Ohio History Journal

Henry Howe, the Historian.            311

HENRY HOWE, THE HISTORIAN.

BY JOSEPH P. SMITH.*

"You don't find Ohio much like it was in the good old times

of forty years ago, do you, Mr. Howe?" asked an elderly gentle-

man, at Columbus, in 1886. He seemed well informed and intel-

ligent, but inclined to mournfully, disparage the present.

"' Those who compare the age on which their lot has fallen

with a golden age which exists only in their imagination may

talk of degeneracy and decay,"' cheerily answered the venerable

author, quoting, half unconsciously, the words of the greatest

of historians, "' but no man who is correctly informed as to the

past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the

present.' Since 1840 Ohio has doubled her population and quad-

rupled her wealth, but the average of intelligence among her

people is greater, and that of morality and sobriety higher now

than it was then. The world gets wiser and better every day;

so does Ohio."

Such was the genial spirit in which this kindly, confiding,

and innocent man always wrote or spoke; always hopeful and

helpful, even humorous and gay, amid difficulties and embarrass-

ments that would have crushed a weaker nature, and made the

stoutest heart sick and despondent. With the highest respect

and veneration for the great men and grand work of the past, he

was proud of the enterprise and progress of the present, and

looked confidently forward to a still nobler civilization in the

future. "Human life never had such a full cup," he was fond

of saying, "as in these our days of expanding knowledge and

humanities." Such an observer could not but kindly appreciate

"the age (and place) on which his lot had fallen," and do ample

justice to opportunity and occasion.

Nor did he labor in vain. Poor he may always have been,

distressed he frequently was, but unappreciated he did not

remain, and ages hence will not be. His gain in this regard, at

*Librarian Ohio State Library.

312       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications. [VOL. 4

least, is not entirely incommensurate with his deserts. Certainly

no name is more familiarly or so indelibly associated with Ohio

history as Henry Howe's, and none is so certain to be devotedly

cherished for earnest, faithful, and unselfish work in preserving

the annals of a great State. His name has been a household

word in the homes of Ohio people, wherever scattered, for half a

century, and the chief events of his career are well known to

them; yet it is a privilege and pleasure always to record the

incidents of so beautiful and useful a life, and never without

interest and advantage to review the career of one who conse-

crated himself to so grand an object.

He tells us that his purpose was not merely to compile an

abstract of written or printed official records, of easy access in

any period, but rather to tell as simply as possible the story

of the founding and development of Ohio, in the very words and

accents, and with all the pride and enthusiasm, of the brave and

sturdy pioneers, the noble and heroic men and women, who

made the State great and prominent from the day of its birth.

He did not aspire "to the high literary merit, the dignified style,

the generalization of facts, the philosophical deductions of regu-

lar history." On the contrary, he studied "simplicity," "full-

ness of detail," and the introduction "of minor, but interesting

incidents," which the more ambitious histories "could not step

aside to notice," while at all times he "avoided the philosophy

which only the scholastic can comprehend." He sought to

present a work that would contain "something adapted to all

ages, classes, and tastes," so that if the unlettered even should

stop to examine the volume, they, too, "in many instances,

could derive gratification from the pictorial representation of

their native villages-of perhaps the very dwellings in which

they first drew breath, and around which entwined early and

cherished associations." This was something new and far ahead

of the times in authorship and book-making. Indeed, Mr.

Howe may be said to have been the pioneer author, teacher, and

leader of the whole country in the important mission of prepar-

ing and inspiring town, county, and State histories. In four

great commonwealths-New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and

Ohio-he himself collected invaluable materials for the State at

Henry Howe, the Historian.           313

large, and both pointed the way and laid the foundation for

hundreds of other useful local histories. His plan had a charm

of simplicity, naturalness, and fidelity about it that attracted the

people and gained from the start their support and confidence.

Well might be said of his first work on Ohio:  " The book

reached more minds, and has been more extensively read, than

any regular State history ever issued; thus adding another to

the many examples of the productions of industry and tact

proving of greater utility than those emanating from profound

scholastic acquirements."

He came to Ohio at an auspicious time; a period of great

material development, when the State was not too new for him

to fail to conceive its magnificent possibilities; nor yet too old

for him not to meet many of its first settlers, of every walk and

station, men of every degree of intellectual acquirement, or of

the severest schooling in the field of actual personal experience.

From every source he gathered valuable information and data.

He saw about him everywhere, as he rode from county to county

throughout the State, evidences of progress and growth that

enabled him to wisely estimate the future and produce the most

perfect encyclopedia, as well as history of Ohio, that has yet

been written. Indeed, as he advanced in his original undertak-

ing, his work expanded so greatly with the times, and grew so

rapidly with fresh inspiration and opportunity, that it may justly

be said that he published at length the most interesting, authen-

tic and voluminous work of the character ever issued by any

author for any State.

We can not measure (though it would be difficult to over-

estimate) the value of his "Historical Collections" to the people

of our own times, nor will we vainly attempt to speak of their

priceless value to posterity. It can be approximated only as we

appreciate the dignity and majesty of the State itself, for no

author has contributed so much toward making the name Ohio

forever respected and honored, if not famous and illustrious.

"I take you as my guide through Ohio," wrote George Ban-

croft to Mr. Howe, and certainly this has been the experience of

thousands who could never hope for so profound a knowledge of

our country as that eminent historian possessed. To call the

314       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

"Collections" a history "tells but a part of the truth. So broad

is its scope that it is the State itself printed and bound, ready to

go into every family to show the people of every part concern-

ing the whole collectively, and each part in succession, and in all

the varied aspects that go to form the great commonwealth of

Ohio."

This will be the more apparent as we review the incidents

of his life; the unselfish, industrious, noble life of one who was

not simply the biographer, but the contemporary, friend and

companion of the men who laid such enduring foundations for

the prosperity, growth and fame of Ohio. We give his history

practically as it appears in his own modest autobiography, in the

first volume of the Centennial edition of his "Collections."

Henry Howe was born in New Haven, Connecticut, October

11, 1816. His Pilgrim ancestor on his father's side came from

Norfolk, England. He landed in Boston in 1647, and after

enjoying the rare distinction of having lived in three different

centuries died in 1702, aged 104 years.

Hezekiah Howe, the father of Henry, was a bookseller and

publisher, but he was always greatly interested in the militia

and during our second war with England, in 1812-15, was called

into active service as a Brigadier-General and stationed with his

command at New London, Conn., which for months was threat

ened by the British fleet. For this reason he was always subse-

quently called General Howe, and by this title is still fondly

recalled by some of the older citizens of New Haven.

Hezekiah Howe's book store was in those days one of the

most famous in the country. Standing in the shadow of Yale

college, it was the daily resort and gathering place of the learned

men of that institution, and for those from many other localities

who were temporarily drawn to New Haven through its at-

tractions as a literary and educational centre. General Howe was

a man of high culture and intellect, and an excellent authority

on everything pertaining to books. It is said that in bibli-

ography he had no equal in the country.

The mother of Henry Howe was Sarah, daughter of

Ebenezer Townshend, a successful merchant and ship owner

of New Haven, sometimes called the " Merchant Prince," on ac-

Henry Howe, the Historian.          315

count of the large number of his ships and the success of his

ventures. It is a tradition of New Haven that one of his ships,

"The Neptune," yielded to its owner in a single voyage the net

profit of $288,000. Late in life, however, he met with business

reverses which swept away the greater part of his fortune.

Henry Howe was the youngest of seven children, and was

considered an odd yet lovable child, of a sunny and even

temperament, always full of fun, but seldom in mischief. He

attended the Lancasterian and grammar schools of New Haven

and assisted during vacations as errand boy or clerk in his

father's book store. In connection with the store his father

conducted a printing office, in which Henry learned to set type

and mastered the mysteries of the printing trade, a circumstance

of much benefit to him in later life in the business of book-

making. He always referred with great pride to the fact that

his earliest occupation in life, when but eleven years old, had

been to carry the proofs of the first edition (1828) of Webster's

famous dictionary from his father's office to the doctor's home,

some three blocks distant. The edition was of only 2,500

copies, but it was immediately followed by an edition of 3,000

copies, published in England, and its superiority was manifest,

since it contained 12,000 words and 40,000 definitions that were

not found in any similar work. The dictionary was of two

quarto volumns, well printed and bound, and bore the im-

print of Hezekiah Howe on its title page.

"I do not remember to have ever seen him (Dr. Webster)

smile," wrote Mr. Howe. "He was a too-much pre-occupied

man for frivolity, bearing, as he did, the entire weight of the

English tongue upon his shoulders. In my boyhood days I

often saw and listened to the conversation of such men as Noah

Webster, Benjamin Silliman, James L. Kingsley, Roger M.

Sherman, Eli Ives, Nathaniel Taylor, et al., and that strange, un-

earthly, spiritual being, the poet Percival. Men of such in-

tellectual mark, united to moral worth, as I then used to see,

I have since rarely met."

He was preparing to enter Yale College when his father met

with financial reverses, due entirely to heavy indorsements for

friends. These losses compelled Henry to give up aspirations for

316       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

a higher education, so he left school at fifteen and entered his

father's printing office. Here his literary instincts quickly

asserted themselves, but for several years his productions were

anonymous. With a half dozen other "printer's imps," he

organized a "Franklin Club" for "literary purposes." They

would meet each week and read papers, written by themselves,

and engage in debates, but the limits of the club were too

narrow for his ambition, and he sought the columns of the local

press under various noms de plume. There appeared from time

to time a number of communications, some in prose, others in

verse, that excited the curiosity and amusement of the entire

village, for New Haven was then a place of little more than 7,000

inhabitants. These articles touched up local institutions and

characters with a rare yet kindly humor and burlesque that set

the whole town to guessing their authorship. They were attrib-

uted to many different local writers, older and better known, but

none suspected the young "printer's imp." One of his literary

efforts at this period was "The Trial of Jonathan Syntax for the

Murder of the King's English," a burlesque of a prominent local

politician whose use of our noble language failed entirely to

conform to the rules of Lindley Murray. In a note written

some years later he says: "I printed this pamphlet while a

printer's imp in my father's office, but fear of the consequences

prevented my publishing it."

When about eighteen he left his father's printing office to

go out with a surveying party on the line of the New York,

New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the first built in Connecti-

cut. Professor Alexander Twining, of Yale College, was the

leader of the party, and Mr. Howe's nephew, Alfred Howe

Terry (later of the United States Army), a few years his junior,

was one of its members. Civil engineering, however, was not

to his taste; the party met with much inclement weather, and

their sufferings, through severe cold and other hardships, made

very acceptable an offer from his uncle, Ebenezer Townshend,

to take a clerkship in the New York banking house, of Towns-

hend & Nevins. From this bank he went to that of Prime,

Ward & King, where he had for a fellow-clerk Mr. George Coe,

Henry Howe, the Historian.            317

afterwards prominently identified with New York's banking

interests for more than half a century.

But his thoughts were constantly recurring to what he calls

his "life-directing incident," which he describes as follows:

"One day early in 1838 there was brought into father's

book-store, for a subscriber, a book entitled 'Historical Collec-

tions of Connecticut.' The author of the book, the pioneer of

works on this plan, was John Warner Barber, by profession an

engraver, then just forty years of age, and my fellow-townsman.

He had traveled in a little one-horse wagon entirely over Con-

necticut, from village to village, taking pencil sketches and col-

lecting materials for the same. His book came upon the people

like a work of magic. Few had ever seen pictures of places

with which they were acquainted. But here was a book that

showed multitudes the very houses in which they were born, the

school-houses where they had been taught, the churches where

they had worshiped God, and the hills where from infancy they

had seen the sun set every night in his sublime circuit around

our globe. Every village and town was shown, birth places and

monuments of noted men, historical localities, and so on. Every

man in Connecticut, after he got that book and saw what a grand

little State she was, how glorious her history, furnishing as she

did more soldiers, more food and more general supplies to the

Revolutionary army, in proportion to population, than any other,

felt at least two inches taller. Never had any book been pub-

lished on any State that so fed the fires of patriotism as did that

of the people of Connecticut.

"Although born in an atmosphere of books," he continues,

"this impressed me more than any book I had ever seen, and I

felt that I would like of all things to dedicate my life to travel-

ing and making such books for what President Lincoln calls

'the plain people'--an expression which gives the idea of the

possession of the solid virtues and the recipients of the simple

home joys, and is, therefore, peculiarly grateful to the honest

heart. Two years passed; in the interim my father had died. I

had learned to sketch from nature, made a small book which,

published by the Harpers, went through many editions. I had

passed nearly all these two years with my uncle, a stock broker

318       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VoL. 4

in Wall street, an uncongenial spot, where I felt that Tophet was

not afar. The spring of 1840 arrived, when one day I walked

into Mr. Barber's office and inquired if he had thought of making

a book on New York State. He replied 'Yes, but it was a great

undertaking.' When I told him I would like to join him in such

an enterprise, his face broke into smiles, and like the good man

he was, thereupon, on going home, as he knew me only in a gen-

eral way, consulted with his wife. Now she happened to have

been when a maiden under the simple name of Ruth Green, the

identical school marm that had taught me my letters, when,

taking a pin in her fingers and pointing to the successive letters.

of the alphabet, she asked 'What's that?' Her report in regard

to me was according to the first letter of the alphabet, with a

number at the end-thus, 'A, No. 1."'

A few days later Barber & Howe commenced their historical

exploration of New York, Albany being the objective point.

After spending a few days in Albany, visiting libraries, searching

records, etc., they took the railroad to Schenectady (then one of

two or three in the Union) and from that place crossed the State

by canal to Buffalo. Here they separated and young Howe went

afoot, with knapsack on his back, visiting county seat after

county seat, until he had twice crossed the State. In the fall

of 1840 he returned to New Haven "to cast his first vote for

General Harrison," as he proudly confesses, and then resumed

his work in New York. Reaching Cooperstown he met James

Fennimore Cooper, the great American novelist, then in the

zenith of his fame. "He was a large man every way," says Mr.

Howe, "lordly and imperious in his manner and with weighty

voice."

The following winter the historical explorations of New

York were completed, when he again turned his steps home-

ward. Proud of his work and content with his occupation, he

thus describes his elation at this time:

"One bright morning in February, 1841, I crossed the ferry

from Jersey City and landed in New York, and then rode the full

length of Broadway on horseback out into the country towards

my home. It was a beautiful winter morning, just the hour the

down-town merchants were thronging to their places of business.

Henry Howe, the Historian.            319

The sidewalks were filled with multitudes of elegantly dressed

men, and it seemed as though every eye was upon me, for I was

a conspicuous object, with my knapsack strapped to my horse,

long hair streaming from behind my cap, and a pair of bright

scarlet leggings covering my limbs from ankle to thigh. I didn't

care, for from my elevated perch I looked down upon them, and

would not have exchanged situations with the proudest and

wealthiest of them all. I had an avocation that I loved, one

that would benefit the world, and competition with none."

Arriving in New Haven, he prepared his New York book for

publication and issued it from the press in the fall of 1841. It

had a sale of some 10,000 copies; but, although a profitable ven-

ture, his ambition to make books was so much stronger than his

love for selling them, that in 1842 we find him traveling over

New Jersey, gathering material for a work on that State, at a

time when it would have been more profitable to him, from a

financial standpoint, to be giving more attention to the sale of

his New York book. He was again associated with Mr. Barber,

but, as in the work on New York, that gentleman's business was

principally the making of pencil sketches of views in the larger

cities, and of points of historic interest, and from these, and

similar sketches by Mr. Howe, were made the engravings for

illustrating all their State historical works.

The "Historical Collections of New Jersey" was published

in 1842, and in the spring of 1845 Mr. Howe straightway engaged

upon a similar work for Virginia. His association with Mr. Bar-

ber ended with the work on New Jersey, and although Mr. Barber

engraved most of the pictures for Mr. Howe's succeeding works,

he had no other interest in them than that of an engraver em-

ployed by Mr. Howe to make wood cuts from his own pencil

drawings. Landing at historic Jamestown, with knapsack on his

back, he started across the fields for Williamsburg, when he met

with an adventure which he describes in an entirely characteristic

manner:

"The day was pleasant, the air soft and balmy; but I was

in a land of slaves. I had come from a land of freemen. What

were my emotions? Grand and glorious. I felt the Nation owed

a debt of gratitude to old Virginia. Her very form was grateful

320       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

to my eye on the map, and when it was marred by the excision

of West Virginia, I felt as though a sacrilege had been corn

mitted. The memories of the strong men she had given to the

country in the time of her great struggle, and in the forming

years of her government, crowded upon me. Washington,

Patrick Henry, John Marshall, Jefferson, Madison, and a host

of others, prove that slave-owners can be men of the loftiest

patriotism and possess the brightest virtues that adorn humanity.

I was soon to meet slavery, and it struck me, not as presented

at the hands of a kind Christian gentleman, who felt for the best

welfare of a mass of humble dependents, only a few removes

from savage Africa, but it struck me butt-end first, from the

hands of a negro-driver, a Virginian, the first white man I was

to meet on my introduction to Virginia soil. After walking

mile across the fields I discovered a body of men whom

approached to inquire my way and found them to be a gang of

slaves, working a few feet only apart, and in their midst stood a

solitary white man, their overseer. They were armed with

heavy hoes (mattocks I think they called them), and were busy

grubbing the ground. They looked stolid, stupid and sad, as

they lifted up their coarse implements, and then sunk them in

the earth. It was a novel sight this, to the overseer-my appear-

ance, a stranger, on foot, and bearing a knapsack. On learning

I had just landed and was from the North he opened up on the

subject of their 'peculiar institution,' and in less than two min-

utes said to me in a calm voice: ' I'd as leave kill a nigger as kill

a dog.' With this a sardonic grin spread over his countenance,

and I looked around to see what effect his words had upon this

group of abject beings. They looked as before, stolid, stupid,

sad, while their coarse implements continued to go up in the air

and descending cleave the earth-God's earth."

But the observations of Mr. Howe on slavery, unique and

interesting as they are, in showing the conditions actually exist-

ing in Virginia at that date, can not be repeated here. They

give us a valuable insight into the character of the gentle and

humane man, disclosing his great charity, freedom from preju-

dice, his breadth, and humanity-characteristics especially im-

portant in the work he had adopted as his calling in life, that of

Henry Howe, the Historian.            321

gathering the facts of history and conditions of American common-

wealths, and putting them in attractive and permanent form for

the use and benefit of the people. So thoroughly and conscien-

tiously did he labor that his work has proved invaluable to all.

As in his explorations of New York, he made pedestrian tours

over Virginia, visiting and sketching places of historic interest,

interviewing the aged, illustrious, and well-informed, and search-

ing records. West Virginia was then a part of the mother

State, so it was included in his travels. He met with many trying

experiences in these pedestrian tours, some of which are described

in his reminiscences of travel in Virginia.

"Late in the fall of 1845," he says, "I left my home for a

final pedestrian tour through western Virginia. I entered at

Point Pleasant at the mouth of the Kanawha, and penetrating

about one hundred and fifty miles inland to the White Sulphur

Springs, I turned southwest, my objective point being the

Natural Tunnel in Scott county, that extreme point where unite

a trinity of States, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, each send-

ing great mountain tops high in the air. One object I had was

to sketch the Natural Tunnel, a passage through a mountain,

down which ran a small river. No artist had ever visited that wild

spot. I was for weeks footing it through the mountains. The

population was very sparse; that of an entire county in some

cases could be easily got into one of their churches. Their

houses were generally cabins and of a single room, standing in

the narrow valleys of the mountain streams. The people dressed

in homespun and lived the life of half-hunters, half-agriculturists.

The pleasure which comes from using our muscular systems

when everything is in high working condition is beyond words.

My physical vigor in this pedestrian excursion through south-

western Virginia was brought up to the highest point of perfec-

tion. The season was most propitious; it was the early winter,

the climate bracing, the scenery wild and picturesque, and the

semi-civilized people I was among supplied me with a fund of

thought and amusement. Poets and preachers, they say, are

sometimes inspired. Theirs is brain inspiration. Mine was of a

different character. I had walked so much that my locomotive

muscles had become like whip-cords; and, full of high spirits, it

Vol. IV-21

322       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

seemed as though my limbs were inspired. I suppose this might

be called 'leg inspiration.' I remember one day in particular

when near the Tennessee line I walked about fifty miles, and

that in the last two hours it seemed as if something had broken

loose; I flew rather than walked. David Livingston, the African

traveler, relates in his African experiences, that when he had got

broken into walking he felt as though he had no feet. For my

part I felt as though I had no legs. They were wings. In the

country I was in there were no bridges and the streams were

broad and shallow. I never stopped to take off my shoes, but

waded across as I was; sometimes broke ice to do it, but never

received any harm. In summer this is especially beneficial, cool-

ing the feet swollen by the heat, and invigorating the entire sys-

tem. I experimented in all modes of walking and I found that

adopted by Captain Alden Partridge the easiest. He was famous

sixty years ago, in Middletown, Connecticut. One day he walked

seventy miles, in the course of which he ascended and descended

Ascunet, in Vermont, a mountain 3,000 feet high. His mode

was to expand his chest, bend forward at the hips, throwing his

weight in front of his legs, which then had nothing to do but

shuffle after, loose and easy, and keep him from tumbling to the

ground. I saw him thus walk when I was a boy and I felt sure

he would 'get there.' He was well named 'Partridge.'"

The work on Virginia was published in 1845, and although

its sale was large, in proportion to the population of the State, it

was not financially profitable to the author and publisher. It

was highly prized by the people of Virginia, and their Legisla-

ture adopted resolutions of thanks to Mr. Howe for the valuable

work he had prepared.

John C. Calhoun, the distinguished Senator, was so favor-

ably impressed with the Virginia work that he importuned Mr.

Howe to undertake a work of the same character on South Caro-

lina. At his earnest solicitation Mr. Howe visited Charleston

with that object in view, but the plans were not completed, and

so the project was abandoned. "It fell through with," says he,

"owing to the timidity of a person there (presumably not Mr.

Calhoun) who was to pecuniarily join in the enterprise."

Then it was that he came to Ohio, which had attracted him

Heury Howe, the Historian.            323

long before by its wealth of material and its promise of future

greatness. "Ohio, the bright young State," he says, 'dedicated

to freedom, lay before me, a mine of rich, ungarnered history."

His experience in other States, added to his natural ability, with

his enthusiasm and love for his occupation, gave him an especial

fitness for that which was destined to be the most important

work of his life. From boyhood, in his Connecticut home, he

had heard much of Ohio--to the young "a land of romance and

adventure"-for Ohio had absorbed some of the best blood of

his beloved native State, and tales of the brave spirits in the

wilderness, their hardships and privations (which seemed but to

strengthen their determination to establish a commonwealth

where all men should be free and equal), had made a deep

impression upon him, and he longed to act a part in its develop-

ment and fame. It was in this spirit of love and enthusiasm

that he entered upon his work. Following in the footsteps of

the founders of Ohio, he commenced his tour of the State from

the spot where they had first landed. He intended to walk over

the State, and starting at Marietta in January, 1846, he walked

more than a hundred miles, but at Delaware bought a horse, on

whose back he rode over most of the State. Pomp, as he was

called, was docile and old, not worth much in the market, but

valued highly for the faithful performance of his new duties.

His master became strongly attached to him, as he did to all

God's creatures, and many years after the sole companion of his

first tour was dead, he was wont to speak of faithful old Pomp

in terms of great endearment.

Travel at that day was difficult and laborious, many of the

roads were frequently absolutely impassible on account of mud

so deep that no animal could struggle through it for any consid-

erable distance. The onlyhotels, called " taverns," were mostly

crude log cabins, often infested with vermin, so that the traveler

dreaded the coming of night, and he frequently remarked in later

years that he had enjoyed more sleep rolled in his blanket on the

floor than in beds, during his first tour through Ohio. But the

public were never sensible of the privations and hardships he

endured, nor heard from him the least complaint in the work

324       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

which he pronounced as "congenial with his loves," and thought

would so "widely benefit his fellow-men."

"When in 1846, my snow white companion, old Pomp, car-

ried me, his willing burden, on his back," he writes, "so young

was the land that of the very lawmakers eighty-four out of one

hundred and seven were born strangers. (That is, in other

States or countries than Ohio.) Only four years before had the

State grown its first Governor, in the person of Wilson Shannon.

The very State capitol in which the Legislature assembled was a

crude structure that scarce any Ohio village of this day would

rear for a school-house. Ohio was a new land, opening to the

sun. Its habitations were largely of logs, many of them stand-

ing on the margin of deep forests, on a soil for the first time

brought under the benign influence of human cultivation."

The appearance in towns and villages of such a traveler was

an event to attract extraordinary interest, and everywhere he was

cordially welcomed and given all possible facilities for obtaining

the information he desired. The early settlers were proud of

the record they had made, and from these he gathered much

of the valuable historical information he preserved. Many of

the pioneers had passed away, but some were still living, and

from the lips of these actual participants he gathered and

recorded the tales of struggle and privation, adventure and dar-

ing, hardship and toil, peculiar to the opening up of the Ohio

wilderness. The pioneers of Ohio had to overcome greater

obstacles than those of most other States, and to this, in no

slight degree, he always claimed, is due the strong character-

istics of the Ohio men of to-day.

When Mr. Howe came into a town every means of informa-

tion was placed at his disposal. He considered nothing too insig-

nificant or trival that served to show the causes of the advance-

ment of the State, and the prosperity of its people, but was very

painstaking, and carefully considered and investigated the data

given him. It was his invariable practice to require that all in-

formation should be written out, and if for any reason the

relator of reminiscences or facts could not write them out, he

would do so himself, at their dictation, and then carefully verify,

as far as possible, the statements thus made. To insure further

Henry Howe, the Historian.           325

verification, and also with a desire to give credit to every one

who aided him, he would always give his authority, or state the

source of his information. Perhaps his reputation as a historian

might have been greater had he been less unselfish and adopted

the practice of many writers by giving all information as if

originating with himself. Works relating to Ohio are full of in-

formation taken from his humble records (gathered and pre-

served at so great a cost of labor and effort) with no credit to

Mr. Howe, although the original data would never have been se-

cured, and probably lost forever, but for him. He sought the

fountain-head for his facts, not only dusty records, dingy family

archives, old papers and letters, but frequently the statements of

the very persons who made the history-in fact he consulted

everything and everybody that served to illustrate the develop-

ment and progress of the State. Pencil in hand, he made

sketches of every point of interest. He hunted up the old plans

and made sketches of all the battlefields and forts famed in the

early annals of Ohio. When making a sketch of a town or vil-

lage he would seat himself frequently on a tree- stump, or on a

chair, in the middle of a road, or street, and the strange sight he

presented would soon gather a crowd about him. A remark he

often overheard while thus engaged, and which afforded him

much amusement, was, "I wonder what that fool is doing!"

But all were not so disrespectful, and many of those whose

attention was thus attracted, gave him aid and information of

great value. Among these was one at Lower Sandusky (Ruther-

ford B. Hayes), who afterwards became his associate in the Cin-

cinnati Literary Club and a life-long friend. Two young men

he thus met at Athens were Horace G. Wilson (later the law

partner of Alien G. Thurman) and Samuel S. Cox (subsequently

famous as a member of Congress), room-mates at Athens Uni-

versity. Another who went with him to point out the birthplace

of Tecumseh, was known as J. Warren Keifer, a plucky boy

who became Speaker of the National House of Representatives.

He traveled over the State for more than a year, and in Feb-

ruary, 1847, returned to New Haven, to arrange and prepare the

materials he had gathered in suitable form for publication. In

September the work was published and at once became the

326       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

standard on Ohio history, finding its way into thousands of

homes, giving the people knowledge of themselves, and inspir-

ing them with a love of their State such as they had never before

possessed.  More than 18,000 copies of the first edition were

sold, a wonderful record for those days, and not surpassed in

Ohio by any similar work published since. Even the famous

"Memoirs of General Grant," published when the State had

more than twice the population, reached a sale of only about

14,000 copies in Ohio.

In many Ohio homes at that day, next to the family Bible,

Howe's "Collections" was most highly cherished. The genera-

tion that made Ohio such a great factor in the trying period of

the Nation's struggle against slavery and for the Union, learned

their lessons of patriotism largely from his work. It made them

proud of the deeds of the fathers in opening up a bright and

beautiful new land to civilization, and filled them with a desire

to emulate their heroic examples in self-sacrifice and heroism.

Hundreds have testified to the value of the book in giving in-

struction and inspiration in youth to strong purposes and high

aims, and in the impulse it gave to their subsequent lives and

histories. Perhaps no single volume has done so much for the

youth of Ohio then and since.

After its publication, in September, 1848, Mr. Howe was

married to Miss Frances A. Tuttle, of New Haven, Conn., and

removed to Cincinnati. Here he engaged for a number of years

in compiling, publishing, and distributing through canvassing

agents, works on travel and history. He was eminently success-

ful in making books that were peculiarly attractive to all classes,

and aimed to instruct, while seeming to entertain only. He es-

pecially desired to reach those who seldom read books and

sought to arouse interest by the attractiveness of the pictures

which he used to illustrate the text, as well as the adventures or

scenes he described.

His publications during this period were" The Great West,"

"Achievements of Americans," "Life and Death on the Ocean,"

and "Travels and Adventures of Celebrated Travellers," tales

of travel and adventure, achievement, suffering and heroism.

He never introduced fictitious characters, nor issued any book

Henry Howe, the Historian.             327

that was not fully authenticated as a record of actual events and

experiences, nor any that was not calculated to instruct and ele-

vate his readers. He had little love for fiction of any kind, but

was always a searcher after truth.

He never could read but one novel with any degree of inter-

est--Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield." which he admired for

the beautiful simplicity of its diction and the artlessness of its

characters. He was always a student of literature, fond of

poetry, particularly that of Percival, Whittier, Longfellow, Bry-

ant, Halleck, and Willis-but besides "Japhet in Search of His

Father," by Marryatt, and "Tom Jones," by Smollett, both read

in his youth, the "Vicar of Wakefield" was the only novel he

ever read, and this he read and re-read all his life.

In 1856 he commenced the preparation of a work which he

expected to be the greatest and best of his life. A series of vol-

umes to be entitled "Our Whole Country," a history of the

United States on the same plan as his State histories. He had

been financially successful with his "Ohio" work, and its suc-

cessors, and all his savings were invested in his latest venture.

After five years of labor and an expenditure of many thousand

dollars, the work was issued from the press, but in the same

month Fort Sumter fell. History was being made, not read.

"Our Country" was a financial failure. He made an assignment

of all his property for the benefit of his creditors, and with a

wife and four small children to care for, started anew in the

world. He would have enlisted in the army, but there was no

one to care for his family, nor provide for their support during

his absence. He continued the subscription book business and

managed to earn a livelihood. When Cincinnati was threatened

by Kirby Smith, he joined the "Squirrel Hunters," and crossing

the pontoon bridge into Kentucky aided in the defense of the

city. He was a popular man, and the members of his company

chose him as one of their officers. A near neighbor had been a

candidate for the office and felt greatly chagrined at his defeat,

whereupon Mr. Howe went to the commanding officer and ten-

dering his resignation asked for the appointment of his friend in

his place. He was better fitted for the office himself, as he had

had a little military training in the New Haven Grays, as a young

328       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

man, but his friend's disappointment appealed to his sympathies,

and he never considered self when the interest or happiness of

his friends was concerned.

About the close of the war, Mr. Howe published his work

on the "Times of the Rebellion in the West," and engaged in its

sale, which brought very profitable returns. From 1870 to 1877,

he republished some of his former publications which had gone

"out of print," with moderate financial success. During this

period he was often importuned by prominent and influential

Ohioans to revise and bring down to date his Historical Collec-

tions. His invariable reply was that he expected to do so some

day, but that he was not ready just yet. Thus matters rested

until 1878, when he removed to New Haven. Here he engaged

in literary and other work, always intending to return to Ohio

and revise his work on this State, until in the summer of 1885

he began to realize that he was fast reaching an age when it

would be a physical impossibility for him to carry out his cher-

ished plan if delayed much longer.

A friend once said of him; " He has the heart of a youth,

the head of a poet, and the faith of a saint." The spirit and

vigor of youth were his until the last. At seventy-one he was

as strong and active as most men of fifty; had never known a

day of sickness in his life; had no aches, pains, or ailments of

any kind; and so his years seemed no obstacle in starting upon a

work that would require especial ability and fitness, and steady,

persistent, and arduous labor for many months. He wrote to

friends in Ohio:

"I have been loitering under the beautiful elms and watch-

ing the ever -varying groups of humanity flitting across the

bright sward of its far-famed Green. There eight generations

of my ancestors have come and gone-and there they worshipped

God. To me the spot is a paradise. A sense of duty now im-

pels me to change, to repeat the story of my youth in a larger,

better form, to again pass over Ohio, take views of the places I

took forty years ago, contrast the new pictures with the old, as I

have preserved the original engravings, and bring down the his-

tory to date. Since that old time Ohio has increased in popula-

tion from a little over a million and a half to nearly four millions,

Henry Howe, the Historian.            329

while her advancement in material resources and general intelli-

gence, no arithmetic can measure. Should some great cataclysm

ensue, some morning dawn to find the rising sun shining over

a vast inland sea where on the eve before it had gone down

upon the broad, noble State of Ohio, the rest of the Nation

would feel as though its very heart had gone. Then they would

realize to the full what has been the moral grandeur and manly

vigor of your great commonwealth. We desire no higher crown

for our last days than to worthily perform our task. * * *

Autumn is now upon us in the perfection of its beauty, in the

generosity of its fruitage. The air is as balm; the leaves blush

in crimson and glint in gold. Time has whitened my hair, but

the blood in my veins is as red as of yore. The joy of health,

maturity of judgment and enlarged experience are yet mine, so

that in view of the good work set before me, I am blessed with

such exuberance of spirits that each passing hour seems as a

benediction. Besides, I shall not be alone. Patriotic spirits

everywhere will be more than glad to help me. With their aid I

hope to make a work that in every way will be worthy of the

greatness of the subject; that shall be regarded as a household

treasure by every family in Ohio that may possess it."

As soon as his friends in Ohio became cognizant of his de-

termination to bring his history down to date, he received letters

of encouragement from prominent citizens in all parts of the

State. President Hayes said: "Your first edition has been of

inestimable benefit to the people. One copy of it is now within

my reach, and always is, when I sit as I now do in my place of

writing at home. So if I can help you, I will be more than glad

to do so." Governor Hoadly wrote: "I am delighted to hear

you contemplate a second and enlarged edition of your work

on Ohio." Hon. Alphonso Taft, Judge Allen G. Thurman,

Senator Sherman, Hon. William McKinley, ex-Governors Foster,

Cox, and Noyes, and hundreds of others, of the most prominent,

intellectual and patriotic citizens of Ohio, expressed their pleas-

ure, and gave encouragement and aid to the project.

Not having available funds to carry him over the State in

his contemplated second tour, he determined to try a plan some-

times adopted in England, but never before tried in this country;

330       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VoL. 4

that of advance paying subscriptions. This could not be suc-

cessful except by one known to all those who gave subscriptions,

and by one in whose integrity and ability they had perfect faith.

But so well was Mr. Howe's character known, and so great the

appreciation of his former work, that he secured more than two

hundred advance-paying subscribers among leading citizens of

Ohio, who paid him $10.00 each four years in advance of their

receipt of the book.

President Hayes invited him to his home in Fremont, and

in October, 1885, he spent two weeks there, with this liberal

patron of educational and charitable work, planning for his sec-

ond historical tour. Starting from Fremont, he again made a

tour of the State, visiting every county-seat, principal town, and

place of historic interest, searching records and gathering ma-

terials for a history of the chief events occurring since his first

tour, forty years before. Everywhere he made arrangements

with local photographers and took them to the points from which

he had made his pencil sketches in 1846, that he might give con-

trasting pictures, showing the changes and developments of the

intervening time. His tour partook somewhat of the character

of an ovation. He was constantly greeted with expressions of

gratitude from men of mark for the good his book had done

them in their younger years in giving them an accurate knowl-

edge of our noble State. It was acknowledged and praised by

all as the greatest factor extant to that end. In many places

parents brought their children to meet him, and everywhere he

was greeted with enthusiasm and afforded every facility for the

prosecution of his work. He finished his second tour in March,

1887, and then in connection with his eldest son, Mr. Frank H.

Howe, whom he had called to his assistance, set about arranging

and preparing his materials. It was a tremendous task, involv-

ing much labor and great expense. The amount of materials

gathered was vastly greater than on his first tour; many author-

ities had written on the subjects in hand, and the work of selec-

tion and verification was extremely laborious and difficult, so

that with the most indefatigable industry it was two years before

the first volume of the new history was issued. The task would

have been an easier one had he not been greatly cramped for

Henry Howe, the Historian.            331

means to prosecute his work to the best advantage. The only

assistance he had, aside from special articles on the leading fea-

tures of the State, contributed by high authorities on each sub-

ject, was that of his son. At seventy-two, he devoted himself

with such indomitable and persistent labor to his work, as few

young men could have survived. It absorbed his whole life for

the time being. Rising at seven each morning, he would work

an hour before breakfast, resume work when the scanty morning

meal was finished, and keep at it until noon. After dinner he

would lie down for an hour, then work again until supper, and

then, after a cigar, and a short rest, would resume work and

often labor untill midnight.  This, too, when his physician ad-

vised him that he was threatened with a disease of the nature of

a cancer on his left temple, which continued to grow, and gave

him great pain. He became alarmed and concluded it was sim-

ply a question of time as to when it would cause his death, and

so set to work the more resolutely to complete his history of

Ohio before the summons came. He thought that his case was

somewhat similar to that of General Grant's, but its results were

more fortunate, for the supposed cancer, after it had reached the

size of a silver quarter, and been a source of trouble and pain,

began to decrease, and four years after its first appearance was

completely healed.

In 1889, the first volume of his centennial "Collections" was

issued and was received with the highest praise from the people,

the press, and the best authorities, both within and without the

State, but it was not as successful financially as he had expected,

and the returns were entirely insufficient to enable him to com-

plete the work. He then appealed to the Ohio Legislature to

purchase a sufficient number of copies to enable him to bring

the history to a successful conclusion. The General Assembly

responded nobly, considering the work too valuable to the peo-

ple to allow it to perish for want of financial aid, and purchased

1,200 copies, for which he was paid $12,000 by the State, the

volumes to be delivered and paid for as published. This enabled

him to go on with his work, and in 1891, after six years' constant

and arduous labor, and many embarrassments, the history was

completed, in three splendid quarto volumes, instead of two, as

332       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

originally planned. Mr. Howe had agreed to give to his advance-

paying subscribers and to the State a two-volume work, but,

when it had grown on his hands to three volumes he promptly

delivered these at the price of two, although he thereby entailed

upon himself a very heavy and troublesome debt. The tremend-

ous task was at last accomplished, and he was ready to die con-

tent. He gave to it the best thought, care and effort of his life.

In the endeavor to furnish a full and complete record of the

principal events, features, and characters that have made Ohio so

great a State, he was obliged to make a larger and much more

expensive work than the masses of the people could afford to

buy. He fully realized before its completion that its sale would

not prove remunerative, but he went steadily on, sparing no

expense or labor, feeling that the pride and patriotism of the

people of Ohio would eventually sustain him, and that the good

of the State and its posterity demanded the completion of the

work on the elaborate plan he had designed from the start it

should be.

In this, perhaps, he would, in any event, have been doomed

to disappointment; but death, " the poor man's dearest friend,"

soon intervened to end all his embarrassments and sufferings.

The compilation and publication of the " Historical Collections"

required a cash outlay of $ 35,000. After exhausting all the

funds that he could possibly raise, his devoted wife contributed

all her private fortune, their home in New Haven was mortgaged

for $7,000, and, besides this, such other necessary debts were

contracted that when the last volume was finally issued Mr.

Howe found himself indebted to printers, electrotypers, artists,

engravers, and book-binders more than $14,000, which, of course,

was a direct lien upon the plates and cuts, then in the hands of

the publishers. In return for this great outlay, aggregating

$56,000, the advance subscriptions and sales had amounted to

about $12,000 and the State had extended much needed assist-

ance in the purchase of 1,200 copies at $12,000 more.

Still he did not despair. With all the courage and determi-

nation of a young man, he began, at the age of seventy-five, to

canvass the larger cities of Ohio, and was not disheartened by

his comparatively small sales. He was ambitious to see his

Henry Howe, the Historian.            333

history placed in every school in the State. With this in view,

he succeeded in getting the General Assembly to enact a law

authorizing city boards of education and village school directors

to purchase the'" Collections," and devoted no little attention to

securing "adoptions" by them. But the law was not mandatory,

and the process was too slow and expensive for the small returns

secured. Thus it often happened that the venerable historian

was almost without a dollar. Yet he never lost faith in his

work, nor hope in the outcome. He was braver than all his as-

sociates, and murmured less at failure and ill-fortune than any

of them.

The aid extended by the General Assembly of Ohio, val-

uable and indispensable as it had been, was not without at least

one disadvantage. It decreased subscriptions, and deprived him

of many good canvassers, upon whom he had confidently relied,

since popular expectation fastened upon the hope that the State

would eventually purchase the work and distribute it gratuit-

ously to the schools and public libraries, where it would be of

easy access to all. Realizing, at last, that this was his only hope,

Mr. Howe petitioned the Legislature to purchase the plates of

the work for the State, and vainly urged, in person, the members

of the Seventieth General Assembly to make an appropriation

for that purpose. His appearance among them was pathetic,

however dignified and respectful, and did more for his cause

than any or all the friends who volunteered to help him. As a

rule he was treated with great deference and regard, but the

resolution for the purchase failed of adoption in the House by a

single vote. Still not disheartened, Mr. Howe was preparing

for another effort at the next session, when, in October, 1893,

his death occurred-his anxiety doubtlessly hastening its ap-

proach.

Contrary to the usual fate of such deserving measures, the

Seventy-first General Assembly, to the general surprise, did

honor and justice to his memory by adopting a resolution pro-

viding for the purchase of the copyright and plates of the

"Collections," and appropriating $20,000 for that purpose, for

the exclusive benefit of his widow, Mrs. Frances A. Howe. His

petition to the Legislature for the purchase-for it can justly be

334       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

claimed as a personal tribute-was one of the most remarkable

ever presented. It bore the signatures of Senators Sherman and

Brice, ex-Senator Allen G. Thurman, ex-Governors Cox, Foster,

Foraker and Campbell, Governor McKinley, and nearly all the

State officers, and many ex-State officers, all of the Ohio Con-

gressmen to whom it was presented, and many ex-Congressmen,

eighteen college presidents, the State School Commissioner, the

officers and members of the principal teachers' associations of

the State, the superintendents of the schools of the larger cities,

and many other prominent educators, the President of the State

Historical Society, and scores of others of the ablest and most

influential citizens of Ohio. It was unanimously indorsed by

the press, and both the resolution for the relief of Mrs. Howe

and the necessary appropriation were eloquently and effectively

advocated before the Senate and House Finance Committees by

such men as Gen. John Beatty, Dr. Washington Gladden, Super-

intendent Shawan, of the Columbus schools, Mr. E. O. Randall,

Secretary of the State Historical Society, and Mr. A. H. Smythe,

the well known book-seller and publisher. By this timely aid

the home of Mrs. Howe in New Haven was saved and the bulk

of her husband's debts so far reduced that the balance could be

liquidated by their faithful son, Mr. Frank H. Howe, who had

the general management of the matter before the Legislature.

It is perhaps the only instance in Ohio history where any author

received such direct recognition and great aid of this character,

and never were both more richly merited.

His death came suddenly, but perhaps painlessly. So active

was he to the last, and so intent upon making the most of life,

that he fairly "died in the harness," a wish or hope he had often

expressed. He was preparing to take his wife to Chicago for a

short visit to the World's Fair, where their son Frank was

employed. He had purchased the railroad and sleeping-car

tickets and made all other arrangements to leave on the evening

train, Saturday, October 14, 1893. While in apparently good

health, and most exuberant spirits, he stepped into the Candy

Kitchen on High street, in Columbus, for a lunch. On his way

to the restaurant a friend who noticed his elation, inquired about

his health. "Oh, I am all right!" was the cheery response. "I

Henry Howe, tho Historian.            335

expect to see more wonders in the next fortnight than are found

in all the romances ever written. Like the Count of Monte

Cristo that you've seen on the stage, 'the world will be mine'

till I've seen the whole of the Fair, at any rate."

He showed no sign of distress or fatigue whatever, but while

waiting for his lunch, without a moment's previous warning, he

leaned forward his head upon his hand, and in that position was

stricken with paralysis, never to rally or speak again. With a

smile upon his face and joy and thankfulness in his heart, he

was carried home to breathe his last, eleven hours later, sur-

rounded by his devoted wife and children, though never con-

scious of their presence or tender ministrations. He scarcely

moved after the blow came, and his face never changed its

bright expression, as if his closed eyes, tired of all the sorrows

and troubles of earth, had already begun to study the beauties

and delights of a new and better world beyond the grave. While

not a communicant of any church, he was of a deeply religious

nature--one who reviled not nor scoffed at the beliefs of others,

but held fast to the faith and teachings of his Puritan ancestors,

without sternness, austerity, or ostentation, and "giving no

other evidence" than his daily walk and example, which were

always open, elevating and righteous.

Of his home life, let a word suffice. None could have been

more tender, affectionate, unselfish and self-sacrificing than he to

wife and children, who were his chief concern, his joy, and his

pride. He once described his married life as "a courtship of

forty-six years," and that tells the story better than any other

words could describe it.

His funeral services were conducted from the First Congrega-

tional Church, East Broad street, on Tuesday afternoon, October

17th. The address was by the Rev. Henry Stauffer - upon the

purity of character, the noble self-sacrifice, and the life-long de-

votion, integrity and industry of the lamented historian. His

love of home and country and grand work for both were touch-

ingly and truthfully portrayed, and his labors as an author re-

viewed approvingly, especially his preparation of the standard

history of Ohio, which was described as a monument to the first

completed century of the State, and to the long and useful life

336       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.  [VOL. 4

of its author, as well. The pall-bearers were Gen. John Beatty,

Dr. Norton S. Townshend, Prof. J. A. Shawan, Charles J. Wet-

more, Dr. F. H. Houghton and R. H. Osgood. His interment

was at Green Lawn Cemetery, where, in accordance with his oft

expressed preference, a huge granite boulder will mark his grave.

On the polished face of this boulder will be chiseled the words:

"Henry Howe, the Ohio Historian. Born October 11, 1816;

died October 14, 1893."

Perhaps any discussion of the historic merits of his last great

work upon and for Ohio, is out of place here, as posterity alone

can place a just estimate upon its value. Critics have essayed to

point out its inaccuracies, as critics always do, but its mistakes

are hardly as palpable as the errors in judgment of those who so

hastily complain. They fail, as a rule, to understand entirely

the plan and purpose of his "Collections," for never was the

word used more advisedly and appropriately.

" My work," he is recorded as once saying, " is not a treatise

on the philosophy of history. I have no theories to prove or

disprove. My endeavor is to record history as I find it, and not

to color it with my views or opinions. I seek to compile and

publish the facts concerning the principal events, features, and

characters that make up Ohio history; to go among the people,

into every locality, town, village, and hamlet, and gather this

valuable information while it is yet accessible, and then to record

it in such shape and manner that it may interest and attract the

plain people, while, perhaps, at the same time, it may give to

students and scholars the necessary data for the study of the

forces and conditions that have produced the moral, intellectual

and material development of a great commonwealth."

Keeping this in mind, who will claim that Henry Howe did

not amply fulfill his mission? We can not foretell or penetrate

the future; we frequently can not justly estimate the verdict of

the present, but reckoning the judgment of the people by the

rules and standards of the past, we confidently believe that his

fame will grow with the ages, and increase with the growth, the

prosperity, and the glory of Ohio. Greater reward he could not

have asked, and less he will not receive.

Henry Howe, the Historian.            337

In the fullness of years, he passed away, but he is not dead,

for he "lives in hearts he leaves behind."  His "Collections"

are his best monument, he needs no other; nor yet could Ohio,

the great State he loved so well, and for which he did do much,

with all its wealth and power, erect one so precious and enduring.

Vol. IV-22