The Ohio Frontier: An Anthology of Early Writings

by Emily Foster

• ISBN13: 9780813119571
• ISBN10: 081311957X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-02-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

Few mementoes remain of what Ohio was like before white people transformed it. The readings in this anthology - the diaries of a trader and a missionary, the letter of a frontier housewife, the travel account of a wide-eyed young English tourist, the memoir of an escaped slave, and many others - are eyewitness accounts of the Ohio frontier. They tell what people felt and thought about coming to the very fringes of white civilization - and what the people thought and did who saw them coming. Each succeeding group of new-comers - hunters, squatters, traders, land speculators, farmers, missionaries, fresh European immigrants - established a sense of place and community in the wilderness. Their writings tell of war, death, loneliness, and deprivation, as well as courage, ambition, success, and fun. We can see the lust for the land, the struggle for control of it, the terrors and challenges of the forest, and the determination of white settlers to change the land, tame it, "improve" it. The new Ohio these settlers created had no room for its native inhabitants. Their dispossession is a defining theme of the book. As the forests receded and the farms expanded, the Indians were pressured to move out. By the time the last tribe left in 1843, the Indians were regarded as relics of the romantic past, and the frontier experience was finished.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps	ix
Series Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(8)
Part One: Europeans Discover Ohio, 1750--1782	9	(59)
The First English Journal of the Ohio Country: Christopher Gist's Journals, 1750--1751	11	(4)
The Burning of Pickawillany: Captain William Trent's Journal of His Trip from Logstown to Pickawillany, 1752	15	(3)
James Smith's Captivity among the Indians: The Memoirs of James Smith, 1755--1759	18	(9)
The Indians Preach to the Preacher: Charles Beatty's Missionary Trip to the Ohio Indians, 1766	27	(1)
A Would-Be Missionary: The Journal of the Reverend David Jones, 1772--1773	28	(6)
Moravian Indians Migrate to Ohio: John Heckewelder's Diary of the Trip to Gnadenhutten, 1773	34	(4)
The Massacre of Chief Logan's Family: Henry Jolley's Account, 1774	38	(2)
Who Is There to Mourn for Logan?: Chief Logan's Speech, 1774	40	(1)
Trade and War: A Letter from Governor John Penn to the Shawness, 1774	41	(1)
An Early Tourist: The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1775	41	(7)
Negotiating with the Indians: The Journal of Colonel Richard Butler, 1775	48	(4)
An Official Description of the Ohio Country: Selections from Thomas Pownall, 1776	52	(1)
The Rescue of Jane Stoops from the Indians: Three Accounts of Samuel Brady's Rescue of Jane Stoops, 1780	53	(4)
An Expedition against the Indians: Henry Wilson's Account of George Rogers Clark's Campaign against the Shawnees, 1780	57	(4)
The First White Child in Ohio: John Heckewelder's Memoir of the Birth of His Daughter, 1781	61	(4)
Colonel Crawford's Death at the Stake: William Croghan's Report on the Tragic Aftermath of the Battle of the Olentangy, 1782	65	(3)
Part Two: The Tomahawk, the Sword, and the Plough, 1782--1815	68	(71)
Rousting the Squatters: Ensign Armstrong's Report on Destroying Squatters' Cabins, 1785	72	(2)
Marietta in Its Infancy: The Journal of Colonel John May, 1788--1789	74	(4)
These Beautiful Shores: Descriptions of Ohio by Manasseh Cutler and St. John Crevecoeur, circa 1789	78	(2)
Recollections of an Early Cincinnati Settler: A Letter from Luke Foster, 1789	80	(1)
Growing Up Indian: The Memoir of Jonathan Alder, 1786--1805	81	(7)
Early Marietta Settlers: Joseph Barker's Journal, 1795 and After	88	(6)
A Winter Journey Down the Ohio: Francis Baily's Journal of a Tour to Unsettled Parts, 1796--1797	94	(5)
A Picnic in Old Chillicothe: From the Diary of the Reverend James Smith, 1797	99	(1)
The Pioneer Household: Thomas Ewing's Childhood Adventures, 1798--1800	100	(3)
A Circuit-Riding Preacher in the Western Reserve: A Memoir of the Reverend Joseph Badger, 1801--1803 and After	103	(4)
Work and Play in Trumbull County: Leonard Case's Memoir, 1800 and After	107	(3)
A Waynesville Quaker: A Letter from Samuel Linton, 1804	110	(1)
A Letter from Worthington: Ruhamah Hays Writes to Friends in Connecticut, 1805	111	(1)
Mohoning County Hero: Roswell Grant Remembers James Hillman, circa 1806	112	(3)
A German Missionary in Ohio: The Reverend Paul Henkel Preaches at Brush Creek, 1806	115	(1)
A Trip along Zane's Trace: Selections from Fortescue Cuming's Travel Book, 1807	116	(9)
A Businessman's Perspective: The Travels of John Melish, 1811	125	(5)
Some Pioneer Memories: Henry Curtis's Youth in Licking County, 1809--1815	130	(1)
Cleveland in Infancy: Isham Morgan Remembers the Village, 1812--1813	131	(2)
The Maumee Settlement and the War of 1812: Philothe Clark Recalls Her Family's Flight to Urbana, 1811--1812	133	(2)
Early Child Labor: Royal Taylor Works for His Weight in Sugar, circa 1813	135	(1)
News from the Frontier: A Letter from Cynthia Barker to Julia Buttles, 1813	136	(1)
Squatters on Indian Land: A Letter from Benjamin Stickeney to Major General John Gano, 1813	137	(2)
Part Three: The Passing of the Frontier, 1816--1843	139	(76)
The Hard Life of the Small Farmer: Recollections of William Cooper Howells	143	(5)
John Stewart and James Finley Preach to the Wyandots: A Memoir by William Walker, and the Reverend James Finley's Accounts of the Upper Sandusky Mission, 1816--1825	148	(6)
``Ohiomania'': John Stillman Wright's Cautionary Tale, 1818	154	(3)
An English Farmer Follows His Curiosity: William Faux's Memorable Days Traveling in Ohio, 1819	157	(1)
An Unhappy Visitor: Zerah Hawley Travels from Old to New Connecticut, 1820--1821	158	(5)
The Death of Charles Brady: Charity Osborn Tells of Early Widowhood, 1824	163	(1)
A Quaker Woman on the Frontier: Letter of Anna Briggs Bentley, 1826	164	(2)
An English Lady in Cincinnati: Frances Trollope's Book about Cincinnati, 1828	166	(4)
Otto-wau-kee Speaks for His People	170	(1)
Swiss Immigrants on the Ohio Canals: The Diary of Joseph Suppiger, 1831	171	(3)
The Capture of a Fugitive Slave: A Newspaper Report, 1832	174	(2)
The Escape of a Fugitive Slave: The Memoir of William Wells Brown, 1834	176	(6)
Early Oberlin: Marianne Dascomb Arrives at Oberlin College, 1834	182	(2)
Charles Hoffman's Winter in the West: A New Yorker Goes West, 1834--1835	184	(4)
A Young Man's Travels: The Journal of Cyrus P. Bradley, 1835	188	(7)
A German Woman on the Ohio Frontier: The Memoir of Liwwat Boke, 1835 and After	195	(5)
Following the Dream: Letters of the Thomson Family in Ohio and Indiana, 1818--1836	200	(4)
Disease and Death on the Frontier: Judge Fowler Remembers the Death of His Family, 1836	204	(1)
The Battle of the Bridge: Oren Wiley Tells of Early Commercial Competition, 1836	205	(2)
Childhood in Van Wert County: Thaddeus Gilliland's Boyhood, 1835 and After	207	(2)
Ottawa Indians Leave Ohio: Dresden W. H. Howard's Memoir of the Removal of Ottawas from the Maumee Valley, 1838	209	(2)
News from Cleveland: Newspaper Stories from a Growing Industrial City, 1839--1841	211	(2)
The Last Good-bye: The Xenia Torchlight Notes the Departure of the Wyandots, 1843	213	(2)
Bibliography	215	(6)
Index	221