ROBERT L. DAUGHERTY
Book Notes
The Overland Journal of Amos Piatt
Josselyn: Zanesville, Ohio to the
Sacramento Valley April 1849 to
September 11, 1849. Edited by J.
William Barrett
II. (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1978. 129
p.; illustrations, appendices, bibliography,
index.) The principal value of this
brief work is that Josselyn was one of the few
"forty-niners" to record his
experiences. As told through his journals and letters,
Josselyn's description of his three-year
affliction with "gold fever" recounts one of
the more exciting episodes in nineteenth
century American history. It took Josselyn
163 days to travel overland from
Zanesville to Sacramento. Along the way he and
his company encountered bad weather,
crossed rivers such as the Platte, and passed
through such places as Forts Kearny and
Laramie and Salt Lake City. Once in
California, Josselyn made that sobering
discovery common to most prospectors-
namely, there was little gold to be
found and chances were great that one would
return home poorer rather than richer.
Josselyn was more fortunate than most
miners, returning to Zanesville in 1852
a "might richer" for his efforts. Ably edited
and annotated, Overland Journal is
a useful contribution to the history of the
California gold rush.
Cincinnati in Color. Text by Walter C. Langsam, photographs by Julianne
Warren. (New York: Hastings House
Publishers, 1978. 95p.; illustrations.) The
authors offer a colorful introduction to
this midwestern commercial center.
Langsam provides a brief, well written
history of Cincinnati, as well as comments
on Warren's attractive thirty-two
full-color photographs of the city's landmarks.
The book will appeal primarily to local
residents, although the photographs alone
should attract a wider audience.
Creative Congregationalism: A History
of the Oak Grove Mennonite Church in
Wayne County, Ohio. By James O. Lehman. (Smithville, Ohio: Oak Grove
Mennonite Church, 1978. v + 320 p.;
maps, illustrations, appendices, notes, index.)
This is the author's third book on a
Wayne County congregation, and as with the
previous two he makes an original
contribution to Ohio's local religious history.
Lehman presents a detailed account of
Oak Grove's Amish Mennonites, covering
their activities over the century and a
half since their organization in the early
nineteenth century. The work is more
than just religious history; using the
Mennonites as his vehicle, Lehman
provides a social and economic history as well.
It is a well researched book-sources
include archival manuscripts, letters, census
and burial records, diaries, newspapers,
and secondary works. A worthwhile piece
of scholarship, this work is a valuable contribution
to Ohio's religious and local
history.
The Papers of Henry Bouquet, Volume
IV, September 1, 1759-August 31, 1760.
Edited by Louis M. Waddell, John L.
Tottenham, and Donald H. Kent.
(Harrisburg: The Pennsylvania Historical
and Museum Commission, 1978. xxiii +
Book Notes 245
736 p.; bibliography, index.) Henry
Bouquet, a Swiss officer in the British service,
was sent to America to correct
weaknesses in the British army made evident by
Braddock's disastrous defeat on the
Monongahela River in 1755. He and his
regiment-the Royal Americans-made the
necessary corrections, and thus played
a crucial role in winning the American
west for the British. This fourth volume of a
projected eight-volume work is, like its
predecessors, excellently edited and
annotated and will prove valuable to
those interested in a soldier who successfully
adapted to the complexities of
wilderness warfare.
The Country Railroad Station in
America. By H. Roger Grant and Charles
W.
Bohi. (Boulder, Colorado: Pruett
Publishing Company, 1978. 183 p.; illustrations,
essay on sources, index.) Although most
scholars have focused on larger, urban
train stations, Grant and Bohi call
attention to the more common small-town
country depots. In this well-illustrated
work, the authors examine two dimensions
of county stations: their importance as
community hubs and social centers and their
architecture. Stations were important,
for they were the community's gateway to
the outside world; moreover, to many
these combination freight and passenger
depots' architectural designs were (and
are) fascinating and beautiful. The book will
appeal to train station buffs in
particular and students of railroad history in general.