BOOK REVIEWS
Pony Wagon Town--Along U. S. 1890. By Ben Riker. (Indian-
apolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1948. 312p.,
illustrations. $3.50.)
This book is an account of the
carriage-building trade in western
Ohio in the last decade of the
nineteenth century, but by the author's
own admission he has not been
"greatly interested in writing a social or
economic document. My concern has been
chiefly to set down the facts
of my father's achievements and the way
in which he and his neighbors
lived a number of very satisfactory
lives." The result obviously is not
a scientific study of the rise and
decline of the carriage-maker's trade
in Ohio, fortified by exhaustive
statistics; but it is a highly entertaining
history of one carriage factory, and
that a very interesting one be-
cause it deserted the prosaic course of
ordinary carriage building to
specialize in pony wagons and eventually
created a business of inter-
national scope in those vehicles. About
this business the author is
well equipped to speak, for his father
was both its owner and manager,
and he himself grew up in the midst of
its activities.
From newspaper files, old company
catalogs, and his own memory,
Mr. Riker has set down a delightful
chronicle of the manufacture of
pony wagons. Through the medium of the
progress of a pony wagon
from "the laying of its keel"
in the blacksmith shop, through the
trimming room, the paint shop, and
finally to the rub deck, the opera-
tion of the chief business of St. Paris,
Ohio, a half century ago is event-
ually described, although only at his
publisher's insistence did Mr.
Riker reveal the identity of "our
town." For a time the reader is not
certain whether the description of the
making of a pony wagon is
the main purpose of the book or whether
this is merely a device for
the introduction of a host of
interesting personalities and incidents
associated with the business.
Occasionally these anecdotes seem to
lack the dramatic climax their
beginnings anticipate. When the author's
mother took up voice lessons, the
results were amusing, though they
could have been elaborated into a
hilarious story. Instead, these tales
were put down without embellishment, and
the air of authenticity re-
sulting lifts the book above the level
of the country doctor series. It is
to Mr. Riker's credit that he chose to
report life as it was, and the
sly wit with which he touches his
recollections makes up for the drama
he sacrificed in favor of accurate
reporting.
204
Book Reviews 205
However, for the author, the pony wagon
is more than a device
for recording the Ohio scene of the
1890's. He is interested in setting
down some of the history of a
once-flourishing business now so for-
gotten that Webster's Unabridged fails
him in correct definitions for
words like "trap" and
"gear" as they were used in the carriage trade.
Upon this writer, for whom surrey, trap,
and phaeton had been in-
distinguishable synonyms for buggy,
discussion of kingbolts, step irons,
and lazybacks is sometimes lost, but the
people associated with these
elements of the trade were usually
interesting, and they were part of
the scene which, by the end of his book,
Mr. Riker begins to think may
have been a golden age. Twentieth
century businessmen will share
his nostalgia for a time "when the
only word they ever received from
Washington was an occasional franked
speech from our congressman
or a springtime gift of garden seeds
from the same source." Both the
description of native pride, here termed
"the Ohio faith," and the list
of magazines, not omitting the
publications from Augusta, Maine, that
came into one family circle in that
period are interesting bits of
Ohioana, and the essay in praise of the
Shetland pony is well worth
reading in itself. Pony Wagon Town is as charming as any book of
recollections and a notch above most of
them in accuracy and wit.
WILLIAM L. FISK, JR.
Muskingum College.
The Earth Brought Forth: A History of
Minnesota Agriculture to
1885. By Merrill E. Jarchow. (St. Paul, Minnesota Historical
Society,
1949. xvi+314p. $3.00.)
This book provides a history of
agriculture in Minnesota from
about 1840 to the approximate time of
the passing of wheat growing
as the staple industry. The specialist
will welcome it as much needed
contribution to the regional history of
North American agriculture;
the general reader will find it
straightforward and interesting; and the
farmer-well, perhaps he will think that
here at last is a writer who
seems as if he would know when to shut
off a milking machine and
how to put a collar on a horse.
The arrangement of the work is
essentially topical, no doubt be-
cause six of the fourteen chapters have
already been published much
in their present form as articles in Minnesota
History. The opening
chapter furnishes a general survey of
Minnesota farming developments.
The second describes the fundamentals of
soil and climate. The next
206 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
two deal with the acquisition of land,
emphasizing federal legislation,
the activities of speculators, and the
role of railways. Then follow
two concerned with the pioneer and
pioneer life, which are remarkable
for the author's successful infusion of
freshness and interest into a
hackneyed subject. Three chapters cover
the introduction of farm
machinery, and one each the rise and the
beginning of the decline
of wheat growing, the livestock
industry, the beginnings of dairying,
miscellaneous developments (including
special crops and various crazes),
and agricultural societies and fairs.
The book is annotated with great
care, many of the references being of
the informational type. It is
regrettable that they are placed at the
end of the volume, but as the
author is on record as disapproving this
practice, the fault is presumably
that of the publisher. The
references-there is no formal bibliography-
evince a thoroughgoing research in a
wide variety of sources. The only
source which appears to have been
overlooked is the out-of-state farm
journals published at Chicago and other
western cities, such as the
Prairie Farmer, and it is doubtful if any information to be found
therein
would do more than strengthen some of
the author's statements.
The reviewer has only one major
criticism of the book. This is
the failure to treat the relations
between agriculture and the lumber
industry. Wherever there were stands of
white pine, from Maine and
New Brunswick on the east to the Lake
Superior region on the west,
the lumber industry based thereon in
general stimulated settlement,
provided temporary local markets for
farm produce, and ultimately
grave rise to such problems as stranding
in the cut-over areas and con-
servation in its various aspects. A
recent study-History of the White
Pine Industry in Minnesota (University of Minnesota Press, 1949), by
Agnes M. Larson-supplies abundant
evidence that in Minnesota there
was the interlocking of agriculture and
lumbering that one would ex-
pect to find (see pp. 22, 32, 62-63,
69-70, 72-73, 75, 123, 145, 175-177,
197-198, 263, 405ff.). It is to be hoped
that the author may find oppor-
tunity to develop this topic.
There are a few minor criticisms. It
would seem desirable to pro-
vide some systematic account of
agriculture in Minnesota before 1840,
even though it was only a few paragraphs
dealing with the activities of
the Indians, the fur traders, and the
first squatters on the Fort Snelling
military reservation. It would likewise
be an advantage to describe the
specific contributions to Minnesota
agriculture of the Scandinavians,
Germans, and other nationality groups,
instead of merely stating( p. 5)
that they were "real and
distinct." In this connection, the reviewer
Book Reviews 207
feels he should express his surprise at
finding in the list of groups exer-
cising an important influence
"Swiss from Canada," that is, from the
Red River settlement north of Minnesota.
The facts and opinions set
forth about this group in John Perry
Pritchett's Red River Valley,
1811-1849 (Yale University Press, 1942) would lead to the
conclusion
that its contribution must have been
negative in the extreme. Occasionally
the author fails to furnish information
about a subject on which he
must be well informed. For example,
nothing of any significance is
said on the question of crop rotations.
Finally, there is at times a lack
of integration with developments outside
Minnesota. This is of little
importance to a specialist, for he can
supply the integration himself,
but it would be to a general reader. It
is hardly necessary to emphasize
that these imperfections do not
essentially detract from the fine piece
of scholarship that this book is.
ROBERT LESLIE JONES
Marietta College
Domestic Manners of the Americans. By Frances Trollope. Edited,
with a history of Mrs. Trollope's
adventures in America, by Donald
Smalley. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf,
1949. lxxxiii + 409p., illustra-
tions, appendices, bibliography, and index.
$5.00.)
Mrs. Trollope, a sharp-witted, pungent
visitor from England, made
America's hair stand on end. Her caustic
comments upon life and man-
ners not only involved her in nineteenth
century controversy, but also
earned for her a permanent place on the
big shelf of travel literature.
She was keenly observant, she pulled no
punches, and she wrote ex-
tremely well. Coming to the United
States in 1827 to establish a depart-
ment store in Cincinnati, Mrs. Trollope
soon had to admit her business
venture was a failure. But this did not
deter her from a close examina-
tion of the American scene. Into her
notebooks went an astonishing
variety of description, observation, and
comment. These form the basis
of her volume Domestic Manners of the
Americans, which first was
published in England and then in the
United States in 1832. Other
editions followed swiftly, including
translations in French and Ger-
man.
The present American edition edited by
Mr. Smalley is far superior
to the 1901, 1904, and 1927 editions
because of an abundance of new
material. Mr. Smalley, of course, has
reprinted the preface and text
of the first edition. That was to be
expected. But he has done more.
208 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
His long introduction not only paints in
the backgrounds of Mrs.
Trollope and her book, but also gives a
penetrating interpretation of
the personality and life of the author.
It is the most useful study of
Mrs. Trollope and her book in print. In
addition, Mr. Smalley publishes,
in the appendices, selections from Mrs.
Trollope's notebooks.
These selections are simply fascinating.
They range from an ex-
tended note on American women and
another on American men to an
"Epitaph For An Expectorating
American," and on to comments con-
cerning national pride, sectional
prejudice, equality, and blackberries.
The fragments include Mrs. Trollope's list
of American phrases, her
thoughts on the origin of the term
"Uncle.Sam," and a brief discussion
of morals in Cincinnati. As might be
expected, Mrs. Trollope took a dim
view of morals in the Queen City.
"It gave me no favorable idea of the
tone of morals in Cincinnati to be told
that it was unsafe for any woman
to appear in the streets after sun
down."
Mrs. Trollope's America still lives as
sharp and vivid as ever.
Perhaps, in spots, the description is
unfair and the narration is tinged
with prejudice, but the overall picture
has always seemed to this re-
viewer to be more right than wrong. Mrs.
Trollope was so wonderfully
human, so completely a product of her
particular times, that she has
captivated readers from her day to this.
She is still good reading in
any edition. The Smalley edition, with
its reproductions of the original
illustrations by Auguste Hervieu, is
both a handsome and a scholarly
book, but even this edition will not be
liked by those who dislike Mrs.
Trollope. This reviewer likes her and
therefore likes Mr. Smalley's
most recent edition of her. Mrs.
Trollope affects people that way!
PHILIP D. JORDAN
University of Minnesota
Wade Hampton and the Negro: The Road
Not Taken. By Hampton
M. Jarrell. (Columbia, University of
South Carolina Press, 1949. xi +
209p., illustrations [port.], appendix,
bibliography, and index. $3.50.)
The author is professor of English at
Winthrop College, Rock
Hill, South Carolina, a native of
Georgia, and a graduate of Harvard
(A.M.) and Duke (Ph.D.) universities.
His purpose in writing this
book, he states, was not to write a
biography of Governor Wade Hamp-
ton of South Carolina but rather to
discuss a thirty year cycle of
revolution and counter-revolution in
South Carolina history, a cycle
that began in 1865 and completed its
turn in 1895, in which Wade
Book Reviews 209
Hampton, embodying the best tradition of
southern friendship for the
Negro, stood squarely in the center. In
this revolution, the Negro of
South Carolina was lifted from slavery
to political supremacy for
about a decade; then the
counter-revolution gradually eliminated him
from politics by 1895.
"Wise and moderate men," the
author says, "like Presidents Lincoln
and Johnson in the North and like Wade
Hampton of South Carolina
and L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi,
sought a middle way whereby they
could, without hatred and strife, solve
the difficult social problem of
two races living side by side in almost
equal numbers; but the . . .
extremists of both sections made their
efforts vain. This study . . . is
not only a record of the past, but also
a plea for moderation now,
and in the future."
Wade Hampton was South Carolina's
governor between 1876 and
1878. When Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio's
native son, became president
in 1877, Hampton and Hayes met in
Washington on March 30, 1877, for
a conference on South Carolina affairs.
It was their first meeting. A basis
of understanding was reached between the
two men at this conference
which Hampton phrased as "the
desire to see a peaceful and just
settlement of the questions . . .
injuring so seriously the material in-
terests" of South Carolina; and on
April 20, 1877, federal troops, who
had been stationed in the state house
since 1865, were withdrawn from
South Carolina.
As governor, Hampton sought a middle
course and tried to bring
extremists of both races together in
establishing good government and
equal justice. The mutual respect and
trust between Hampton and Hayes
enabled them to arrive at settlements of
many of the difficult problems
between the state and the federal
government. But Hampton remained
in office only two years; and he was
followed, when he became senator,
as he had been preceded, by extremists
opposed to his middle course.
In an appendix the author publishes many
letters to and from Hamp-
ton and most of the letters he wrote to
President Hayes, the originals
of which are preserved in the Wade
Hampton correspondence of the
Rutherford B. Hayes Papers in the Hayes
Memorial Library, Fremont,
Ohio.
One of Dr. Jarrell's important
contributions to the study of his
period is the interesting manner in
which he analyzes the election of
1876 to demonstrate "the importance
of the Negro vote in overthrowing
the Radical Republican regime in South
Carolina."
210 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
The study is interestingly written and
fully documented. There is
a bibliography and index, as well as
appendix.
WATT P. MARCHMAN
The Hayes Memorial Library
Managers in Distress: The St. Louis
Stage, 1840-1844. By William
G. B. Carson. (St. Louis, St. Louis
Historical Documents Foundation,
1949. xi + 329p. $6.00.)
This book is a scholarly account of the
St. Louis theater's struggle
for financial life in the turbulent
years after the Panic of 1837. Pro-
fessor Carson is well fitted to discuss
the subject. His extensive knowl-
edge of the theater on the Western
frontier and his enthusiasm for his
materials are happily combined in a
learned but lively volume.
Professor Carson's "managers in
distress" are Solomon Smith and
Noah Ludlow, who guided the destinies of
the stage in St. Louis be-
tween 1837 and 1851 and whose labors
made that city the theatrical
capital of the Upper Mississippi Valley.
That the partnership of the
genial, warm-hearted Smith and the
despondent, ill-tempered Ludlow
existed at all is surprising; that it
endured the stresses of financial loss
and private enmity is little less than
miraculous. The mutual distrust
as well as the astonishing resourcefulness
of these men is revealed in
their diaries, which are important
sources of information.
If Smith and Ludlow had looked upon the
theater merely as a
way of making money for themselves or
providing public entertainment,
they surely would have given up in
despair. But they saw in the theater
a means of teaching virture and
morality, of developing the cultural
taste of Western people. This is not to
say that they sponsored only
the highest class of entertainment. In
order to keep the theater open
at all, they were forced to use the
profession's entire bag of tricks.
They juggled admission prices, they
presented the dramatic "stars" of
the day, they gave benefit performances,
they invited celebrities such
as ex-President Martin Van Buren to
visit their theater. In desperate
times they employed dancers, minstrels,
equestrians, and singers. On one
occasion they combined Shakespeare and
black-face minstrelsy on the
same bill. But they survived the hard
times and the competition of
lyceum lectures, concerts, temperance
meetings, and demonstrations of
mesmerism. They somehow kept the theater
open.
The author carefully describes these
various entertainments of the
St. Louis stage. He gives biographical
notes on the players, and aided
Book Reviews 211
by the newspaper files of the Missouri
Historical Society, gives the
contemporary reception of the dramas. An
appendix records the per-
formances of individual plays and their
financial receipts. Many of
the leading actors and actresses of the
mid-nineteenth century appeared
in St. Louis. The most memorable of
these was Mary Ann Farren, who
remained faithful to Smith and Ludlow
through all their difficulties and
whom Professor Carson calls the
"leading lady" of his book. Other
visitors included the great tragedians
William Charles Macready and
Edwin Forrest; George H. Barrett, the
best light comedian in America;
Frances Ann Drake, the foremost female
tragedian of the western
stage; and James Henry Hackett, the
famous Falstaff of a century
ago. The plays themselves ranged from
now-forgotten farces and
melodramas to the comedies of Sheridan
and the tragedies of Shakes-
peare.
One may regret that Professor Carson
does not give more atten-
tion to the theatrical audience of the
time and to some analysis of
popular taste. Why, for example, did the
St. Louis audience of cultivated
Frenchmen, "river men," and
western immigrants show a preference
for such eighteenth century plays as
Sheridan's The School for Scandal
and The Rivals, or Goldsmith's She
Stoops to Conquer? But this is
perhaps a minor criticism of a book
which is, on the whole, a worthy
contribution to the history of
middlewestern culture.
DAVID MEAD
Michigan State College
The Territorial Papers of the United
States. Compiled and edited
by Clarence Edwin Carter. Vol. XIV, The
Territory of Louisiana--Mis-
souri, 1806-1814, Continued. (Washington, Government Printing Office,
1949. v + 915p. $2.75.)
Since Clarence Edwin Carter, then of
Miami University, went to
the department of state in 1931, he has
published sixteen volumes of
the Territorial Papers of the United
States. Probably no other single
edited documentary series of the last
hundred years includes so much
valuable material on the history of the
United States. The core is
political and administrative, but few
aspects of western and national
life go untouched. The editor's skill
continues to be such that the chief
legitimate criticism of the series is
that it should have been started
earlier, so that more volumes might have
appeared under the same editor-
ship. Even at the past impressive rate
of publication, it will be about 2005
212 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
before the published documents extend to
the admission of Arizona in
1912, or about 1978 before they extend
to the transfer of territorial
responsibilities to the department of
the interior in 1873. And the bulk
of documents increases spectacularly
through the territorial era. One
hopes that publication is being
expedited by such help as the editor
can use. Neither local publication nor
microfilming would be effective
substitutes for completion of the series
on its present plane. Even if a
microfilm crew could find all the
documents that Professor Carter
knows how to find, it could not give his
remarkable footnotes and
indexes.
The present volume, extending into the
period already partly
covered in the published Bates papers,
offers material of less general
interest than its immediate predecessor
(see Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Quarterly, LVIII [1949], 117-118), but is of no less
value along more restricted lines. Land
titles, Indian relations, and in-
stitution of the second or
representative stage of territorial government
are the dominant themes. The odor of
western democracy was strong in
eastern nostrils; even Jefferson could not
stand it at times. Officials
sometimes found the American settlers
"a very illiterate set of Men,
. . . driven by their debts or their
Crimes from the American States,"
who led "a semy-savage life"
(p. 4), killed the Indians' cattle, and
insisted on moving far out on the
frontier, despite the advantages of
schools and military protection farther
east, "for no other purpose
but to harbour horse thieves and
murderers" (pp. 268, 758). How much,
one wonders, was officialdom describing
the settlers, and how much
its own prejudices and annoyances? How
different was Louisiana from
the rest of the West? The Carter volumes
seem to reveal much basic
similarity. As elsewhere, those who
called for the second stage of
territorial government were to a very
large extent unsuccessful land
claimants who hoped to press their cause
through a territorial delegate
(pp. 471-472). Their opponents
disparaged the mixed origins and the
morals of the popular party and frankly
avowed their own fears of a
"vast increase of taxes" and
the "faction, discord and turbulence, so
apt to arise" among such a people
(pp. 486-487). A house of represen-
tatives, courting popularity, would
shift taxes onto the landholders,
thus retarding immigration and statehood
instead of promoting them;
on the other hand, its powers would be
insignificant (pp. 252-256). The
petitioners for representative
government were indeed a varied lot: they
included many founders of the Ste.
Genevieve Academy, illiterates with
both French and British names, and
businessmen such as Henry Dodge,
Book Reviews 213
as well as a preponderance of land
claimants. Moses Austin petitioned
neither way, neither for nor against a
legislature; his own petition for
incorporation of his lead mining
business (pp. 432-436) is a magnificent
display of verbiage, and an ingenious
protectionist or mercantilist
argument. The long lists of signers of
petitions, together with the index,
help greatly in tracing relationships
among various economic and
political movements.
As we observe Hawaii and Alaska pressing
for statehood; as the
empires of western Europe follow our
empire in the paths of self-
government; as we re-examine our
democracy in its complexity and
contradictions, the fresh sources in the
Territorial Papers take on in-
creasing significance. Both local
historians and those who are concerned
with a larger evalution of the West and
of the American experience will
profit early, and be long in exhausting
the implications of these materials.
EARL S. POMEROY
University of Oregon
The Stark County Story. By Edward Thornton Heald. Vol. I, The
Cities, Towns and Villages of Stark
County, Ohio. (Canton, Stark
County Historical Society, 1949. xvi +
688p., illustrations, bibliography,
and index. $10.00.)
This is not a county history in the
accepted sense; it is an expedient
publication of seventy-six scripts
previously prepared by the author,
as secretary-treasurer of his county
historical society, for radio broad-
cast. Unfortunately, in the transition
to a bound volume, they assume
the characteristics of a county history
and suffer thereby. For Mr.
Heald, a methodical man, has been the
victim of his own efforts to
make this the foundation stone for a
series.
In his preface the author notes that
"it is 21 years since the last
History of Stark County was
published" and that his scripts endeavor
to fill an eighty-year gap from the
beginning history of the commun-
ities which had been covered in earlier
works. Unfortunately, many of
these pioneer publications have
disappeared, and Mr. Heald's book
might have served a larger sphere if he
had at least briefly described
the "forest" (the county as a
whole) before scanning the "trees"
(the cities, towns, and villages). His
failure to do so leaves the outsider
with innumerable unanswered questions:
"What is the county like
physically? Whence came its name? What
is the story of its govern-
214 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
ment?" A few clues can be culled
from a thorough reading, but the
background is insufficient for ready
reference.
On the bright side is the painstaking
coverage of the individual
communities, replete with specific and
general bibliographies, end
sheet maps keyed to the script numbers,
and facsimiles of original plats
of Stark County's cities, towns, and
villages. The latter provide a
fascinating study of the vagaries of
early town planning, their patterns
weird and incredible, ranging from regular crosses (Waynesburg) to
squares-within-squares, cross-hatched to
infinity (Sparta and Green),
as though the draftsman had one eye on
his drawing board and the
other in a kaleidoscope.
The book is a welter of illustrative
material, quite a bit of it
appropriate, but this is overwhelmed by
the author's insistent yearning
for comprehensive treatment. Every
church in Stark County is pictured,
some several times; and the result is a
depressing collection of ordinary
architecture. Mr. Heald might well have
called a halt on this by using
the exact period of his scripts
(1805-75), and in doing so, pictured
the best and left the rest for a
subsequent volume, particularly when
the reader notes that his penchant for
inclusiveness necessitated fund
raising.
Physically the volume is deceptively
attractive, but it will not
survive constant use. Instead of sturdy
library buckram, designed to
withstand hard usage, unreinforced
artificial leather was selected. This,
combined with heavy coated paper, itself
inclined to become brittle
with age and wearing to the eye, affords
no reassurance to the practiced
researcher who uses county histories
daily and knows their frailties.
These sharp criticisms stem from the
reviewer's full realization
of the desperate need for sound, well
organized, well indexed, and
suitably illustrated county histories of
Ohio. Most of the early work in
this field was marred by production
methods, poor research, weak
binding, and the absence of indices. The
present resurgence of county
historical societies, with adequate
collections for research and some
financial security, affords an
opportunity for correction of these
pioneer errors.
Mr. Heald need not be dismayed by this
review. His work will
find its niche in Stark County and in
most of the libraries and genea-
logical collections of the state, its
good index guiding the research
student through its sturdy text. But,
knowing the author's obvious
Book Reviews 215
capacity for taking pains, this
reviewer, who has also plowed the
county field, cannot help but think
"what might have been."
EUGENE D. RIGNEY
Ross County Historical Society
The Western Reserve: The Story of New
Connecticut in Ohio. By
Harlan Hatcher. (Indianapolis and New
York, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1949.
365p., illustrations and index. Cloth,
$4.00.)
The art of writing history for the
general reader is one not generally
cultivated in the departments, courses,
and seminars which produce
historians. In the training of an
historian the emphasis placed upon an
understanding of methods of research and
a knowledge of several fields
usually results in the production of an
historian's historian. This
scholar, if he is interested in
research, usually turns his efforts to adding
to our historical knowledge by preparing
technical papers, mongraphs,
and books. In general these are written
to contribute to the fundamental
understanding of some historical
problem, event, movement, relation-
ship, or person. This scholar's purpose
is to produce basic history; his
emphasis therefore is upon the use of
new source materials and upon
understanding, accuracy, and significant
interpretation. In general this
historian's writings are not meant for
the lay reader nor do they prove
popular, although his role in
contributing to our historical knowledge
is of the greatest importance.
Important, too, is the people's
historian, that scholar who gives
his efforts to broadening the popular
knowledge of our backgrounds.
This writer is not necessarily concerned
with the preparation of a tech-
nical report based upon source, or
primary, materials, but rather aims
to write interestingly but significantly
for the general reading public.
Harlan Hatcher is on the way to becoming
the people's historian of
Ohio of today.
Dr. Hatcher majored in history at Ohio
State University, but moved
to the field of English for his major
graduate study and his teaching.
Through his training in English and his
experience in writing fiction,
he developed a lucid style, marked by
simplicity and integrity. His
interest in history was never lost, and
in recent years he has turned
to writing in the field of Ohio history.
During the thirties he directed
the compilation of and edited The
Ohio Guide. This was followed soon
by his book entitled The Buckeye
Country: A Pageant of Ohio. In the
216 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
last decade he has produced The Great
Lakes and Lake Erie, followed in
1949 by his story of the Western
Reserve.
The book under review is not only a
people's history, but it is
also an integrated study of the origin,
settlement, growth, economic de-
velopment, and social and cultural life
of the northeastern part of Ohio.
While the New England influence upon the
Reserve is not neglected,
Dr. Hatcher dwells upon the changing
picture of that section of the
state. There the immigration of European
stocks, the construction of
canals and railroads, the development of
lake shipping, the coming of
steel, oil, and rubber, and the rise of
the cities have transformed the
peaceful countryside, reminiscent of New
England, into a modern
American industrial region. Here and
there late colonial churches of
the Connecticut type, Greek Revival
homes and other structures, and
village commons are among the evidences
of the New England heritage
of the Reserve. The great rubber plants,
steel mills, and oil refineries
and the cities which house them bear
witness to the modern development.
This reviewer felt the absence of what
may be a distinctive char-
acteristic of the Western Reserve, that
is, the tendency toward social
and political reform and a sympathy with
the underdog. On the Reserve
the philanthropic movements of the
1830's and '40's prospered. There,
for example, the American Anti-Slavery
Society grew more rapidly
than in any other region of the country.
There Oberlin College opened
its doors to Negroes and to women. There
the peace movement re-
ceived support and the agitation for
women's rights received sponsor-
ship. The Reserve produced such men as
Joshua Reed Giddings, the
congressional proponent of the
antislavery movement; John Brown,
who returned to safety in the Reserve
from his raids in Kansas and Mis-
souri; and Benjamin F. Wade, leader
among the Radical Republicans in
the senate during the reconstruction
period. True to its tradition, the
Reserve now provides the heavy liberal
or progressive vote in the state
and produces liberal Democratic and
Republican figures. The analysis
of the Reserve's tendency toward reform
perhaps merits an intensive
study in itself.
JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society
Book Reviews 217
The Story of Illinois. By Theodore Calvin Pease. Revised edition.
(Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
1949. xviii + 284p. $5.00.)
This Is Illinois; A Pictorial
History. By Jay Monaghan. (Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, 1949. vi +
211p. $5.00.)
In 1925 the late Theodore Calvin Pease,
head of the department of
history at the University of Illinois,
and for many years a member of
the board of directors of the Illinois
State Historical Society, published
The Story of Illinois, a brief but scholarly account of the history of
Illinois from the French regime through
the first quarter of the twentieth
century. Though the volume has remained
the only really satisfactory
general treatment of the history of the
state, the A. C. McClurg Co.,
the original publishers, permitted it to
go out of print soon after its
appearance. Plans for celebrating the
fiftieth anniversary of the Illinois
State Historical Society, quite properly
included the publication, in
revised form, of this useful book. At
the time of his death, in August
1948, the author had revised the
original text, making particularly im-
portant additions in those portions
dealing with British and French
relationships to the Illinois country,
and had prepared a draft of the
final chapter which was to carry the
story down to the election of
Adlai Stevenson as governor. This last
chapter, however, is not a very
significant addition since it is little
more than a chronology of political
events. The manuscript was completed by
his wife, Marguerite J. Pease,
who had worked with him on the revision.
Unlike much local historical writing, in
general the work does
relate events and political developments
in Illinois to national and
international forces. Though it is
strongly oriented about political
history, the influence of social and
economic problems are not en-
tirely neglected. The style is smooth, simple, and direct, and
though far
from brilliant, it will appeal to the
general reader and should make
the treatment particularly appropriate
as supplementary reading for
college and secondary school courses
covering the history of the Middle
West. Unfortunately there is no
bibliography, an unhappy omission
in a work of this type, and the
documentation is very slight. Obviously
every attempt has been made to give the
book as wide a popular appeal
as possible, though such policies have
damaged its value to the historian.
On the other hand the supplementary
material included in the appendices
-the vote cast in Illinois in
presidential and gubernatorial elections and
the population of the state according to
the decennial censuses from
1790 to 1940--is of doubtful utility to
either the scholar or lay reader.
218 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
The format and editing are entirely
satisfactory and evince the
high standards that one has learned to
expect from the University of
Chicago Press, though the illustrations
display the faults associated
of late with the work of that publisher.
In view of the fact that all costs
of printing were subsidized by a sizable
group of members of the Illinois
State Historical Society, the outrageous
price of five dollars for so
slight a volume is difficult to explain
and will certainly be a deterrent
to its wide distribution. In general,
however, one may say that both
the society and the university press may
take satisfaction in the publica-
tion of this reissue of a useful
contribution to the historiography of
Illinois.
Quite a different problem, however, is
presented by This is Illinois,
which, as its subtitle indicates, is
supposed to be a pictorial history of
the state, but which in effect is not
good history, good illustration, or
good text. The collection is divided
into six parts: Illinois before state-
hood; the pioneer state; the age of
experiment; reconstruction; Illinois
comes of age; and the new order, but a
greater hodge-podge of pictures,
ill-selected, poorly organized, and
atrociously reproduced, is difficult to
imagine. Mr. Monaghan and his
assistants, John H. Hauberg and 0.
Fritiof Ander, had some form of
organization in mind, but it is not
apparent to the reviewer. Why, for
example, should a photograph from
the Farm Security Administration showing
an agrarian couple who
were perhaps not even residents of
Illinois, be introduced (p. 114) in
the midst of the section on post-Civil
War reconstruction? Also the
attempt to "match" old and
modern pictures does repeated violence to
the general chronological plan and leads
only to confusion, not clever-
ness. The text which accompanies the
illustrations is always slight and
superficial. Consciously or
unconsciously patterned after the style of
the National Geographic Magazine, the
captions are frequently trivial
and jejune when they are not downright
silly. The Lincoln-Douglas de-
bates are characterized (p. 75) as an
argument between "long-slim
and short-round," and on page 59
the reader is told that Nauvoo was
established by "a large and
vigorous religious group, known as
Mormons." One wonders for what sort
of an audience Mr. Monaghan
thought he was writing.
The illustrations, badly reproduced by
offset lithography by Photo-
press, Inc., often lack both interest
and artistic merit, for example,
the barbed wire fence on page 99 and the
distant dairy cows on page
169. If you are interested in a room
decorated with grains of corn, you
will find it on page 141, or if you
would enjoy a picture of a pig that
Book Reviews 219
"died smiling," turn to page
165. As one idly turns the pages of this
incredible book, one cannot but
speculate on the motives behind such
a performance and most of all on the
manner in which the manuscript
slipped past the editorial board of the
University of Chicago Press.
Certainly the finished product reflects
no credit on the educational in-
stitution that sponsored its
publication, even though, like the preceding
volume, it was subsidized by members of the
state historical society.
But even had this compilation been
intelligent in plan and successful
in execution, the question of the
propriety of such a title in the catalog
of a university press still remains. The
reviewer will certainly not deny
that there is a real need for a limited
number of good collections of
illustrative material that will
interpret the growth, change, and de-
velopment of our society, but whether
such an undertaking should
consume the limited resources of those
presses whose primary function
is to make available the results of
scholarship is far from self-
evident. When William Rainey Harper organized the University of
Chicago, it was his intention to bring
together a community of scholars
who could pursue their investigations in
an atmosphere that would en-
courage a maximum of productive work,
and to establish a university
press that would provide a medium for
the dissemination of that scholar-
ship and make it generally available.
President Harper recognized that
the publication of scholarly works is
seldom economically profitable
and that hence a university press should
be expected to "lose money"
intelligently. This concept of the
primary function of a university press
still retains its validity, even though
such presses are increasingly fol-
lowing the pattern of commercial
publishers in their eagerness to
market best sellers and show a profit.
When Chicago "hit the jack-pot"
with The Road to Serfdom, and
Rutgers' Lincoln Reader was selected by
the Book-of-the-Month-Club, much subtle
injury was done to the
thinking of those in charge of
university-sponsored publishing. Publi-
cation of This is Illinois, would
seem to be evidence of this tendency.
J. H. SHERA
Graduate Library School,
University of Chicago
220 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
The New Stars: Life and Labor in Old
Missouri. By Manie Morgan,
as arranged by Jennie A. Morgan. Edited,
with an introduction, by
Louis Filler. (Yellow Springs, Ohio,
Antioch Press, 1949. xviii + 301p.,
illustrations and appendices. $3.75.)
It would be difficult to name offhand a
small book more readable
and revealing of southern family life in
the Border States in the 1850's
and during the war than The New
Stars: Life and Labor in Old Mis-
souri. Dictated from memory, letters, diaries, and manuscript
materials
at the age of eighty-eight years to her
daughter, Jennie A. Morgan, the
author, Manie Kendley Morgan, presents
an autobiographical ac-
count of her girlhood and early marriage
that runs along like a novel.
The account is easy and instructive
reading, from the beginning of the
scholarly, appreciative twelve-page
"Introduction" by the editor, Dr.
Louis Filler of Antioch College, which
is really the best review that
will be penned, to page 301 of Appendix
D.
The author was born in Kentucky in 1848
and was reared on a
plantation in Buchanan County in
Missouri. The real heroine of the
book is the author's mother, Mary Jane
Smith Kendley, who through
ability, courage, and industry is the
successful head of her family after
the death of her husband, managing her
household and her slaves as
well as directing the many activities of
her farm in the troublesome
times of the 1850's and early 1860's.
As Dr. Filler writes, the story
"gains strength and significance
from a single fact: its locale."
Missouri was a Border State. Buchanan
County was just across the Missouri
River from "free, Bleeding Kansas."
While conditions were not so bad as
those that existed in Platte, Jack-
son, Cass, Bates, and other Missouri
counties along the Kansas border
to the Arkansas line, the events here
set forth by an eyewitness are harsh
enough to recall the words of an
antislavery Missourian, "It can safely
be said that nowhere, outside of hell,
was there such a horrible con-
dition as prevailed in Missouri."
The description of life on a Missouri
plantation reveals not only
the interesting minutiae of existence
but a typical Missouri slaveholder's
household. It shows that here slavery
was a way of life for both masters
and slaves. Their interests and
sympathies and attitudes were closely
intermingled and interrelated. But there
were limits to affection between
masters and slaves, and these are seen
clearly by inference from the
author's narrative. Even the
Emancipation Proclamation, which did
not apply to Missouri, marked the
beginning of the end of slavery here
Book Reviews 221
by action of slaves and acquiescence of
masters along the border and
elsewhere. And the slaves left for
Kansas or for town or began work-
ing for wages, without relinquishing in
many cases privileges profitably
enjoyed during slavery.
The social life of the slaveholder's
family in Missouri, and in Ken-
tucky as well, is depicted in an
attractive and sympathetic manner. The
force of family habit and custom is
almost unbelievable to a twentieth
century generation. There was love and
respect as well as industry and
discipline. And folks then as now were
determined to enjoy and did
enjoy life notwithstanding fire and
theft by bushwhacker and bandit and
insecurity of person.
Out of the pages of pure romance is the
marriage of the pro-
southern author and Captain John Morgan
of the Union army, stationed
at St. Joseph. Through him and her
grandfather the author relates
several new and revealing anecdotes of
Abraham Lincoln and Walt
Whitman. But the story is one of Life
and Labor in Old Missouri--and in
Old Kentucky-in the 1850's and during
the War Between the States.
FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER
State Historical Society of Missouri
The Journals and Indian Paintings of
George Winter, 1837-1839.
Introduction by Howard H. Peckham.
(Indianapolis, Indiana Historical
Society, 1948. xix + 208p.,
frontispiece, illustrations, and index. Cloth,
$12.50.)
In 1836 the Potawatomi Indians of
Indiana in a series of treaties
agreed to yield possession of their
lands in that state within a period
of two years and to remove west of the
Mississippi River. A few months
before their main exodus in 1838 there
arrived in Logansport a young
man who came "for the purpose . . .
of seeing and learning something
of the Indians and exercising the pencil
in that direction" (p. 39).
This young man, George Winter, had been
born in a small seaport
town of southern England. After a
common-school education his am-
bitions led him to London to pursue the
study of art by seeking the
advice and help of the leading
contemporary masters. At the age of
twenty-one Winter came to America to
pursue further his chosen vocation
and to join his family who had preceded
him some time before. A half-
dozen more years of study in New York
City helped to polish his style
and give him valuable experience. After
a year or so with members of
his family in Cincinnati, the young
artist moved on, by stage, to Logans-
222 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
port. The two Hoosier towns of
Logansport and Lafayette became home
to George Winter for most of the balance
of his life.
It is the Logansport years of 1837-39
with which the present work
is primarily concerned. In a way, the
events of these years offered un-
paralleled opportunity for the
fulfillment of Winter's ambition. This
Wabash River town, long a trading center
and regional headquarters
for various governmental Indian agencies
and offices, became the scene
of the many activities in connection
with the preparation for the removal
of the Potawatomi from northern Indiana.
The observant artist soon
gained the confidence of pioneer and
Indian alike and was soon sketch-
ing and painting portraits, landscapes,
ceremonies, and councils with a
great deal of care and accuracy. When
occasions permitted, visits were
made to the Indian villages, where he
employed the pen and brush to
preserve for posterity what his keen
eyes saw.
Of the great numbers of his paintings,
thirty-one are here repro-
duced, including a self-portrait, a
half-dozen sketches of scenes from
the lives of the Potawatomi, and a
number of colored portraits of the
Indians. The prodigious efforts of
Winter include many journals, ac-
counts, and other writings. Of these,
two notable examples are here
printed. One is a journal of the
Kee-wau-nay Council of 1837, which he
attended. It had been called to
determine the views of the Potawatomi
concerning their emigration west in
accordance with the removal treaties
which they had made. Included also is
Winter's account of a visit to
the Crooked Creek encampment, where some
of the Indians were as-
sembling in preparation for the trek
westward. The second of Winter's
writings recorded in this volume is an
account, composed a number of
years later, in which he tells of a
visit in 1839 to Deaf Man's Village
on the Mississinewa River. This mission
was undertaken expressly to
make an oil portrait of the recently
discovered Frances Slocum, who
had been captured by the Indians when
she was but a small girl more
than fifty years before.
In his introduction, Howard H. Peckham,
secretary of the Indiana
Historical Society, presents a brief
history of "the artistic reproduction
of Indian life." Although the
present circumstances did not permit it,
it is hoped that either Mr. Peckham or
someone else as well qualified
will produce a more extensive
bibliographical essay on this subject.
Wilbur D. Peat, director of the John
Herron Art Museum of Indian-
apolis, develops an evaluation of
"Winter, the Artist" from a professional
standpoint. Of his Indian paintings,
Peat says that Winter's efforts "are
carefully rendered, with close attention
to likenesses and details of
Book Reviews 223
costumes, and reveal a miniaturist's
delight in precision and clear color"
(p. 6). Miss Gayle Thornbrough, editor
of the Indiana Historical Society,
edits an autobiographical sketch of
Winter to 1830; provides a bio-
graphical account from 1830 based on his
letters, copybooks, and other
manuscripts; and edits the two journals
that make up the balance of
the text.
Winter's most valuable contribution to American
art was his
paintings and portraits of those he
variously referred to as "untutored
sons of the forest,"
"unfortunate and degraded Aborigines," "interesting
and strange people,"
"unfortunate race of red men," and "children of
the forest." The artistic value of
these works is secondary, however, to
their historical and ethnological
significance. Historically they are a
pictorial record of the Potawatomi
immediately prior to their exodus
from Indiana. Ethnologically the
pictures reproduced in this book give
clues to the customs, dress, and other
aspects of their culture.
For purposes of comparison, the
nineteenth century painters of the
American Indians may be divided into two
categories. One is made up
of that group of artists who were
fortunate enough to observe these
indigenous peoples in their native
surroundings unspoiled or unchanged
by contact with the civilization of the
white man. The works of George
Catlin on the Mandan, John K. Hillers on
the Paiute and Ute, Seth
Eastman on the Plains Indians, and Henry
H. Cross on the Siouan tribes
are some examples of this. Winter, as is
Charles Bird King, who is
perhaps best known for his portraits in
the McKenney and Hall History
of the Indian Tribes of North
America, is within the scope of the
second
group. This includes those artists whose
works deal with tribes the
cultures of which had been altered
somewhat, or at least affected to
some extent, by contact with the white
man. Thus it must be remem-
bered, for example, that the many
colored broadcloth, calico, and silk
articles of clothing worn by the
Potawatomi in Winter's pictures are
innovations and not of native origin.
The reproduction of Winter's Indian
paintings, all of which, except
six, are in color, and the excellently
edited selection of his manuscripts
are a most acceptable addition to the
relatively meager number of works
of this type that we have. Textual
errors are almost nonexistent. Quite
possibly, some will not agree to the
interpretation and evaluation of
Winter's ability as an artist as herein
stated, but art is always subject
to this type of difference of opinon.
Perhaps a map showing the prin-
cipal locations involved would have
added to the usefulness of the
volume. This is not a serious criticism,
however.
224 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Much credit and commendation are due the
Indiana Historical
Society and the Eli Lilly Foundation for
this unusually fine example of
a book, whose binding, printing,
illustrative reproductions, and general
format are superbly done.
DWIGHT L. SMITH
Ohio State University
The Ohio. By R. E. Banta. (New York, Rinehart and Company,
1949. 592p., including maps,
illustrations, bibliography, and index.
$5.00.)
The thirty-ninth volume in the Rivers of
America books, The Ohio
is a welcome addition to this series
which already includes histories of
four of its tributaries, the Wabash,
Kentucky, Allegheny, and Tennessee.
The swelling title-list of this project,
planned and started by Constance
Lindsay Skinner, recently under the
direction of the late Hervey Allen
and Carl Carmer, editors, and Jean
Crawford, assistant editor, is witness
to the fascination which river histories
hold for the general reader. The
present volume is no exception. Through
the diligent researches of
Richard Elwell Banta, the character and
life of the Ohio have been
detailed with a freshness and vitality
to stir the imagination of the in-
habitants of that valley and those less
intimate with its banks.
Ambitious in his sweep, the author
begins his tale with the birth
of the Ohio in geologic time, recording
the metamorphoses of the glacial
age, picturing the prehistoric
inhabitants, mastodons, arctic elephants,
peccaries, and giant elk, whose bones
were pickled at Big Bone Lick,
and sifting the extensive archaeological
studies of the earliest Indians
of the region from the Adena and
Hopewell mound builders to the
highly skilled Middle Mississippi
people. Reaching the dawn of the
historic era, he plunges into an account
of the explorations of the Ohio
by French, English, and Dutch traders
(the name of the first white man
to gaze upon the Ohio is locked in the
past), and a description of the
redmen whom the Europeans met, nomadic
hunting types who made
few permanent settlements in the Ohio
region but rather roamed the
area in pursuit of game. The century of
latent and open hostilities in
the contest for control of this
"course of empire" is elaborately treated,
each player upon this wilderness stage
receiving full measure of atten-
tion: Celoron de Bienville, who planted
the arms of France upon the
Ohio in 1749; the wily, resourceful
English surveyors and traders,
Thomas Cresap, Christopher Gist, George
Croghan, Andrew Montour,
Book Reviews 225
and Colonel George Washington; the
ill-starred Braddock; Daniel Boone
(the author quotes from Byron's tribute
to this "child of nature" in
Don Juan [pp. 115-116]); James Harrod, the Kentucky land
speculator
and warrior; Governor Dunmore, who
conducted a private war on the
Ohio; George Rogers Clark, the hero of
Vincennes and Kaskaskia, who
became a misanthrope in his old age; the
smooth scoundrel James Wil-
kinson; Generals Harmar and St. Clair,
who are leniently treated for
their military failures (the blame is
assigned to the national government
for its "criminal malfeasance"
in the service of supply and bad re-
cruiting practices [p. 190]); Mad
Anthony Wayne, who succeeded
where his predecessors had failed in
breaking the power of the Indians;
the mysterious, crafty Aaron Burr and
his gullible friend, Herman
Blennerhasset; the great Tecumseh and
his brother the Prophet; and
the man who did most to destroy them,
William Henry Harrison. In
addition, much detail is lavished on
Indian raids and massacres; on
such murderous villains as the brothers
Girty and Harpe, Samuel Mason,
Colonel Plug; and on the
"snorters," those raw-boned, generous, cussed,
and often raucous keelboatmen.
Once the century of war has ended and
the Ohio Valley emerges
from the frontier stage, the narrative
fans out into a topical discussion
of the life and culture of the region.
Mr. Banta rescues from the oblivion
threatening to enshroud him, John Fitch,
"the inventor and the builder
of the first American steamboat to
operate on schedule with payloads"
(p. 285); he slaps back at the British
travelers for their harsh judg-
ments on "the domestic manners of
the Americans" (the title of Mrs.
Trollope's account); types of entertainment
are cataloged with zest,
from gander pulling, bear baiting, and
cockfighting to the dramatic
arts, which Alexander Drake and his
company introduced to the West
in 1801, the minstrel show, fathered by
Daddy Rice, who gave the first
performance of his "Dance Jim
Crow" number in either Louisville or
Pittsburgh, and the show boat; the
utopian experiments of the Shakers,
the German Rappites, and the English
socialist Robert Owen receive a
deserved place of importance; the array
of educators, scientists, and
painters whom Owen brought to his New
Harmony colony are paraded
before us, as well as a full-scale
portrait of the wandering, picturesque
naturalist Constantine Samuel
Rafinesque; progress in medicine, law,
education, art, and literature is
sketched.
Midcentury politics and slavery troubles
are not neglected. Mr.
Banta contributes an excellent note on
the campaign literature of the
West's favorite son, William Henry
Harrison, in the election of 1840.
226 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
The expansionist sentiment of the Ohio
Valley is effectively detailed:
the eagerness with which men from the
region answered the call to
march to the "halls of
Montezuma" in the Mexican War; the commercial
boom the war produced; the Oregon fever
(it was Senator Hannegan of
Indiana who coined the phrase
"Fifty-four, forty-or fight!"); and the
continued interest in California and the
Pacific Northwest generated by
the flow of families down the Ohio bound
for those regions. Attention
is given the slavery issue, which split
the valley, and the development
of the "Underground Railway."
The significant role of the river in the
Civil War is well delineated, both as a
line of demarcation and as a
thoroughfare of commerce. The turmoil of
the war days in "neutral"
Kentucky lives again in these pages, as
does the feeling of alarm and
dread among the Hoosiers and Buckeyes
when John Hunt Morgan's
raiders dashed across the Ohio.
The final chapters deal with the
industrial development of the
valley, salt, coal, iron, steel, oil,
pottery, clay products, and glass; the
decline of river traffic in the 1890's
and its revival in the present century;
the boom in ship construction during
World War II (one Pittsburgh-
built LST led the landing at Leyte
Gulf); and a sketch of the river
today, no longer La Belle Riviere, disfigured as it is by the grime and
pollution of our industrial
civilization.
As this resume suggests, an enormous
number of facts are crowded
into this book. Mr. Banta, a
discriminating collector and vendor of Ohio
Valleyana, who obviously knows the
contents of the volumes on his
shelves, does not always see the forest
for the trees. He does not, for
example, make clear the significance of
the Ohio River as the spearhead
of the frontier advance in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-
turies for the whole nation, nor
integrate the effect of social and economic
forces on the politics of the region,
nor emphasize the cultural diversities
which had developed by the
mid-nineteenth century. Furthermore, the
author is prone to explore new by-paths
of history, slighting some of
the main points and characters. John
James Audubon is a shadowy figure
in this book; Daniel Drake, the famous
doctor of Cincinnati, is not
mentioned; there is only a passing
reference to the mythical Mike Fink;
Transylvania University merits a better
rounded account than it receives.
In fairness to Mr. Banta it should be
said that he deliberately chose to
pass over some of these points because
they had been covered extensively
elsewhere. These objections, however, do
not detract from the real
merits of this history in recreating the
Ohio Valley's past in a lively,
Book Reviews 227
readable manner and in deepening our
knowledge of the people and
their folkways.
There is a selected bibliography and
index. The illustrations are
woodcuts by Edward Shenton, who is at
his best in the charming figure
drawings under each chapter heading.
LANDON WARNER
Kenyon College
Indiana Authors and Their Books,
1816-1916. Compiled by R. E.
Banta. (Crawfordsville, Ind., Wabash
College, 1949. 335p.)
When, in 1860, William Dean Howells sent
a copy of William T.
Coggeshall's The Poets and Poetry of
the West to James Russell Lowell,
the latter wrote: "I have given the
book to the college library, where
it will sleep well with plenty of its
peers." No such fate is in store for
Mr. Banta's compilation. On the
contrary, we are at once concerned with
the fact that no copies will be offered
for sale. Though a handsome,
well made volume, we would feel more secure
if we knew that many
copies were sleeping on the shelves of
private bookmen, thus forming
a source of supply for the replacement
of copies worn to shreds by
frequent usage. For here is a book which
will immediately assume top
rank as an indispensable reference work
for those interested in the
history of the literature of the Middle
West, and the numbers of those
so interested grows by leaps and bounds.
If this book is not a bibliography, in
that essential bibliographical
detail is not provided, neither is it a
bare dictionary of biography; for
the carefully compiled checklist of
books by each author is of great
value to the bibliographer and
litterateur alike. When we consider that
a special effort was made to seek out
privately printed publications, we
gain some idea of the immense amount of
research that went into the
compilation of these checklists.
Fortunately the test for inclusion was a
very broad one. In addition
to natives of Indiana, writers were
included (1) who were reared and
educated in Indiana, (2) whose literary
work began during their resi-
dence in Indiana, or (3) who spent most
of their lives as residents of
the state.
Perhaps it will come as a shock to some
Ohioans to find the name
of John James Piatt or that of Mary
Hartwell Catherwood in this work
on Indiana authors; yet Piatt was born
in what is now Milton, Indiana,
and, though Ohio born, Mrs. Catherwood
did spend five years in Indiana.
228 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
(It was at this point that it occurred
to the reviewer to look for the name
of Julia Moore, the "Sweet Singer
of Michigan." It was not present,
omitted perhaps because of the fear of
inciting border warfare. And,
after all, Indiana does have its own
James Buchanan Elmore, the "Bard
of the Alamo.")
Ohio is not less proud of her son, and
her gift to Indiana, Frank
McKinney Hubbard, because he became the
beloved Hoosier philosopher
and humorist Kin Hubbard. On the
contrary, we are indebted for the
publication of a condensation of the
hitherto unpublished autobiography.
While captious Ohioans may writhe upon
finding the name of some
Ohio favorite in this book, they should
bear in mind that Indiana has
also adopted some of our less desirable
citizens of the past. There is,
for instance, that precious pair of
chiselers, Mason Long, the "Converted
Gambler," and John H. Green, the
"Reformed Gambler." Not that it
matters, but it appears that Long was
born in the same town as Mrs.
Catherwood--Luray, Licking County,
Ohio--while Green's birthplace
was Marietta. And here is as good a time
as any to point to the greatest
value of this work-the publication of
the biographies of many obscure
writers who, not infrequently, prove to
have been colorful characters.
The library staffs of many communities
appear to have been enlisted
and hundreds of books, magazines, and
newspaper files explored in order
to provide these biographical sketches.
Very few omissions have been noted. We
wonder at the absence of
the name of Mrs. P. Farmer; for
certainly she was among those Hoosiers
who, in the composition of poetry,
"ran hog-wild," as Mr. Banta puts it.
And we're under the impression that
Annie Nelles wrote her Life of a
Book Agent while a resident of LaPorte. Others come to mind, and
these
may have failed to pass the test for
inclusion. There exists some doubt
as to whether B. F. Ells, author of Dialogue
Grammar (South Hanover,
Ind., 1830), was ever a resident of
Indiana. The name of James
Abbey, author of California, A Trip
Across the Plains in the Spring of
1850 (New Albany, Ind., 1850), is absent. As Wagner in his
bibliography
of western travels points out, the first
part of that book appeared in the
New Albany Ledger, and collectors in the field have assumed that Abbey
was a Hoosier.
In any event this book is a far cry from
the days of William T.
Coggeshall, when, as a part of his
campaign to gain recognition for
midwestern authors, Coggeshall published
Poets and Poetry of the West.
Concerning it, M. D. Conway, a
contemporary critic, wrote: "Some
filtration is necessary for all of our
Western streams before they are
Book Reviews 229
drinkable. About half a dozen of the
poets should have been omitted
accidently." Such omissions as will
be found in this book have been
honest accidents. It is to be hoped that
Ohio will not delay in under-
taking a similar work.
ERNEST J. WESSEN
Mansfield, Ohio