

been received by Ohio under the federal deposit act of 1836 and loaned in

part to the counties (I, p. 146) is not correct. (See E. L. Bogart, Internal

Improvements and State Debt in Ohio, New York, 1924, p. 167.)

The author, relying on the studies of Wellington G. Fordyce in the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, states that the Jews, number-

ing about 125,000 in 1936, constitute probably the largest group of foreign

origin in Cleveland, Yet, Fordyce (ibid., XLV, 324) states that first and

second-generation Germans numbered about 250,000 in 1936. Many of

these no doubt are fairly well separated from the cultural traditions of their

fathers, but this is also true of many Jews.

The proofreading has been carefully done, though Presbyterian is mis-

spelled in Volume II, page 483.

The third volume, comprising largely biographical accounts of successful

business leaders of recent decades, gives much information which may be

helpful for future students of local affairs. Incidentally, a perusal of these

sketches points strikingly to the wide prevalence during the past generation

in the homes of the financially successful of the two-child family, which,

according to experts, is hardly large enough for the replacement of such

groups.

Finally, in spite of the limitations indicated, this work has much t??

commend it to the student of middlewestern American history.

Ohio State University                        FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

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Book Reviews                             95

 

Artists and Illustrators of the Old West: 1850-1900. By Robert Taft. (New

York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953. xvii+400p.; illustrations, bibliog-

raphy, and index. $8.50.)

In the publication of Artists and Illustrators of the Old West: 1850-1900

Dr. Robert Taft, professor of chemistry at the University of Kansas, has not

only revived the interest in the old American frontiers, but also created

new frontiers in the study of American art. The author's previous con-

tribution of the excellent Photography and the American Scene is now

surpassed in literary interest and documentation of the thrilling expansion

of the West during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although a

few careful studies have been and are being made of individual artists who

contributed to this American epic, Dr. Taft for the first time, to the reviewer's

knowledge, has performed the laborious and exacting research necessary to

provide a reliable resume of this colorful era as seen through the eyes of

the adventurous men with their sketchpads who did so much to give the

visual impression of the Old West with its native Indians and invading

pioneers.

The authority of original pencil and water-color sketches, together with

wood-engravings, lithographs, and oil paintings made from the field sketches,

is substantiated by the extensive collection of anecdotal text from letters,

diaries, and autobiographies of the artists. It is a timely task, as so many

of the names are in danger of disappearing with the original sketches. Of

the forty-odd men presented by Dr. Taft, hardly one, with the possible

exception of Frederic Remington, has rated more than a passing mention

in the annals of American art. The argument may well be that they were

not great artists, merely illustrators of the passing scene, quickly supplanted

by the photographer. It is the old question of what constitutes art, and who

is entitled to the title of artist. There is no question but that these painters

and draftsmen had to master the exacting techniques of their craft; that they

held their reflecting mirrors up to nature and recorded what they saw with

sincerity and truth occasionally colored with romanticism. Without the

paintings of Hays, Mathews, Graham, Zogbaum, Farny, Schreyvogel, Leigh,

to name but a select few, how dull would be the recordings of the Old West.

Nearly half of the substantial volume is devoted to well arranged and

amply documented notes and sources with illustrations of typical works of

thirty-five of the artists, and an excellent index. This section in itself with

the volumes of such magazines as Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated

Magazine, and the other publications whose pages were enlivened and

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96       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

enriched by the illustrators, provides a gold mine for further search. Last,

but not least, the scholarly presentation that Dr. Taft has made of Artists

and Illustrators of the Old West has not kept his text from being en-

tertaining reading.

Ohio State University                              RALPH FANNING

 

The Negro in the Civil War. By Benjamin Quarles. (Boston, Little, Brown

and Company, 1953. xviii+379p.; illustrations, bibliography, and index.

$5.00.)

In producing this scholarly account of The Negro in the Civil War, Dr.

Benjamin Quarles, professor of history at Morgan State College, Baltimore,

Maryland, has bridged another gap in the construction of the history of

Negro-Americans, and has made an important addition to a growing body

of literature about them. The author in telling this story has developed a

lucid and interesting account, and his book is a valuable addition to American

history.

Professor Quarles has approached his subject from the point of view of

the North and the South, and he has also presented the role of Negroes who

make a falsehood of the southern tradition of their loyalty to the Confederate

South. He shows that while they became, at first, teamsters, orderlies, and

laborers who constructed breastworks and forts, dug intrenchments, and

erected fortifications for artillery, they later deserted and fled to the Union

lines, where they became "contrabands," and also acted as guides, pilots,

spies, and workers. They welcomed the Union troops in their advances, as

they learned that these advances would lead to freedom. It is important

to know the attitudes, reactions, and experiences of the Negro people,

especially in the northern states, who had participated in the Negro con-

vention movement, the abolition crusade, and the economic transition to

freedom, and particularly of many thousands who had never been slaves,

who were heralding the new day in our democratic experience.

Professor Quarles' title to his book is somewhat misleading, because his

book is not so much a volume on the Negro in the Civil War as it is a

study of the Negro soldier in the Civil War. Historical conditions affecting

the Negro population receive some attention, but the emphasis is on the

problems of war. Picturesque and dramatic titles characterize the chapter

headings: "So Nigh Is Grandeur," "They Also Serve," "No More Driver's

Lash," "I Can't Stay Behind," "Rehearsal for Freedom," "A High Day

in Zion," "The Tortoise Gets a Move On," "Sixty-three Is the Jubilee,"

• 20
 

Book Reviews                          97

 

"Do You Think I'll Make a Soldier," "Anselmas Reports to God," "Home

Front: Group Portrait in Sepia," "Toll de Bell," "Badges of Freedom,"

"Jubilee--Jubilanus--Jubilatum," "Where Sleep Our Kindred Dead."

The census of 1860 reported 488,070 free Negroes in the United States,

and 52.9 percent had found residence in the North. This population group

had been schooled in the meaning of freedom by the conditions under which

they lived as well as by the voices of democracy. Scarcely had the war opened

with the firing of the first guns, when Negroes began to strike their blows

for freedom.

As Dr. Quarles writes, when April 12, 1861, came, "the Negro was

ready. This is a record of that readiness." He found that "from the ranks

of the former slaves came the bulk of the 180,000 Negroes who enlisted

in the Army and the more than 29,000 who manned Union ships." There

were fifty-two military encounters in which Negroes participated. Dr.

Quarles gives highlights to five of these battles; two of them, Battery

Wagner in South Carolina and Port Hudson in Louisiana, were fought by

free Negro soldiers. The other three battles, Melliken's Bend, Nashville,

and Petersburg, were fought by ex-slaves from Mississippi, Tennessee,

Maryland, and Virginia. Negroes served also as scouts, spies, and nurses;

they were in activities of the Underground Railroad; and they were home

defenders.

Ohio's Negroes played important parts in this drama of war for freedom.

The author quotes the Rev. William Waring, pastor of Toledo's Negro

Baptist Church, as saying that, "from the hour of the uprising, the Negro

was a new man." In Cleveland, Negroes resolved that, "today, as in the

times of '76 and in the days of 1812, we are ready to go forth and do

battle in the common cause of our country." In another Ohio town, Albany,

a military company of Negroes was formed and was named "Attucks

Guards," after Crispus Attucks, the Negro who was one of the first martyrs

of the American Revolution. Yet, with these and other evidences of

loyalty, the state attorney general, H. B. Carrington, had to inform the

Negroes of Ohio that the Ohio Constitution did not permit him to issue

an order for their enlistment. Negroes of Ohio had never been called upon

officially by the state to perform military service, but Ohio had been a

recruiting ground for the Massachusetts 55th Regiment, the first of the

Negro regiments.

In the early days of the war neither congress nor the northern state legis-

latures were willing to announce or admit that the Negro was a factor

in the cause of the war or its prosecution. They were as unwilling to con-

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98       Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

sider Negro enlistments until induced by the events of war and the difficulties

northern governors were having in raising their quota of troops. Never-

theless, Negroes wanted to serve in this war for freedom. A Negro of Toledo

wrote the Toledo Blade that he was willing to serve "as cook, waiter or

in any other way."

In 1863 Ohio began the recruiting of Negro troops. John Mercer Langston,

a graduate of Oberlin College and later a Negro member of congress, was

one of the recruiting agents. The 5th United States Colored Troops, with

Colonel G. W. Shurtliff commanding, was recruited almost exclusively from

Ohio. Governor David Tod and his predecessor, William Dennison, were

chief speakers at the flag presentation ceremonies for this company.

The author has based his study upon extensive use of collections of

books and manuscripts. He has had a leave of absence from teaching duties

in order to prepare the book and has had the opportunity to travel through

grants-in-aid. There are no footnotes but instead copious quotations are

used. The reported reliability of some quotations of statements of dialect

by Negroes may well be questioned. Some are amusing, but are they also

accurately reported?

The volume has an informal style, with realistic details, and is quite

readable. This history of Negroes, by a Negro, somehow denies classification

as "Negro History." It is a distinct contribution to American history. A

bibliography, arranged by chapters, but also accurately complete, appears at

the end of the volume. The great value of the book, however, is in the total

story which it tells of what Negro-Americans did for themselves in the heroic

struggle for our freedom--all of which makes a contrast with the traditional

story of how Lincoln and the Union armies brought freedom to them. Of one

thing we can be sure, textbook writers on the Civil War will not be com-

piling the complete story unless they give attention to this well-written and

important study, which will remain for a long time as a basic volume on

this subject.

Central State College                         CHARLES H. WESLEY

 

A History of Miami County, Ohio. By Leonard U. Hill and others. (Piqua,

Miami County Ohio Sesquicentennial Committee, 1953. xii+403p.; illus-

trations. $2.50.)

This is another county history to come out of the Ohio sesquicentennial

celebration and one that will be used to supplement courses in American

history in the city and county schools of Miami County. In the preparation

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Book Reviews                            99

 

of many county sesquicentennial histories the time element was vital, and

as is the case of the Miami volume, it was necessary to enlist the help of

many native authors and researchers to meet the deadline. Thus we are con-

fronted with a book containing a delightful variety of writing styles as

well as varied approaches to the many facets in the realm of local history.

Editor Hill has done an admirable job of organization of historical

material, particularly in the early section of the book wherein the pre-

history is described. Excavations of a mound situated southeast of Forest

Hill Cemetery in Piqua revealed a sacrificial altar made of clay burned red

and covered with ashes, charcoal, and burned bone pressed solid covered

with clay. As far back as Indian tradition extends, the Miami tribe in-

habited this entire region. Although no detailed prehistory is related, it

gives the volume a good start, and this continues through the telling of

Indian activity in the county. The following chapter recounts the formation

of Miami County, which was established by an act of the state legislature

passed January 16, 1807. The histories of each township are given midway

through the book and are listed alphabetically. In addition, the fifty-seven

illustrations, which include maps, line drawings, and old and modern photo-

graphs, do much to increase the overall value of the history.

The book is most absorbing, however, when it deals with such subjects as

the early home life in the county and the development of the canal system.

Here the writers create a vivid sense of reality that often eludes the pen

of the professional historian. The younger reader will not remember dates

and boundaries as well as he will recall names, scenes, and situations.

And on the local history level, re-creation of the early scene--the whole

pattern of pioneer life--should be well planted in the minds of the beginner.

Anne Rayner Wilson, author of the chapter Homes and Home Life, has

done a commendable job of telling the story of a day in the life of a pioneer

family. She begins with the pioneer cabin and recounts the method of con-

struction. "A day was appointed for the cabin raising and the neighbors

came for miles around for the sociable time that went with all working

together. Early in the day entire families arrived. The women prepared food

and the accustomed whiskey or brandy was provided by the host." From the

building of the cabin, Mrs. Wilson goes into the kind of food that

nourished the pioneer and then into the early recipes. "The corn dodger

was the meal, water and salt made into dough and baked. Corn pone was

made with meal, yeast and milk. The 'hoe cake' or 'Johnny Cake' was

made with meal, shortening of bear's grease or hog's grease mixed with

water and made into a dough which was placed on a clapboard of maple

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100      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

three feet long and six or eight inches wide. The dough was spread on about

an inch thick and baked in front of the fire and was quite appetizing."

Clothes and customs are described in the following pages, creating again

for the reader, young or old, a feeling of "knowing" what the pioneer did,

how he did it, and so forth. It is the purpose in such county histories, it

seems to me, to familiarize the reader with each event through simple

description. The dates and statistics, while important to the teacher, are

not dwelled upon by the average reader or untrained historian.

A chapter on "The Canal" by L. S. Pearson is another that re-creates the

early day. In 1850 there were, according to Mr. Pearson, some four hundred

line and packet boats on the Miami and Erie Canal. A line boat carried

merchandise, grain, lumber, and other articles, while the popular packet

boat was a combination passenger, diner, sleeper, smoker, and mail boat,

and usually had a bar. The packets were gaily painted, had silk curtains,

served fine meals, and were built for speed. An advertisement in an 1850

paper stated that a boat left Piqua at 8 A.M. and got into Cincinnati in time

for breakfast the next morning. The beds were stretched canvas shelves three

feet wide that hung from the wall and ceiling and could be taken down in

the daytime. Men usually removed their shoes, coats, and vests to retire,

and in cases of overcrowding, they slept on and under tables. Miami

County's interest in the early canals is great, since Piqua was head of

navigation on the canal for seven years--from 1837 to 1844.

The History of Miami County is best when it reflects upon its early home-

steads, its canals, its early transportation, and its people. For herein it pre-

serves a "folksy" reality that was, and is today, a part of the people who

reside in all of our Ohio communities.

Franklin County Historical Society               DANIEL F. PRUGH

 

Letters of Sherwood Anderson. Selected and edited with an Introduction and

Notes by Howard Mumford Jones in association with Walter B. Rideout.

(Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1953. xxix+479p.; illustrations

and index. $6.00.)

Sherwood Anderson, of Camden, Clyde, Springfield, Cleveland, and

Elyria, lived twenty-seven of his sixty-one years in Ohio, but there is little

about his native state in this book of four hundred letters spanning the period

1916-41. They add nothing, therefore, to what we learn of Anderson's Ohio

years from the unpublished dissertations of William Sutton and William

Phillips. After he suffered his nervous breakdown in Elyria in 1912 and

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Book Reviews                           101

 

moved to Chicago, he felt no compulsion even to revisit the region from

which he mined half his books. Nevertheless, he carried his Ohio ex-

perience with him wherever he went thereafter, whether it was to Chicago,

New York, the South, or Europe; and he seems to have been most at home,

after 1925, in a Virginia village which resembled the pre-industrial Clyde

of his boyhood. When Anderson wrote Dreiser, in 1936, from his home

in Marion, Virginia, that "the small town is like a goldfish bowl. You can

look and see. And I do see often the most sensitive ones breaking down,

becoming drunkards, going all to pieces because of the terrible [loneliness]

and dullness," he was declaring his belief that Clyde, like Mark Twain's

Hannibal, was everywhere. When he wrote of Sinclair Lewis, "I've been

laying for that bird ever since he wrote Main Street," he was implying a

partial truth: that whereas Main Street is a story about a region, Winesburg,

Ohio is a story about people.

The letters are of considerable biographical importance, for Anderson's

memory was as unreliable as Poe's, and his numerous memoirs and semi-

autobiographical works are not to be trusted in matters of fact. The letters

are of equal importance for the literary historian, for Anderson was at the

center of the cultural renaissance of 1914-30, and his correspondents in-

cluded Dreiser, Van Wyck Brooks, Alfred Steiglitz, Edmund Wilson,

Gertrude Stein, Waldo Frank, and Paul Rosenfeld. (The editors, for

obvious reasons, have made little use of the other side of the correspondence,

and we shall probably have to wait a long time before it gets into print.)

Chiefly, however, the letters concern the craft of writing--Anderson's

writing--and to the literary student they reveal his strength and expose his

weakness. One cannot read them without realizing that Anderson was a

perennial amateur who hated making a living (and a poor living it was,

in spite of his fame) from his books. Writing for him was an intense

excitement, dependent upon mood rather than upon steady application at

the desk. Incapable of careful planning, he would write and destroy several

successive versions of a novel before discovering that he had a subject but

no predicate. His subjects were many and complex--small towns, big

towns, the machine--worker, the Negro, the loves and family life of the

middle class--and to them he brought all his great capacity for generous

sympathy. But his object was always to feel the subject which engrossed his

imagination, never to understand it with the aid of a theory, a process of

thought, or an accumulation of fact. As he wrote Dreiser, the "general

notion of the writer being also thinker, philosopher, etc. is . . . wet."

Inevitably, his strength was not in the novel but in the short story, which,

• 25
 

102      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

in modern practice and partly because of Anderson's influence, has become

a noun without a verb.

The letters make lively reading. They are the record of a man perpetually

seeking to find himself, and, again and again, feeling dismay at what he

finds. They are well edited, and Professor Jones's introduction is both

illuminating and sympathetic.

Ohio State University                              WILLIAM CHARVAT

 

The Army Air Forces in World War II. Edited by Wesley F. Craven and

James L. Cate. Vol. V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944

to August 1945. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953. xxxvii+

⁸⁷⁸p.; maps and charts, illustrations, and index. $8.50.)

This volume takes for its topic those varied and widespread operations of

the army air forces in the Pacific in the final phase of the Pacific War.

The defensive maneuvers had been completed for the most part, and the

offense begun. It is a glowing story of the defeats and victories, the failures

and successes of air power in a scattered theater of operations. It is the tale

of expediency and diverse command, of trial and error.

All military histories of the late war are somewhat difficult to judge in

point of accuracy. The layman has not yet had an opportunity to study the

reports and documents which speeded the various services of the nation to

victory. Yet this volume, like its predecessors, seems to be not only com-

prehensive, but fair and equitable. It is neither a propaganda piece in praise

of air power, nor a critical essay upon the shortcomings of man's military

might in the air. Rather, it appears to present an unbiased, straightforward

account of the situation as it existed. It deals with the personalities as well

as the aircraft involved, sometimes harshly, sometimes with sincere respect.

It pulls no punches in relating the history of the intercommand rivalries

which often reduced the military effectiveness of the airplane, as well as

the ground and sea forces.

The history of the army air forces in the Pacific from June 1944 to

victory in 1945 is concise and to the point. Whereas the various authors

(some eight in number) do not pass direct judgment upon the men and

materials involved, the verdicts are included by implication and weight

of fact.

Perhaps more than anything else, this volume gives the reader an idea

of the magnitude of the Pacific air war. It points out vividly and clearly

the mass of men and materiel which must be coordinated and organized

• 26
 

Book Reviews                            103

 

in order that an air command may be put on an operational basis. Even

more, it questions, by innuendo, the idea of a divided command among

sea, ground, and air units. There is no doubt left in the reader's mind that

misunderstanding and personal ideas of feasible military tactics brought on

costly, sometimes even disastrous, mistakes. Yet, in the final analysis, the

army air forces contributed greatly to the defeat of the Japanese, long

before the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A statement in the final

chapter seems to summarize the element of success: "It was the versatility

of the AAF, rather than its accomplishments in any one department, which

deserves principal emphasis in a review of its contribution to the defeat of

Japan." Bombing, mining, supplying, rescue work, reconnaissance, and

communications were all part and parcel of the work of the army air

forces in the Pacific, and this volume does much toward giving each of

these phases of operation just credit.

There are two obvious drawbacks to this history. First, it is so detailed

and those details are nearly impossible to check by the lay historian, and,

secondly, the chapters, written by different individuals, vary in degree of

clarity and effective presentation. A still longer history with fewer confusing

abbreviations and more interpretation might have been merited. Chrono-

logical aberrations are explained satisfactorily, and the organization of the

volume, as a whole, is worthy of praise, for here has been presented in one

volume the story of the military careers of thousands of aircraft and still

more thousands of men. Illustrations are quite effectively used, and together

with maps, aid in the documentation of the work. Undoubtedly better

military histories are yet to be written, but as an early and comprehensive

effort, this primary attempt is above reproach.

Anthony Wayne Parkway Board                       RICHARD C. KNOPF

 

This Is Ohio: Ohio's 88 Counties in Words and Pictures. By Grace Goulder

Izant. (Cleveland, World Publishing Company, 1953. 264p.; illustrations,

map, list of Ohio colleges and universities, bibliography, and index.

$2.75.)

Grace Goulder Izant, well known for her "Ohio Scenes and Citizens" in

the Sunday Pictorial Magazine of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has assembled

eighty-eight short sketches (one for each of Ohio's counties), added ninety-

nine well-chosen pictures, and called the result This Is Ohio. Based prin-

cipally on her researches in connection with her ten-year-old Plain Dealer

series, the contents of this little volume are aimed by Mrs. Izant and the

• 27
 

104      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

publisher at meeting the demand of Ohioans for more information re-

specting the history of their state in its sesquicentennial year.

The author deservedly enjoys the reputation of an entertaining writer,

and she has done a good job in "making the reader want to turn the page."

She has succeeded in obtaining needed cohesion, a most difficult task when

you consider the number and diversity of background of Ohio's counties,

by subdividing the state into nine geographical-historical units, presenting

an introduction to each, and then following with sketches of the counties

making up that unit.

However, with two or three interesting anecdotes, plus a smattering of

facts and figures and a picture or two, making up the sketch of each county,

it is obvious that the book is primarily intended for popular consumption

and not to meet the needs of the historian. Indeed, the latter will find little

"new" information in its pages and will doubtless take exception to its

abbreviated index, its uncritical bibliography, the total absence of footnotes,

and the numerous errors which have crept into its pages. For example, on

page 23 we are told that the battle of Buffington Island was a "mild

skirmish" which resulted in the surrender of Morgan, though he managed

to escape with a number of his soldiers at night. Joshua Reed Giddings is

described as a "senator" on page 32, as is Clement L. Vallandigham on

page 210. On page 48 Mark Hanna is described as becoming a power in

Republican politics and the "mentor" of President McKinley after he became

a senator. Killbuck is pictured as the site of "Fort Fizzle" on page 85,

while Waverly is credited with being the location of the atomic energy plant

on pages 173 and 189.

In describing the surrender of white captives by the Delawares and

Shawnees to Colonel Henry Bouquet on page 88, Mrs. Izant states that

"tribal leaders . . . paddled in with more than two hundred white prisoners,

eighty of them women and children." Actually, all but eighty were women

and children. On page 91 we are told that the Gnadenhutten massacre

was conducted by a "corps of Virginia militia, . . . bent on retaliation against

Indians for depredations in the South." The United States Geographer

Thomas Hutchins is pictured on page 94 as beginning "a survey of lands

east of the Ohio River called the Seven Ranges," while on page 102

we are informed that "the country's first six ships, the Constitution among

them, were commissioned by Congress in 1794 to fight the Barbary pirates."

Historians of the Civil War will be interested to learn on page 139 that

General James B. McPherson was "killed at thirty-five near Atlanta in 1834."

Urbana Junior College is called a "university" on page 161, while the

• 28
 

Book Reviews                           105

 

year of reorganization of the colleges at Wilberforce is given as 1951 on

page 213. On page 183 the Mingo chief Logan is pictured as killed by

"irresponsible whites." President George Washington, when first learning

of the news of the terrible defeat of St. Clair, is described as breaking into

"a fury of denunciation of his old friend" on page 222. The battle of

Fallen Timbers is depicted as taking place in November on pages 236 and

248, while Michigan is referred to as a "state" at the time of the Toledo

boundary "war" of 1835, this on page 246. Even its chamber of commerce

will be surprised to learn that "by mid-nineteenth century Toledo was the

'glass capital' of the world"--page 247.

Mrs. Izant experiences considerable difficulty in her handling of the subject

of the Greene Ville Treaty. On page 195 we are told that in the treaty the

Indians "gave up a great part of what is now southwestern Ohio," while

on page 219 it is mentioned that the Indians "still lingered in the Ohio

northwest despite the Greenville Treaty." Page 217 proceeds to describe the

treaty line as "running south and west from Cleveland to today's Mercer

County, and south along the Ohio boundary line to the Ohio River."

Occasionally the author is given to exceptionally vivid (even if historically

inaccurate) bits of picturization. Ponder for a moment on this excerpt

from page 225:

 

. . . the important Indian village, Pickawalliny [sic], the home of the Miami tribe

and the leather-faced tricky chief, Old Britain. His town was wiped out later by a

posse of hot-headed Canadians who galloped into the beautiful valley, buckskin jackets

flying and rifles cocked.

Some bits of additional humor have been injected into the body of the

book through the carelessness of the proofreader. For example, on page 50

a "statute of Moses Cleaveland" is described as standing on Cleveland's

Public Square. Paulding is portrayed on page 234 as a "pleasant rural

trading center with a leading factory making break linings."

But the most glaring error of all was committed by the one who drew the

map of Ohio for the end papers. Here the Western Reserve was shown as

including the river counties of Gallia, Meigs, Athens, and Washington,

while the Ohio Company lands were pictured as encompassing the north

central counties of Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Hancock, Wyandot,

Crawford, Hardin, and Marion.

Fortunately, a second printing has come out that has corrected this map.

It is regrettable that at the time of this correction the numerous other errors

which appear in the body of the book were not eliminated.

Kent State University                             PHILLIP R. SHRIVER

• 29
 

106      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Encyclopedia of American History. Edited by Richard B. Morris. (New York,

Harper & Brothers, 1953. xv+776p.; maps, charts, and index. $6.00.)

The reference literature on American history has been immensely en-

riched by the appearance of the Encyclopedia of American History. Columbia

University professor Richard B. Morris in his capacity as editor has ac-

complished on a national basis what William L. Langer did more com-

prehensively in his noted Encyclopedia of World History. The result is a

scholarly, readable volume which merits a place on the shelves of every

library, every historian, and anyone else seeking verification of historical

facts or capsular presentation of American history.

Dr. Morris, an established teacher and author (The Era of the American

Revolution, Government and Labor in Early America, Studies in the History

of American Law, and Fair Trial), has successfully welded together the

original contributions of an outstanding group of consultant editors headed

by Professor Henry Steele Commager. His colleagues, all of whom deserve

mention, were William Duncan Strong, Thomas C. Cochran, Ray Allen

Billington, J. Bartlet Brebner, Talbot Hamlin, Sumner Welles, James D.

Hart, the Rev. Dr. Anson Phelps Stokes, and William L. Laurence. It is

regrettable indeed that space limitations do not permit the naming of every

individual who participated in one phase or another of the work.

Both a chronological and a topical approach have been employed. In the

first of three principal divisions, approximately 400 pages are devoted pri-

marily to the major political and military events in the nation's history.

Attention is given to such important background topics as the original

peopling of the Americas, the exploration of the western hemisphere, and

the colonization period, but the bulk of the section deals with the years since

the Seven Years' War. Beginning with 1763, each year is treated separately,

varying in length from a short paragraph to several pages. Within specific

periods, however, topical treatment is often used, as in "The United States

and World Reconstruction Since 1945," which is subdivided into relief

and reconstruction; peace settlements; negotiations, conferences, and treaties;

cold war; aggression in Korea; domestic issues; and national politics.

Coverage extends through the election of 1952 and President-elect Eisen-

hower's trip to Korea.

In the second major division six principal subjects are accorded a total

of 216 pages. These include "The Expansion of the Nation," "Population

and Immigration," "The Constitution and the Supreme Court," "The Amer-

ican Economy," "Science and Invention," and "Thought and Culture," each

• 30
 

Book Reviews                           107

 

of which embraces several specific topics. For example, under the last-

named heading, religion is traced from the establishment of the Church

of England in Virginia in 1609 to the Revised Standard Version of the

Bible in 1952; the theater and motion pictures range from Ye Bare and Ye

Cubb in 1665, the first English play known to have been performed in the

colonies, to Cinerama in 1952; and twenty-two pages on literature are

studded with names of authors and their works, including a list of best-

sellers for each period. Education, newspapers and periodicals, music, and

fine arts and architecture receive comparable attention in this section.

Brief biographies of 300 eminent Americans and an extensive Index

round out the Encyclopedia. Ohioans will perhaps be interested to note

that the subjects of some twenty of the biographical sketches (well above the

average) were natives of the Buckeye state, besides a considerable number

who, though born elsewhere, achieved fame while residents of Ohio. The

Index, a valuable adjunct to the book, includes approximately 6,000 subjects,

enabling the reader to locate most information with relative ease.

The usefulness of the volume has been further increased by the inclusion

of a table naming each president's cabinet members, a list of all the United

States Supreme Court justices with their years of service, a fourteen-page

summary of leading court decisions, and thirty-two maps and charts.

There is little to criticize in the Encyclopedia. The most serious de-

ficiency noted by this reviewer after rather intensive examination is the

apparent failure to state (except to a limited degree by indirect reference)

the provisions of the Articles of Confederation. The infrequent typo-

graphical errors do not materially detract from the highly professional

character of the book nor do they as a rule alter the sense of the text. It

could be confusing, however, to read on page 398 that "after UN forces

(Apr.-May) hurled back two Red attacks, true [for truce] negotiations

began at Kaesong, 10 July 1951."

The Encyclopedia will unquestionably answer a definite need. There would

still seem, on the other hand, to be room for a single-volume dictionary of

American history without narrative text, a type of volume which has not

been essayed successfully in recent years. The format of the Encyclopedia

is attractive, and the printing in general measures up to the high standard

of workmanship otherwise achieved. The publisher is also to be commended

for putting so low a price on this splendid volume.

Ohio State Archaeological                             JOHN S. STILL

and Historical Society

• 31
 

108      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

The Antioch Review Anthology: Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Reviews from

The Antioch Review. Edited by Paul Bixler. (Cleveland, World Publishing

Company, 1953. ix+470p. $6.00.)

Here is as good a showing as one could find--and keep for reference

later-of what appears in a contemporary serious magazine. Of forty-six

contributors, more than half are college teachers. There are seven essays

grouped as "The Political Animal," five more under "Patterns of Belief,"

and six under "Patterns of Living." The remaining twenty-eight items are

short stories (some very good ones), poems, and reviews of other books.

The Review itself is only twelve years old. That fact, added to the note

just made that half the contributors are teachers, means that the Anthology

is a short course in contemporary social science. Collaterally, it is a weather

map of the last twelve years as drawn by the segment of our people known

as the intellectual left (a term of honor in this reviewer's mind rather than

a complaint) or, again a troublesome word, liberals. A good portion of the

essay material is used in defining liberalism, with and without the upper-

case "L." One who would like to call himself a liberal if only he could

define it, will not attempt to do so here. There is no satisfactory agreement

among the Anthology essayists on the point, for that matter.

Two observations concerning the essays are proper in the very brief

treatment of this review. One is quite arresting, though certainly not new.

There is prevailing among these social scientists (as among intellectuals

generally and professional writers particularly) a refusal to include God

in the working of the world. Now and then one finds an express declaration

against the Hutchins and Dewey thesis that education of the proper (scien-

tific and humanistic) kind can solve all our problems, but more often there

is a faith that man can solve his problems alone. It is a curious thing that

Christian faith can be denied as unscientific and unintellectual by these

writers, when they demonstrate a faith, equally spiritual and unscientific,

in the power of mens' minds alone, unaided by God.

The second observation is that there is a notable similarity in style among

the essays and to a lesser degree among the reviews. There is a passion for

tags--one is not obscure, he is guilty of obscurantism, and so on. To say

it ponderously is to say it well. This is the academic English about which

so much fun has been had for twenty years.

This is not to say that tired ideas are festooned with useless words, for

that would be far from true. There is stimulating inquiry and examination

in these essays that is found only in the college and university reviews and

• 32
 

Book Reviews                            109

 

the little magazines. The contributors fulfill the function of thinkers and

teachers, and it is only a minor annoyance that they fall into jargon in

setting forth what they have to say.

The Antioch Review has maintained a high level of serious concern for

contemporary problems during its life. The Anthology is an excellent and

full sampling, and the volume certainly has permanent value.

Cincinnati, Ohio                                NORMAN L. SPELMAN

 

Epidemics in Colonial America. By John Duffy. (Baton Rouge, Louisiana

State University Press, 1953. xi+274p.; illustrations, bibliography, and

index. $4.50.)

One of the most dramatic achievements of modern medical science is the

conquest of epidemic diseases spread by contaminated food and water and

transmitted by insects and rodents, an achievement that has added twenty-

five years to the average life-span during the past century and has made

the once dreaded terror of uncontrolled epidemics a thing of the past.

Fortunately, the present generation of Americans on the whole has not

witnessed the grim experiences and dread forebodings occasioned by out-

breaks of such epidemics as smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, cholera,

yellow fever, and "bloody flux," although memories of some of these

scourges still linger in the minds of older generations.

This book depicts epidemics in colonial America as real and tangible

menaces to the populace; it treats chronologically the periodic waves of

major contagions, the duration of the outbreaks, the virulence of the in-

fection, the number of casualties, and the effect of epidemics on social

and economic life during that era. It is well documented, the source

materials being diaries, journals, correspondence, manuscripts, and official

records. This reviewer was particularly impressed with the huge amount of

research conducted by the author for the preparation of this account. As

a matter of fact, the average reader will doubtless find the book rather

tedious reading because it includes so many dates and statistics.

The author devotes ninety-five pages to a discussion of smallpox, including

methods employed by the colonists to control it, such as the practice of

variolation, the passage of quarantine laws, and the recourse to pesthouses;

popular prejudice toward the practice of inoculation, which was the precursor

of vaccination, is well depicted, and the effect of the disease on the Indian

population is clearly outlined.

Doubtless the most interesting and illuminating part of the book to

• 33
 

110      Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

the average lay reader is the author's conclusions. He is of the opinion

that in spite of the devastation caused by such contagions as smallpox,

yellow fever, and diphtheria and of the consternation they aroused among

the colonists, nevertheless epidemics of dysentery and malaria, although

less alarming, proved far more costly both in terms of economics and human

suffering and, therefore, rank first among epidemic disorders affecting the

colonists; respiratory diseases--colds, influenza, pleurisy, and pneumonia--

he thinks should be placed next as causes of human suffering and death;

diphtheria and scarlet fever, although taking a heavy toll among children,

he believes did not cause much disruption of economic and social life. He

also claims that measles, whooping cough, and mumps proved neither ex-

tensive nor especially fatal and that typhus fever was negligible in the

colonies.

As to the effect of epidemic diseases upon colonial development, Mr.

Duffy confesses that it is by no means clear. He maintains that many his-

torians have overrated their importance as hindrances to colonial develop-

ment and he points out that despite their destructive effects the population

grew steadily and wealth increased.

Ohio State University                           LINDEN F. EDWARDS

 

The People's Health: A History of Public Health in Minnesota to 1948.

By Philip D. Jordan. (Saint Paul, Minnesota Historical Society, 1953.

xii+524p.; illustrations and index. $5.00.)

It is probably a tactical error to ask one in public health to write a

critical review of this book. However dedicated to and absorbed in his

chosen line of work, yet the public health worker is aware of his obscure

lot and of the ignorance of the general public concerning the role he plays.

Throughout his career, as a consequence, he dreams of finding a fluent

champion, one who has the public ear and who has understanding and appre-

ciation of the flavor and attraction of this relatively unsung public service.

Lo, here is such a one.

The story opens with a review of the climate, the topography, and the

population of the early years in Minnesota. All of these factors were of

major influence on the health of the first settlers and thereby on the course

of empire in the North Star state. Contrary to the rosy picture painted by

those seeking to attract northward the custom already devoted to Florida, the

rigorous winters, the low-lying swamps, the immigrants fresh from the con-

taminations of the old passenger ships and the transportation centers of the

• 34
 

Book Reviews                           111

 

East made this no disease-free paradise. Health problems indeed there were

from the earliest days, calling for devoted minds to solve them.

The father of organized health work in Minnesota was Dr. Charles N.

Hewitt. Coming out of New York state by way of distinguished service in

the Union army, Dr. Hewitt combined an amazing energy with a profound

belief in the value of preventive medicine. He pursued a vigorous practice,

worked for years for the establishment of a state board of health, and served

as its first secretary for twenty-five years. He was also a prime mover in the

campaign to establish a state medical licensing board and subsequently

a college of medicine at the University of Minnesota. He worked for the

development of a uniform and comprehensive system for the collection of

vital statistics. The breadth and depth of his interests were unbelievable.

Ultimately he was replaced, but the stability of the state board of health

had been established, and from its organization in 1872 until the present,

it has had only four secretaries. Hewitt's successor, Dr. H. M. Bracken,

had as his job to modernize and expand the program so well begun. Minne-

sota's public health program as the century turned was on its way.

The author devotes the bulk of his volume to tracing the history of the

various specific programs in public health: pure water, sewage treatment,

food sanitation, communicable disease control, including tuberculosis and

the venereal diseases, occupational health, maternal and child health, mental

health, and health for the aging. Here is displayed the understanding of the

philosophy of public health, passed on to the reader by the unfolding of

the various campaigns from inception to modernity.

While like most historical compends, the volume is well footnoted with

references to original sources, it is not an inventory of archive material. It

has come alive in the author's hands and is absorbing not only to those in

public health, not only to Minnesotans, but to all readers interested in the

growth of peoples and ideas.

Mr. Jordan is no stranger to Ohioans. He has written a number of books

on the development of America, not least of which is Ohio Comes of Age,

for which he received the Ohioana Library Award for the best book about

Ohio written in 1943. This present book can only enhance Mr. Jordan's

excellent reputation and should gain him a wide new field of readers.

Public health people especially will be grateful for a sympathetic portrait.

Ohio Department of Health                      JOHN D. PORTERFIELD

• 35