USA > Ohio > Ross County > Chillicothe > Ohio centennial anniversary celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903 : under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society : complete proceedings > Part 55
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The relations of the Beecher Family to the educational and literary development of Ohio were intimate and vital. From 1832 to 1850, Dr. Lyman Beecher, as president of Lane Seminary and pastor of a prominent church, was a commanding character. He and his energetic sons and daughters received much from the rapidly developing society by which they were surrounded, to which they gave much in return. Henry Ward Beecher studied theology and learned to preach in Cincinnati; there Catharine Beecher organized and conducted a decidedly radical and progres- sive school for girls, and wrote some "up to date" text-books. The writing tendency was strong in several members of the bril ... liaent family .- The famous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," though not actually written in Cincinnati, was conceived there. The
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author tells us in her Autobiography that many of the characters,. scenes and incidents, in the story, were suggested by what she had observed in her own house, on Walnut Hills, or witnessed on occasional trips to Kentucky. Mrs. Stowe lived in Cincinnati for eighteen years,- the most vigorous and formative portion of her life. She wrote for a Western magazine. She was an active member of the Semi-Colon Club, of the Queen City, and to that society she dedicated her first book, "The May Flower," 1849. It is reasonable to claim that Ohio was the literary Alma Mater of the author of one of the world's most potent works or fiction .. President Lincoln, when he first met Mrs. Stowe, said in his epi- grammatic way: "So here is the little woman who caused the big war !"
Alice Cary (1820-1871), published her first book of stories, "Clovernook," in 1851, and her first regular novel, "Hagar: a. Story of To-day," in 1852, the year in which "Uncle Tom's Cab- in" appeared. Other of Alice Cary's novels were "Married, Not Mated," "Holywood," and "The Bishop's Son." Of this Ohio writer the Westminster Review declared, "No other American woman has evinced in prose or poetry anything like the genius. of Alice Cary."
Belonging to the same period as do the group of woman authors just spoken of, are several literary men who wrote or published novels, in Ohio. Thomas H. Shreve (1808-1853), a friend and associate of Mr. Gallagher, produced many short stories and one ambitious romance, "Drayton : an American Tale," 1851. - Frederick W. Thomas (1811 -), of Cincinnati, wrote "Clinton Bradshaw," "East and West," and "Howard Pinkney," - successful novels in their time and of better artistic quality than much that passes current to-day as good literature .- The same may be said in commendation of the two novels which Ed- mund Flagg (1815 -), composed while a resident of Marietta. in 1842-3, - viz .: "Carrero ; or the Prime Minister," and "Fran- cis of Valois." These compare very favorably with the histori- cal novels of more recent origin .- Wm. W. Fosdick ( 1825 -), a poet of no mean ability, attempted fiction with some success, producing a romantic novel, "Malmiztic, the Toltec and the Cav-
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aliers of the Cross," a study of Mexican traditions, and said to have furnished the prototype of Wallace's "The Fair God."
The decade from about 1846 to 1856 was prolific of sensa- tional stories such as have been denominated in slang phrase, "yellow-backs," "dime novels," "blood and thunder tales," etc. Two of the most conspicuous and most entertaining spinners of this class of yarn made their appearance in Ohio, in the forties. These were E. C. Judson, "Ned Buntline," (1823-1886), and Emerson Bennett.
Judson came to Cincinnati in 1844 and embarked, with L. A. Hine, in the conduct of "The Western Literary Journal and Monthly Magazine," to which he contributed letters and editor- ials. He did not write any novel during the time he was in the West. He was greatly admired by the patrons of flashy litera- ture. Of his lurid master-piece, "The Mysteries and Miseries of New York," 100,000 copies sold. "Ned Buntline's" income was said to be $120,000 a year.
Emerson Bennett (1822 -), now living in Philadelphia and .an octogenarian, came to Cincinnati when he was only twenty- two years old, and in that city, between the years 1846 and 1850, wrote and published an incredible number of lively romances, which were eagerly sought and greedily read by the multitude. A recent sketch of Bennett, printed in a biographical handbook, says, "He began writing poetry and prose at 18; has since fol- lowed literature and written more than fifty novels and serials, and some hundreds of short stories." At the very beginning of his career he caught the knack of constructing the "best sellers," and made money for himself and his publishers. His most popu . lar books were "The Prairie Flower," and "Leni-Leoti," each of which had a sale of 100,000, having been, I believe, more in de- mand than any other novel ever published in the State, whatever that may signify. Hundreds of elderly men and women in the Ohio Valley, will confess, with a smile and a sigh, that in their school days they concealed in pocket or desk "The Bandits of the Osage," or "Mike Fink," or "Kate Clarendon," or "The League of the Miami," or "The Forest Rose." After all is said, these exciting romances were innocent enough,- the hero always tri-
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umphant, the heroine an angel. The sharp crack of a rifle rang out and the villain fell with a thud.
In a way, "Ned Buntline" and Emerson Bennett were mast- ers of their craft. They had a host of imitators .- George Lip- pard's "New York : Its Upper Ten and Lower Million," though not written in the West was published in Cincinnati, in 1854. So also was "The Trapper's Bride," by the English author. C. M. Murray. In the same city, in 1855, was issued a feeble perform- ance entitled "The Mock Marriage: or the Libertine's Victim: being a faithful delineation of the Mysteries and Miseries of the. Queen City," by H. M. Rulison.
Less extravagant than the foregoing and less naughty than they affected to be, but scarcely more meritorius, were "Mrs. Ben Darby : or the Weal and Woe of Social Life," 1853, by Maria Collins ; "Life's Lesson, a Novel," 1855, by Martha Thomas ; "The Old Corner Cupboard," 1856, Susan B. Jewett ; "Emma Bartlett : or Prejudice and Fanaticism," 1856; "Zoe: or the Quadroon's Triumph," 1856, Mrs. E. D. Livermore; "Mabel: or Heart His- tories," 1859, Rosetta Rice,- all which are Ohio books.
During the period of the Civil War ( 1861-5) few novels were written in the United States, though the events of that stirring time educated authors and supplied material for whole libraries of history, fiction and poetry. In fact the war did much to elevate and nationalize American literature. The old distinc- tions between eastern literature and western were no longer much regarded. Even the southern writers ceased to be sectional. Secession ended in concession. Provincialism began to give way to a higher and broader and more tolerant culture, and books of artistic finish came from the South and from the West, to compete with the best from Massachusetts or New York. Tennessee was represented by Miss Murfree; Kentucky by James Lane Allen ; Indiana by Riley; and Ohio by Mrs. Catherwood; writers who were in their early teens when the war began, and who were among the first of a rapidly increasing number of painstaking writers developed by the influences of a modern regime. The same influences, of course, modified the ideas and methods of the earlier generation of writers to which belong Wallace and
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Howells and Tourgee and many more. A few names may here be chronicled of Ohio authors born before 1850.
Albert Gallatin Riddle (1816 -), whose distinguished career as lawyer and legislator furnishes a brilliant page in Ohio's his- tory, found time, after he had reached middle life, to record, in a series of clever novels, much that he observed of men and events in northern Ohio, in the days of his youth. He tells the reader in the preface to one of his books that in his stories "an effort is made to preserve something of the freshness, gather up a few of the names, some of the incidents, catch the spirit and flavor of the life which has past, leaving only its memory in the cher- ishing hearts of the contemporaries of the author." In the author of "Bart Ridgely," "The Portrait," "House of Ross," and "An- selm's Cave," Cuyahoga County and the Western Reserve in gen- eral have a faithful delineator of scenes and characters. His style is simple, vigorous and picturesque, - his story is true to fact and is free from sensationalism. Mr. Riddle is a man of solid attainments and sound judgment. His historical romances supplement his more serious works: "Life and Character of Garfield," "Life of Benjamin F. Wade," and "Recollections of War Times."
William Dean Howells (1837 -), who, perhaps, may be regarded as the leading man of letters in the United States, be- longs, in a sense, to the old and to the new, to the West and to the East, to the self-schooled and to the academic class of Ameri- can authors. Born and bred in Ohio, he spent, as boy and man, nearly a quarter of a century in the state for which he has ever cherished a loyal and filial affection. His name appears upon the title page of some sixty different volumes, embracing works of biography, history, travel, description, sociology, fiction, poetry, drama, and criticism. This prolific and versatile author possesses a rare faculty of remembering all he has experienced, and he enters into delicate sympathy with the young as with the mature. His "Life of Hayes," "A Boy's Town," "Ohio Stories," "My Year in a Log Cabin," derive their subject matter from his knowl- edge of his native state, while in many of his novels, notably in "The Kentons," much of the local color and characterization were obviously suggested by scenes and people observed in the Buck-
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eye State. The style of Mr. Howells is invariably elegant and pleasing ; he has mastered the art of clear and graceful writing. His work in poetry, in criticism, and in picturesque description, commands admiration in both hemispheres. But his special genius is discovered in the department of fiction, and few will dispute the verdict of an eminent critic who says, "Mr. Howells was un- questionably the founder of the latter-day natural school of Am- ermican fiction, in which truth to every-day life is given preced- ence, while rhetoric, forced situations, and the arts of the melo- dramatist are sedulously avoided."
Mr. Howells is author of the following: "Poems of Two Friends" (with Mr. Piatt) ; "Life of Abraham Lincoln"; "Ven- itian Life"; "Italian Journeys"; "Suburban Sketches"; "No Love Lost"; "Their Wedding Journey"; "A Chance Acquaintance"; "A Foregone Conclusion"; "Out of the Question"; "Life of Rutherford B. Hayes"; "A Counterfeit Presentiment"; "The Lady of Aroostook"; "The Undiscovered Country"; "A Fearful Responsibility, and Other Tales"; "Dr. Breen's Practice"; "A Modern Instance"; "A Woman's Reason"; "Three Villages"; "The Rise of Silas Lapham"; "Tuscan Cities"; "A Little Girl among the Old Masters"; "The Minister's Charge"; "Indian Summer"; "Modern Italian Poets"; "April Hopes"; "Annie Kil- burn"; "A Hazard of New Fortunes"; "The Sleeping Car, and Other Farces"; "The Mouse Trap, and Other Farces"; "The Shadow of a Dream"; "An Imperative Duty"; "A Boy's Town"; "The Albany Depot"; Criticism and Fiction"; "The Quality of Mercy"; "The Letter of Introduction"; "A Little Swiss Sojourn"; "Christmas Every Day"; "The Unexpected Guests"; "The World of Chance"; "The Coast of Bohemia"; "A Traveler from Alt- ruria"; "My Literary Passions"; "The Day of Their Wedding"; "A Parting and a Meeting" "Impressions and Experiences"; "Stops of Various Quills"; "The Landlord of the Lion's Head"; "An Open-Eyed Conspiracy"; "Stories of Ohio"; "The Story of a Play"; "Ragged Lady"; "Their Silver Wedding Journey"; "Literary Friends and Acquaintances".
Deservedly conspicuous among American authors, stands the jurist and diplomat, Albion Winegar Tourgee (1838 -), now U. S. Consul in Bordeaux, - an Ohio man thoroughly loyal to his
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State as to his Nation. His reputation is well established in the minds of the thousands who have read his purposeful and effec- tive novels: "A Fool's Errand"; "A Royal Gentleman"; "Figs and Thistles"; "Bricks Without Straw"; "Hot Plowshares"; "Black Ice"; "Button's Inn"; "With Guage and Swallow"; "Pac- tolus Prime"; "Murvale Eastman"; "John Eax"; "The Hip-Roof House"; "A Son of Old Harry"; "Out of the Sunset Sea", and "The Man Who Outlived Himself".
Ambrose Bierce (1842 -), one of the many sons of Ohio who have found scope in California for the exercise of their tal- ents, is the author of "Fantastic Fables", "The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter," "Can Such Things Be?" and other books.
Charles Humphrey Roberts ( 1847 -), born near Mt. Pleas- ant, Ohio, has written an interesting historical study, "Down the O-h-i-o, a Novel of Quaker Life," in which the operation of the Underground Railroad is well pictured.
Maj. Hugh Boyle Ewing (1826 -), of Lancaster, O., late U. S. Minister to the Hague, is the author of two clever books: "A Castle in the Air" and "The Black List."
Gen. John Beatty (1828 -), of Columbus, is known to many readers of his patriotic volumes, "The Citizen Soldier," "Belle o' Becket's Lane," and his prehistoric novel, "The Acolhuans."
Alexander Clarke (1834-1879) will be remembered in Ohio by his once popular and noteworthy books, "The Old Log School House" and "Starting Out : a Story of the Ohio Hills." These stories have local flavor.
Mrs. Metta Victoria Victor (1831 -), wife of O. J. Victor the literator, has written a good many volumes in verse and in prose. Among her novels are, "The Gold Hunters," "The Back- woods Bride," "Blunders of a Bashful Man," etc.
Mrs. Julia P. Ballard's ( 1828-1849) name is cherished on account of the pure, sweet stories she wrote for children: "The Hole in the Bag," "Gathered Lilies," "Lift a Little," "Little Gold Keys," etc.
Martha Finley (1828), a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, known to hosts of young people under her nom de plume "Martha Far- quharson," perhaps the most popular living writer of Sunday
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School books, is the author of the series called the "Elsie Books,'" and the "Mildred Books." Her present home is in Maryland.
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, "Susan Coolidge," (1845-), Cleveland, is a popular and meritorious writer, chiefly for the. young. Among her most attractive stories are those entitled, "What Katy Did," "In the High Valley," and "A Gurnsey Lily."" This author holds good rank as a poet.
Ralph Keeler ( 1840-1873), an Ohio journalist who removed to California, where he died, will be remembered as the author of "Gloverson and His Silent Partner," and "Vagabond Adven -- tures."
Mrs. Margaret Holmes Bates (1844 -), a native of Fre- mont, Ohio, whose writings are praised by Stedman and other Eastern critics, has contributed to literature, "Jasper Fairfax," "The Prince of the Ring," "Shylock's Daughter," "The Chamber Over the Gate," etc. Her present home is in New York.
Mark Sibley Severence (1846-), formerly of Cleveland, now of Los Angeles, wrote "Hammersmith ; His Harvard Days," a pleasant story on the "Tom Brown at Oxford" method, giving- pictures of student life as it was in Cambridge, just before the Civil War.
Mary Alpin Sprague (1849-), of Newark, Ohio, demon- strated her ability to create a bright, piquant, epigrammic and witty novel, when she produced her only published work, "An Earnest Trifler," 1880.
Mrs. Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902), who was born and educated in Ohio and whose literary work is of a very high order, entitling her to a permanent place among American authors, was an indefatigable student of the history of the French settlements in Canada and the United States, an admirable delin- eator of character, an artist of delicate taste and lively fancy. Her novels are excellent. I give the chief titles: "Craque-o- Doom," "Old Caravan Days," "The Secret of Roseladies," "The Romance of Dollard," "The Bells of Ste. Anne," "The Story of Tonty," "The Lady of Fort St. John," "Old Kaskaskia," "The White Islander," "The Chase of St. Castin," "Lazarre."
Of authors born since the Civil War, or not longer ago than 1850, many have risen into prominence, in the Middle West.
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The sudden blossoming of literature in the State of Indiana has been the subject of much press comment. There has been a noticeable revival of authorship in Ohio. Let me catalogue, in the briefest manner, the names and books of half a dozen writers of good reputation who belong to the Buckeye Commonwealth by birthi and breeding, but who have wandered to other states:
George Henry Pickard (1850-), is the author of "A Mat- ter of Taste," "A Mission Flower," "Old Boniface," and "Madam Noel .- "James Eugene Farmer (1867-) the scholarly author of "Essays in French History," wrote also "The Grenadier," and "The Grand Mademoiselle." - John Randolph Spears ( 1850 -), whose superior work has been commended in England and France as well as at home, and whose sea stories are among the best of their class, is author of "The Port of Missing Ship," "Skipper of the Nancy C.," "Tales of the Real Gipsy." Claude Hazelton Wetmore (1862-), born at Cuyahoga Falls, recently won repu- tation from the signal success of his novel, "The Sweepers of the Sea."
The present decade has witnessed, in Ohio, the rise of a score of romance writers, several of whom attained sudden celeb- rity. The work of these recent candidates for public favor or for the approval of the judicious critic, is of widely varying quality, good, bad or indifferent, though I have no hesitation in saying that the average Ohio novel is quite up to the conventional stand- ard, and, in a few cases, it is of exceptional force and originality. The prevailing tendency of the writers to whom I refer, is toward a faithful realism, the result of close and conscientious study of nature and human society.
Adele E. Thompson, of Cleveland, has earned a deserved and generous recognition from reviewers and readers, owing to mark- edly praiseworthy qualities in her brace of bright novels: "Beck's Fortune," and "Brave Heart Elizabeth."
John Bennett (1865-), of Chillicothe, artist and poet, as well as story-writer, author of that dainty classic "Master Sky- lark," and of the no less delicately wrought story of "Barnaby Lee," enjoys a reputation extending over the United States, and wears some laurels from abroad.
Burton Egbert Stevenson (1872 -), also of Chillicothe, edi-
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ยท tor and magazine writer, has demonstrated his ability to construct sustained historical romances which appeal to a large circle of admiring readers. His novels, "At Odds With the Regent," and "A Soldier of Virginia," are well worth reading, for both sub- stance and style.
Dr. James Ball Naylor's rather hastily prepared novels, "In the Days of St. Clair" and "The Sign of the Prophet," deal with stirring events in Ohio history, and are lively and entertaining. The same author's "Ralph Marlowe," a rough and ready novel, the scene of which is laid in an oil village on the Muskingum, is an amusing record of jokes, stories and humorous incidents, written with enthusiasm, and containing some vivid and admira- ble descriptions of local scenes and "characters."
John Uri Lloyd (1849-), of Cincinnati, whose name has long been familiar to the scientific world which is indebted to his pen for important works in chemistry and pharmacy, is also known to a wide circle of readers of fiction. He possesses a bold and fertile fancy, and a very accurate eye for nature and for types of character, as may be discerned by the perusal of his unique stories of Northern Kentucky, "Stringtown on the Pike," and "Warwick of the Knobs," and his marvellous "Etidorpha ; or the End of the Earth." Professor Lloyd sees with his own eyes and records what he sees with remarkable originality and independence, not giving much heed to literary convention.
Nathaniel Stephenson, also of Cincinnati, belongs to the later school of analytic writers who pay a good deal of attention to form and to art for art's sake. He is a man of cultured taste and wide reading, and has a polished style, a delicate perception, and a sense of humor. He is the author of "They That Took the Sword," a historical novel the plot of which is laid in Southern Ohio, and of "The Beautiful Mrs. Moulton," a story of modern society.
Charles Frederick Goss (1852-), author of "The Redemp- tion of David Corson," "The Loom of Life," "Little Saint Sun- shine," "The Philopolist," etc., is a writer of "fiction with a pur- pose," some of whose popular romances have been much dis- cussed and diversely judged. Mr. Goss has an ardent love for nature, a deep sympathy with all classes of humanity, and a vivid
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pictorial fancy. His style is vigorous, fluent and earnest, and he has an aptitude for brilliant scenic effects.
John Brown Jewett, of Newtown, Ohio, a poet and recluse, of fine sensibility, is the author of "Tales of the Miami Country." Mr. Jewett is one of Ohio's most charming writers, albeit his work is but little known. In his exquisite sketch, "Fiddler's Green," and in other simple and beautiful compositions, he re- veals himself a man of true literary instincts who possesses the seeing eye and the understanding heart.
Dr. Howard A. M. Henderson, an eloquent Methodist preacher of Ohio, is the author of a widely circulated religious. novel, "Diomede the Centurion," the design of which is "to give the average reader a panoramic view of the planting period of the Christian Era." The book is written in a style at once fervid and ornate.
It is logical that the state which put forward the first Aboli- tionist candidate for the president of the Republic, and originated the first university for negroes, and harbored the chief managers of the underground railroad, and inspired Mrs. Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin," should be one of the states readiest to encourage literary endeavor on the part of men of African des- cent.
Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-), of Cleveland, is fairly entitled to rank among the leading writers of our country. His. novels are published by one of the foremost firms of Boston and are commended by able critics. Here and there his work is crude and abrupt, but it is in terrible earnest and his stories move straight on with dramatic and even tragic power. His writings include a "Life of Frederick Douglass," the novels: "The Wife of His Youth," "The Conjure Woman," "The House Behind the. Cedars," "The Marrow of Tradition."
Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872), who was born and reared in Dayton, Ohio, has achieved a comfortable reputation as a poet, from his books of verse, "Oak and Ivy," "Majors and Minors," and "Lyrics of Lowly Life." and he has written suc- cessful novels, viz., "The Sport of the Gods" and "The Fanatics." These books show their author to possess humor, pathos and. vivid imagination.
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We should add to the catalogue of works of fiction: "Wall Street and the Woods," by Wm. J. Flagg; "The Lost Model," and "Wash Bolter," by Henry Hooper ; "Mrs. Armitage's Ward," by Judge D. Thew Wright; "The Log of Commodore Rolling- pin," and "Thomas Rutherton," by John H. Carter; "The Secret of the Andes," by Fred. Hassaurek; "Her Ladyship," by Dr. T. C. Minor; "Silas Jackson's Wrongs," and "The Marquis and the Moon," by Nicholas Longworth; "Vawder's Understudy," and "The Three Richard Whalens," by James Knapp Reeve ; "The Freeburgers," by Denton J. Snider; "Tales for a Stormy night," translated from the French, by Eugene F. Bliss ; "Charles Killbuck, an Indian Story of the Border Wars of the American Revolution," by Francis C. Huebner; "Iturbide, a Soldier of Mexico," by Dr. John Lewin McLeish; "My Lord Farquhar," a romance of Armenia, by the brilliant and witty poet and editor Thomas Emmett Moore; "Ezra Cain," a study in morbid psy- chology, by Joseph Sharts; "A Buckeye Baron," by William Alpha Paxon; and "The Quaker Scout," by Nicholas Patterson Runyan.
HUMOROUS WRITERS.
William Tappan Thompson ( 1812-1882), a native of Ohio, who went to Georgia and became a prominent journalist, was renowned in his day and generation for the rough and extrava- gant portraitures and caricatures which he made of southern types, and which were published under the titles "Major Jones's Courtship," "Major Jones's Sketches of Travel," "Characters of Pineville," etc. He also wrote a very droll farce, "The Live Indian," which furnished John E. Owens with one of his laugh- able roles.
Samuel Sullivan Cox, "Sunset Cox" (1824-1889), of Zanes- ville, journalist, orator, statesman, diplomatist, one of the most brilliant and accomplished of Ohio's honored sons, added to his distinction as a political and descriptive writer the reputation of a man of rare wit and humor. All his writing and speeches abound in keen passages, and in one elaborate volume entitled, "Why We Laugh," he discusses the philosophy of humor. Like "Tom" Corwin, Mr. Cox had a genius for the wisdom of the ludicrous.
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