Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS                              189

comment on important matters. The inevit-

able result is a bulky load of much incon-

sequential stuff meticulously preserved for

posterity. Probably there never before has

appeared a longer list of marginal and

opaque items so painstakingly presented.

Take for example the "IBM" preserva-

tion of Ida S. McKinley items; they num-

ber 1,317 and approximately 79.5 percent

of them are nought but invitation accept-

ances and regrets. Deluged by such auto-

matically indiscriminate data, historians

must struggle to surmount it, rather dis-

turbed lest fugitive grains of wheat have

been missed in the bushels of chaff. Fur-

thermore, funds evidently were lacking to

hire enough experts in the field to avoid

some errors in chronology and identifica-

tion. Fearing this hazard, the editors wisely

made generous use of asterisks to indicate

"information supplied, wholly or in part,

or a doubtful reading of name or date";

thus we find, dubiously attributed to the

wife of General William Tecumseh Sher-

man, five items none of which bears a date

earlier than nine years after her death!

Also, funds were lacking for a subject

index (compensated for somewhat by de-

scriptive terms on some items)--a lack

which can prove most unfortunate in the

case of collections of greater intrinsic

value. Automation has too much prestige,

making it a tormenting influence.

However, on the credit side is the third

function of this index. It teaches us in

both a negative and positive sense. Nega-

tively, its content demonstrates the paucity

of personal letters from McKinley; posi-

tively, it reveals the most important writ-

ten sources of information reaching the

presidential office, and some of the secre-

tarial uses to which McKinley put J. Ad-

dison Porter and George B. Cortelyou.

More important, the index takes the user

by the hand and carefully tries to help

him through the thick maze of marginal

material.

Most important, this index (like the

other indices of the presidential papers)

provides as an introductory "Provenance"

a clear statement of where else papers of

this president are known to be located, and

what presumably befell missing files. Be-

fore the "Provenance" could be written,

there had to be a mature and imaginative

exploration for leads to other possible lo-

cales of papers, always with a conscious-

ness of inconclusiveness and some sense of

frustration. This work is beyond the pow-

ers of IBM machines up to this time. The

informative "Provenance" will save many

an historian a trip up a blind alley and

may lead to discovery of new avenues.

For this invaluable information all per-

sons using presidential papers will heap

blessings on the hard-working David

Mearns and his staff.

JEANNETTE P. NICHOLS

University of Pennsylvania.

WILLIAM McKINLEY AND HIS

AMERICA. By H. Wayne Morgan.

(Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University

Press, 1963. xi??595p.; illustrations and

index. $9.00.)

One's first question of a new portrait

of this president is how well it compares

with Margaret Leech's In the Days of

McKinley, published with such wide suc-

cess in 1959. This reviewer's judgment is

that it compares quite favorably if taken

for what it is: a different and complement-

ary biography rather than a directly com-

peting one. Professor Morgan, who has

also written sympathetically of Eugene

Debs, is as friendly as Miss Leech in his

estimate of McKinley's achievements; he

is if anything more thorough in his re-

search. It is due him to note that his is an

independent effort begun before she pub-

lished, and carried to conclusions that for

all their similarity are buttressed by his

own scholarship.

The most obvious difference between the

two studies is in their budgeting of space.

Leech brought her subject from birth to

the opening of his law practice in seven

pages. Morgan, who offers McKinley's

Civil War years their only detailed treat-

ment in print, thanks in part to his dis-

covery of a fascinating wartime diary,

takes thirty-seven pages to span the same

period. His coverage of the congressional

years is three times as long; his coverage

of the governorship and presidential cam-

paign years is twice as long. Where Miss

Leech expanded on the details of Washing-

ton social life, the Spanish-American War,

and the pathos of Ida McKinley's exist-

ence, Morgan is relatively compact. In all,

190                                 OHIO HISTORY

his is the shorter work by some 60,000

words. And despite the contrary hint in its

title, his is the more orthodox biography

in its focus of attention. Thanks to the

quality of that attention as well as its dis-

tribution, his book belongs on the shelf be-

side Leech.

What justifies all this attention to a

president so remote in time and so seldom

accused of greatness by his posterity? One

possible answer suggests itself only after

close reading: it is that this career poli-

tician, "whose whole life seems in a sense

to have transpired on the stump," who con-

tinually gave his level best to his country,

and who climbed so smoothly up the lad-

der toward a prize the nation gave him

twice in his time, would in all likelihood

be given that prize again today. Here if

anywhere is laid bare the soul of the kind

of man the American electorate chooses

and molds. It may not raise him to the

presidency every time, but it raised

Dwight Eisenhower that far rather re-

cently and much more rapidly. No student

of our politics can miss a sense of involve-

ment in McKinley's "dry fatalism" at the

unfolding of his destiny. Whether sadly or

proudly, he recognizes its justification.

Morgan's style is always clear, and when

he feels the need to compress his story

he can do it masterfully. The passages

most likely to suffer from a tendency to

overcoloring and triteness are those that

spin out a detailed narrative. But in all,

the occasion of this new biography is one

for what the major would call a jollifica-

tion.

THOMAS E. FELT

College of Wooster

OHIO SCENES AND CITIZENS. By

Grace Goulder. (Cleveland: World Pub-

lishing Company, 1964. 253p.; maps,

bibliographic notes, and index. $5.95.)

For twenty-one years in her weekly col-

umn in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Grace

Goulder has portrayed memorable Ohioans

and their background. From more than

a thousand sketches she has now selected

seventeen portraits for this collection. She

might have assembled that many states-

men, or reformers, or inventors, or enter-

tainers, or sportsmen. Instead she offers

a cross-section, a mixed gallery that in-

cludes Phil Sheridan and Paul Laurence

Dunbar, Annie Oakley and the wives of

brooding John Brown.

The first and lasting impression is of

variety. Vermonters may have a common

stamp, Texans may share a character, but

Ohioans are assorted. Here is variety of

race and creed--Negro, Jew, Irish immi-

grant, and Yankee emigrant. Variety of

background--country, village, town, and

city. Variety of temperament--cranky

Delia Bacon, indulgent Warren G. Hard-

ing, crusading Wayne B. Wheeler. Variety

of career--from the gallows to the White

House.

With a narrative method Miss Goulder

finds her people in motion and follows

them through varied fortunes. Each sketch

is a life story, and here there is a repeated

pattern. Most of these citizens rose from

lowly station: the elevator boy became a

poet, the tanner's son won unconditional

surrender, the immigrant rabbi founded

a college, the backwoods farm girl became

a world celebrity, the canal boy was elected

president.

One of the freshest chapters tells of

Mark Twain (unexpected among Ohioans)

and his Cleveland friends aboard the

steamer Quaker City in the Mediterranean.

It shows Mark Twain more struck by

Italy's poverty than its art treasures and

unimpressed by some of the hallowed

scenes of Palestine. This is already fa-

miliar, but Miss Goulder makes an inter-

esting correlation of the sentimental jour-

nal of Emily Severance with Sam Cle-

mens' irreverent reporting. And she shows

how Mary Mason Fairbanks abetted Mark

Twain's courtship of Olivia Langdon.

This is a book of scenes and citizens,

and it makes good use of that double ex-

posure. The dreaming Ohio and a sylvan

island are as clearly pictured as Harman

and Margaret Blennerhassett. Along with

young Lyss Grant we see drowsing George-

town with pigs and geese in the dusty

Main Street. Behind Tom Edison is the

wheat port of Milan with its vanished

basin full of white-sailed schooners. The

portrait of agnostic Bob Ingersoll shows

BOOK REVIEWS                                191

him at "God's College"--frontier Oberlin.

Far from provincial, this book reaches

out to places as distant as Ireland, Bo-

hemia, and California. It is full of in-

formation--sometimes overfull, as though

the author could not throw anything away.

It seems a haphazard selection, but as

one reads, Miss Goulder's intention grows

clear: she has shown how the lives of cer-

tain Ohio citizens entered into the stream

of the nation's history and tradition.

WALTER HAVIGHURST

Miami University

AMISH SOCIETY. By John A. Hostetler.

(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1963.

xviii??347p.; illustrations, bibliography,

and index. $6.50.)

Ohioans have an understandable interest

in the Amish. This is not only because of

the quaint Amish customs, oriented to Old

World peasant and religious traditions, but

because Ohio has more Old Order Amish

and more Amish church districts than any

other state, not excepting Pennsylvania.

The largest concentration has been in

Holmes, Wayne, Stark, Coshocton, and

Tuscarawas counties, but there are large

numbers also in Geauga and Madison coun-

ties. The first Amish settlement in Holmes

county was made in 1807, and a high birth

rate has greatly increased their numbers

during the twentieth century.

In 1962, Professor William L. Schreiber,

a non-Amish native of Germany, and a

professor of German at the College of

Wooster, was the author of a very sympa-

thetic volume, Our Amish Neighbors,

which sought to interpret Amish life to a

world which has departed drastically from

their simple faith and their disdain for

mechanical contrivances and the diversions

of a sophisticated world. The present vol-

ume is written by one who knows both the

appeal and the stresses of Amish society,

for he was born to an Amish family and

was raised in the traditions of the sect.

He, however, broke away to attend a Men-

nonite college (Goshen), and he has done

extensive work in the field of Mennonite

publications. He received a Ph.D. at Penn-

sylvania State University and has studied

at Heidelberg University in Germany. He

is assistant professor of anthropology and

sociology at the Ogontz campus of Penn-

sylvania State University, hence he writes

as one trained in the scientific approach to

social customs and cultural trends.

The author has made extensive use of

charts, graphs, and splendid ilustrations.

Particularly interesting is his discussion

of the stresses and strains of the closely

integrated Amish society, the "marginal

person" who may find employment in an

urban community, the methods of enforc-

ing discipline, the slow process of chang-

ing the patterns of life, and the responses

to such changes. He points out that when

the members no longer confidently share

the same values, disorganization prevails.

For the individual this may involve "in-

ternal conflict, alienation, and meaning-

lessness, often manifested in suicide, alco-

holism, and various kinds of neuroses," or

in "suspicion, cynicism, isolation, theft, or

gang behavior" (pp. 271-272).

The bibliographical notes and references

are extensive and indicate a comprehensive

understanding of the Amish people. Until

drastic changes occur, this volume would

seem to serve as a synthesis of Amish life.

FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

Ohio State University

A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE

GREAT LAKES. By Harlan Hatcher

and Erich A. Walter, assisted by Orin

W. Kaye, Jr. (New York: Crown Pub-

lishers, 1963. ³⁴⁴p.; illustrations, bibli-

ography, chronology, and index. $10.00.)

The second half of the twentieth cen-

tury may be known as the Age of the Pic-

ture. The lens of the camera, the "tube"

of the television set, and the miracle of

Telestar have all changed our private lives

and the world is indeed an open book--a

picture book.

All the perfected techniques of photo-

graphic reproduction have been used in the

publishing of the modern pictorial, so su-

perior to its predecessors. These volumes

are accompanied by skillful texts vividly

reflecting the immediacy of the picture con-

tent. This is particularly true when, as

in the volume at hand, the subject is the

record of men, events, and their significant

combination which we call history.

192                                  OHIO HISTORY

A Pictorial History of the Great Lakes

is the newest in a series of pictorials pub-

lished by the Crown Publishing Company.

A magnificent volume, rich with pictures,

it ranges from the well reproduced old

print or contemporary document to the

finest in modern panoramic photography.

This feast for the eyes is accompanied by

a lucid, lively narrative of the history of

the Great Lakes region from their carving

out by glacial action eons ago, to their

physical remodeling by the great canals

of today.

A striking feature of this handsome

book is the unique picture captions. These

not only identify the picture but relate

event, anecdote, or literary allusion associ-

ated with the subject. Beneath an impres-

sive aerial view of Tahquamenon Falls,

"two hundred feet wide in their sweeping

are," is related the story of Henry Rowe

Schoolcraft's collection of legends and folk-

lore of the Chippewas, followed by a dra-

matic quotation from Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow's Hiawatha, which had its

setting in this area. The editors make

use of humor too, in their lively cap-

tions. Page 261 shows a famous "View

of Indians in 1908 taking a group of pas-

sengers down the rapids at Sault Ste.

Marie." This caption refers to Mrs. Anna

Jameson's comment, when as the first

European woman to make the hazardous

trip, she said it gave her a sensation of

"giddy, breathless, delicious excitement."

Comment the authors dryly, "This excite-

ment, of course, was what stood in the way

of interlake transportation."

The range and sweep of this volume is

as diversified as the Great Lakes area it-

self and as the talents of the men who dis-

covered and developed it. Chiefly chrono-

logical in its successive chapters, it is also

topical. The first introductory chapter

views the great inland seas as an astronaut

might see them from a high and unob-

structed view. Next, chapters on "Geology"

and "Early History" give the reader the

picture of this world as it was.

For the many devotees of ships and col-

lectors of rare ship pictures who form a

significant group of Great Lakes enthusi-

asts, there are chapters that cover the old-

time vessels, their construction and use,

and their heroic careers battling their

natural enemies, wind, fire, ice, and colli-

sion. Here are enough fine pictures and

text to be rich fare for the debates regard-

ing specifications, ownership, and other

pertinent data that so enthrall the old-

timers.

The cities of the lakes, those vital cen-

ters, at once created by the lakes and cre-

ating the great development of them, are

portrayed in picture both in their youth

and in their maturity. The panorama of

the story then unrolls in chapters on

"Locks and Canals, and the Men Who

Made Them" and "Lighthouses, Beacons,

and Buoys," concluding in a thrilling cli-

max with the most dramatic features of

all, "The Great Lakes Bridges" and "The

St. Lawrence Seaway."

To keep the reader oriented there are

maps, charts, diagrams, and colored plates

of house flags. To enable him to locate spe-

cific data there are appended a chronology,

a bibliography, and a full index, in which

ship names are easily located by the bold-

face type in which they appear. The refer-

ence value of these features also makes

the book an indispensable tool for libraries.

And behind the smooth-flowing text, the

successful selection of pictures, and the

excellent job of bookmaking lies unob-

strusive evidence of the hours of research

in the archives of libraries, museums, and

special collections that taxed the talents of

the authors.

Dr. Hatcher, president of the University

of Michigan and a former vice president

of Ohio State University, is well known

as a Great Lakes author and historian.

Together with his collaborators, he has

made a major contribution to Great Lakes

history.

DONNA L. ROOT

Cleveland Public Library

FROM PRAIRIE TO CORN BELT:

FARMING ON THE ILLINOIS AND

IOWA PRAIRIES IN THE NINE-

TEENTH CENTURY. By Allan G.

Bogue. (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press, 1963. x??310p.; figures, tables,

bibliography, and index. $6.95.)

Among the desiderata of American agri-

cultural history, and for that matter, of

American economic history in general, are

BOOK REVIEWS                               193

descriptions and evaluations of farming

in specific regions. This volume would

therefore be welcome even if it were much

less thoroughgoing and competent than it

actually is.

As the title indicates, the study is con-

cerned primarily with the evolution of

farming in the prairie lands of Iowa and

central and northern Illinois from the ad-

vent of the first settlers to about 1900.

Accordingly, as would be anticipated, there

are descriptions of land breaking, live-

stock care and up-grading, the manage-

ment of grain and grass crops, and the

introduction of machinery. Considerable

attention is given to the problem of obtain-

ing land, the role of the land speculator,

and the impact for good and bad of the

farm mortgage and of the farm-tenancy

system. All of these reflect the special

training of the author, as does a whole

chapter on such costs of production as

taxes, hired labor, and short- and long-term

credit. Descriptions of the activities and

difficulties of several farm families which

preserved records add to the interest of

the book.

It would not be fair to criticize the

author for what he has put in his book,

because it seems to be eminently sound

in its interpretations and accurate in its

factual detail. However, it does have a

few deficiencies, or perhaps they might be

called blind spots. The most notable is in

connection with farmers' organizations.

The description of the role of the agricul-

tural societies (and their fairs) is quite

weak, and unnecessarily so, considering the

quantity of sources available. There are a

few references to the Patrons of Husband-

ry, but nothing to indicate their vital role

in the contests against railroads and mid-

dlemen. There is, indeed, no mention of the

"Granger laws" or of Munn v. Illinois, and

no more than an inkling of the rural dis-

trust and hatred of the railroads which

culminated in the passage of the interstate

commerce act. Another general deficiency

is in the omission of any significant dis-

cussion of the role of the metropolis in the

development of prairie agriculture; Chi-

cago does not even appear in the index.

Finally, not much is said about either farm

life or community life. It does not seem

altogether unreasonable to expect that a

study which has space for land speculators,

hog cholera, and the introduction of the

side-delivery rake might give some atten-

tion to implement agents and general-store

keepers as well as to schools and churches

and perhaps even politics. These deficien-

cies are by no means trifling, but From

Prairie to Corn Belt remains nevertheless

a first-rate contribution to American agri-

cultural history.

ROBERT L. JONES

Marietta College

THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI:

A SUCCESS STORY IN URBAN

HIGHER EDUCATION. By Reginald

C. McGrane. (New York: Harper and

Row, 1963. xiii??364p.; illustrations,

map, appendices, and index. $6.00.)

Because of its complexity the writing of

the history of a college or university is

difficult. In many ways the growth and

development of such an institution are

among the most devious, troubled, and un-

predictable of any human activity. These

truisms are well illustrated in this history

of the University of Cincinnati by Dr.

Reginald C. McGrane, for many years

head of that university's history depart-

ment.

It would be simple to take 1819 as the

date of the founding of what ultimately

became the university, and 1870 as the

time when the Ohio General Assembly

chartered it as a municipal university. But

as the tenuous details spelled out by Dr.

McGrane show, it was a slow and often

difficult process, with the future uncertain.

As with any man-made agency its fate

was plagued often by human problems.

But the author, fortified by many years of

first-hand knowledge of its affairs, de-

velops the story with skill and authority.

In twenty-two chapters he brings out the

essential details between its "early efforts

and false starts" to the "dreams that

came true."

The problem in such a portrayal is to

make a well-balanced choice between the

essential facts and those that make the

running story come alive and give it life

and color. On the whole, Dr. McGrane has

done this well. There are times when the

wealth of detail is somewhat confusing,

194                            OHIO HISTORY

but this difficulty is resolved in part by

the generous use of chapter subheads.

There is a parallel of sorts between the

University of Cincinnati and the Ohio

State University. Each in its way is the

largest public institution of learning in

Ohio and among the largest in the United

States. Cincinnati dates its reorganization

from the charter act of 1870. By a coinci-

dence the Ohio Agricultural and Mechani-

cal College, which became the Ohio State

University, was created also by the legis-

lature in 1870. Cincinnati's academic de-

partment dates from 1873, when Ohio

State first opened its doors. Both Cincin-

nati and Ohio State had their first formal

commencements in 1878. And General

Jacob D. Cox, who was president of the

University of Cincinnati from 1885 to

1889, declined the Ohio State presidency

in 1871.

The list of distinguished Ohioans who

have been identified with the University

of Cincinnati is impressive. The univer-

sity, in fact, reflects the very special kind

of community that Cincinnati has been.

This the author brings out adequately.

Inevitably, as in any factual book, there

are minor errors or "typos" to mar an

otherwise good account. A few: a refer-

ence (p.126) to James B. Angel (sic), the

president of the University of Michigan;

to the score of the 1897 football game with

Ohio State (p.161) as 34 to 0, in favor of

Cincinnati--the Ohio State records show

24 to 0--and, most incredibly, a reference

(p.319) to Proctor (sic) & Gamble!

The story of the evolution of the Univer-

sity of Cincinnati of 1963 with its graduate

school, eleven colleges, and other facilities

has been traced adequately by Dr. McGrane.

It is one of accomplishment that is a credit

to the city of its origin and principal sup-

port.

JAMES E. POLLARD

Ohio State University

ARK OF EMPIRE: THE AMERICAN

FRONTIER, 1784-1803. By Dale Van

Every. Foreword by Henry Steele Com-

mager. (New York: William Morrow

and Company, 1963. xii??383p.; maps,

bibliography, and index. $6.00.)

This is the third volume of what the

publisher is pleased to call Mr. Van

Every's "monumental history of the fron-

tier people." For want of a government

which would or could protect their inter-

ests, the vast trans-Appalachian frontier

is seen as constantly on the verge of se-

cession. Thus, impending disaster faced

the nation from day to day during the

years 1784 to 1803.

We are told, via the attractive dust

jacket, that the multiple threats "of that

first cold war" fell upon our first three

presidents with the same harrowing effects

as have today's threats on Presidents Tru-

man, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. The

claim is somewhat comprehensive.

The story opens with chapters entitled

"A New Nation," "Congress Proposes,"

and "The Frontier of 1784." Thereafter,

Brant, McGillivray, Robertson, Sevier, and

Wilkinson are allotted chapters. Theme is

then intermixed with two chapters on

Washington, another on Brant, and the

crescendo of Fallen Timbers. By the time

Jefferson's first administration closed,

statehood for Ohio had removed the threat

that the West would be lost.

The thesis has some validity, yet it is

vastly overplayed here. One is puzzled that

such considerable and discerning scholars

as Commager can be led to endorse it by

the gambit of a foreword. The work is

less than "monumental." It rests upon

negligible research, four pages of stand-

ard references passing as the bibliography.

There is an apparent innocence of the

existence of such riches as repose in the

Draper Manuscripts, the Newberry Li-

brary, the Burton Collection, the Ohio

State Museum, and the Marietta College

Library--to indicate but a few such which

abound in the Great Lakes, Ohio-Missis-

sippi country. No use is made of the multi-

tude of articles to be found in the many

learned journals of the area.

Nothing new whatsoever appears in this

book. Without question, Mr. Van Every

writes well and imparts freshness to old

material. He succeeds very well, too, in

creating an air of excitement through

much of the work. It is clear also that he

understands the usages of synthesis.

Newspaper reviewers have been more

kind in assessing Mr. Van Every's writ-

ing. One of these sees in the author a

BOOK REVIEWS                              195

latter-day Francis Parkman. Those who

still marvel at Parkman's identification

with the wilderness and his superb style

will understandably reject the comparison.

RUSSELL CALDWELL

University of Southern California

LIST OF CARTOGRAPHIC RECORDS

OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE

(Record Group 49). Compiled by Laura

E. Kelsay. National Archives Publica-

tion No. 64-9, Special Lists No. 19.

(Washington: National Archives, 1964.

v??²02p.; maps and index. Paper.)

Federal land administration started

with enactment of the Ordinance of 1785.

Inheriting an accumulation of records and

duties, the General Land Office was cre-

ated in 1812. Among its important activi-

ties were the surveying and mapping of

public lands. Until it was consolidated into

another bureau in 1946, the GLO acted as

the official repository of all the pertinent

documents which now compose Record

Group 49 in the National Archives.

The cartographic records of the present

compilation consist of four series. Two, the

"Old Map File" (manuscript and annotated

maps), and published records, are related

to the progress of surveying and the dis-

posal of public lands in states and terri-

tories. The other two, maps and diagrams

of boundary surveys, and the "Old Case

'F' File" (field notes and related records),

are primarily concerned with the survey

of the boundaries of the public land states

and territories themselves. Also, some of the

notes in the last one are related to items in

the "Old Map File" series. Not included in

this listing are other GLO maps and carto-

graphic records in the National Archives

among the records of the Office of the Chief

of Engineers and the Bureau of Indian

Affairs.

Those interested in Ohio history will

find fifty-five manuscript and annotated

maps cataloged, ranging from a 1790 Is-

rael Ludlow surveyed tract within the Ohio

Company lands to an 1847 fractional town-

ship survey in Cincinnati; eleven descrip-

tive entries of field notes of surveys, dat-

ing from the 1792 determination of the

boundaries of the Symmes purchase to an

1881 survey in the Toledo Marsh area. The

analytical index reveals many other Ohio

and Ohio-related items. Similar coverage

is made for much of the rest of the

country.

By publishing this list of a considerable

body of its cartographic holdings and de-

scribing them adequately, the National Ar-

chives further emphasizes and enhances its

use function to historians and other re-

searchers.

DWIGHT L. SMITH

Miami University