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Great Black Swamp: Historical Tales
The Great Black Swamp: Historical Tales of 19Th-Century Northwest Ohio
(Main headings only) *The great black swamp *From Scotland to Perrysburg *John Hunt chronicle *The Stafford bell *The worst road in America *The compassionate warrior *Soldier of the American revolution *Women of the Maumee Valley *The Toledo War *Colonel Dresden Howard *Fort Meigs *A Frog Town with a hog back *Summer of dread *The canal days *Early journey through northwest Ohio *The fearless traveler *Black Swamp gas & black gold *A Dickensian view of Ohio *Snapshots
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
121 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 6, 2018
This was an enjoyable, fast-reading collection of essays, recollections, tall tales, and stories about the Great Black Swamp, “now an emerald quiltwork of highly productive farmland, [it] was once a vast tract of marsh sweeping across northwest Ohio from the Lake Erie shore along the south side of the Maumee River to around Fort Wayne, Indiana.” Once an enormous area of marshes and swamp, its “horizontal tableau” occasionally interrupted by sandy ridges “prowled by wolves and bears and darkened by cathedral ceilings of towering trees,” it stretched across twelve northwest Ohio counties, with the “cities of Sandusky, Fremont, Fostoria, Findlay, Defiance and Toledo roughly mark[ing] its onetime Ohio perimeter, with Bowling Green being the only city located wholly within it.”
Thought to have gotten its name from War of 1812 soldiers (one soldier referred to it as “the home of Satan”), water covered most of its surface for the most of the year except at the height of a summer drought and was frozen solid in the winter. Roads were often quagmires, mud was often chest deep, and it was plagued by mosquitoes and disease, especially “the dreaded ague, or swamp fever, which came in late summer and flattened its victims with soaring fever, deep chills, and violent shaking” though later cholera became a huge problem as well. Once a pristine marshland, “home to some Indians and a few hardy white hunters and traders,” the “nights flooded with the baritone croaking of thousands of frogs, accented by the tenor sounds of howling wolves and screeching owls,” it was largely drained and converted to farmland to take advantage of its rich, black soil by 1900, with a half dozen cities established and thriving in what was once marsh. If it was “still in existence today it probably would be a nature preserve and wildlife refuge similar to the Everglades in Florida,” its only remnants are the Lake Erie marshes, preserved in such areas as Magee Marsh, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, and Metzger Marsh preserve and also in the tales of this book.
The book is basically a collection of historical and biographical accounts of people who lived in or visited the Great Black Swamp, most of the essays 4-10 pages or so, some longer, some just a few paragraphs in a series of essays called snapshots, many if not all of the essays accompanied with photographs.
A lot of topics are covered in the essays as a whole, a few providing somewhat different angles or perspectives on the same story. Most of the essays focus on the late 18th century through the years after the War of 1812, though there are some that deal with late 19th century events. The events of the War of 1812 loom large in the book and anyone with an interest in that war would probably want to read this, particularly with an interest in such events as the battle at Fort Meigs and the events around Raisin River.
Many chapters were accounts of individuals who while not famous except perhaps locally, provided interesting and informative accounts of life in and around the Great Black Swamp (or new perspectives on larger historical events that had a Great Black Swamp component). People such as John Hunt (born in Fort Wayne in 1798, had considerable social, economic, and political success in Maumeee and in Toledo), Abraham William McBurney (born in Ireland in 1775, he became a veteran of both the American Revolutionary War and the Ohio Indian Wars of the 1790s culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August, 1794 on the Maumee River, an area where he pretty much remained afterwards), Emily Underwood Ballou (as a girl of nine journeyed across Lake Erie with her family on the Walk-in-the-Water, the first Great Lakes steamboat, she survived the loss of her mother and four siblings to ague or swamp fever though later almost burned down her home trying to use a small fire to chase a groundhog out of his hole for her dinner), and Colonel Dresden Howard (government interpreter who became close friends with Chief Winameg, the leader of a Potawatomie Indian band, doing what he could to help the Ottawas and Potawatomies, a people largely forced into exile by 1840 save for a few scattered families and small groups).
Major historical figures certainly were covered, with quite a bit covering the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, as well as a great chapter on the colorful characters of the Toledo War of 1835 (which had two laugh out loud passages I loved), and even Charles Dickens (who passed through the area in 1842 with his personal secretary Mr. Q).
Objects or places were often the subject of essays (or the events centered around those objects or what those objects represent), such as the Spafford Bell (which may or may not have been stolen by Indians in 1834, though now it rests quietly in the Willard V. Way Public Library in Perrysburg), the Maumee and Western Reserve Road (“it would be difficult to describe this worst of all roads and the agony bordering on despair to which the emigrant was reduced in his effort to pass over to the land flowing with milk and honey beyond” according to one historical account), the Cholera Cemetery in Sandusky (where 400 victims of cholera were laid to rest in the summer of 1849), Turkey Foot Rock (according to legend the spot where Chief Turkey Foot of the Ottawa Indians stood to rally his troops before being struck by a soldier’s bullet, the rock later engraved by members of his tribe in homage to the fallen leader), Old Betsy (the sole cannon in possession of Fort Stephenson, which enabled its 160 defenders to hold off a superior force of hostile Indians and British artillery and gunboats in the Sandusky River, the cannon now on a hill above downtown Freemont that is the former site of the fort), and one of my favorites (with a photograph!), a tile mosaic of a frog in the Adams Street entrance of the Lucas County Courthouse, a reminder of Toledo’s amphibious and swamp heritage, a memorial to the once rampant “marsh maladies of mosquitoes, malaria, mud, and miasma.”
This was a good book on local history and provided a few nice northwest Ohio wrinkles to American history that I enjoyed reading. Lots of nice black and white photographs in the book as well.
Thought to have gotten its name from War of 1812 soldiers (one soldier referred to it as “the home of Satan”), water covered most of its surface for the most of the year except at the height of a summer drought and was frozen solid in the winter. Roads were often quagmires, mud was often chest deep, and it was plagued by mosquitoes and disease, especially “the dreaded ague, or swamp fever, which came in late summer and flattened its victims with soaring fever, deep chills, and violent shaking” though later cholera became a huge problem as well. Once a pristine marshland, “home to some Indians and a few hardy white hunters and traders,” the “nights flooded with the baritone croaking of thousands of frogs, accented by the tenor sounds of howling wolves and screeching owls,” it was largely drained and converted to farmland to take advantage of its rich, black soil by 1900, with a half dozen cities established and thriving in what was once marsh. If it was “still in existence today it probably would be a nature preserve and wildlife refuge similar to the Everglades in Florida,” its only remnants are the Lake Erie marshes, preserved in such areas as Magee Marsh, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, and Metzger Marsh preserve and also in the tales of this book.
The book is basically a collection of historical and biographical accounts of people who lived in or visited the Great Black Swamp, most of the essays 4-10 pages or so, some longer, some just a few paragraphs in a series of essays called snapshots, many if not all of the essays accompanied with photographs.
A lot of topics are covered in the essays as a whole, a few providing somewhat different angles or perspectives on the same story. Most of the essays focus on the late 18th century through the years after the War of 1812, though there are some that deal with late 19th century events. The events of the War of 1812 loom large in the book and anyone with an interest in that war would probably want to read this, particularly with an interest in such events as the battle at Fort Meigs and the events around Raisin River.
Many chapters were accounts of individuals who while not famous except perhaps locally, provided interesting and informative accounts of life in and around the Great Black Swamp (or new perspectives on larger historical events that had a Great Black Swamp component). People such as John Hunt (born in Fort Wayne in 1798, had considerable social, economic, and political success in Maumeee and in Toledo), Abraham William McBurney (born in Ireland in 1775, he became a veteran of both the American Revolutionary War and the Ohio Indian Wars of the 1790s culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August, 1794 on the Maumee River, an area where he pretty much remained afterwards), Emily Underwood Ballou (as a girl of nine journeyed across Lake Erie with her family on the Walk-in-the-Water, the first Great Lakes steamboat, she survived the loss of her mother and four siblings to ague or swamp fever though later almost burned down her home trying to use a small fire to chase a groundhog out of his hole for her dinner), and Colonel Dresden Howard (government interpreter who became close friends with Chief Winameg, the leader of a Potawatomie Indian band, doing what he could to help the Ottawas and Potawatomies, a people largely forced into exile by 1840 save for a few scattered families and small groups).
Major historical figures certainly were covered, with quite a bit covering the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, as well as a great chapter on the colorful characters of the Toledo War of 1835 (which had two laugh out loud passages I loved), and even Charles Dickens (who passed through the area in 1842 with his personal secretary Mr. Q).
Objects or places were often the subject of essays (or the events centered around those objects or what those objects represent), such as the Spafford Bell (which may or may not have been stolen by Indians in 1834, though now it rests quietly in the Willard V. Way Public Library in Perrysburg), the Maumee and Western Reserve Road (“it would be difficult to describe this worst of all roads and the agony bordering on despair to which the emigrant was reduced in his effort to pass over to the land flowing with milk and honey beyond” according to one historical account), the Cholera Cemetery in Sandusky (where 400 victims of cholera were laid to rest in the summer of 1849), Turkey Foot Rock (according to legend the spot where Chief Turkey Foot of the Ottawa Indians stood to rally his troops before being struck by a soldier’s bullet, the rock later engraved by members of his tribe in homage to the fallen leader), Old Betsy (the sole cannon in possession of Fort Stephenson, which enabled its 160 defenders to hold off a superior force of hostile Indians and British artillery and gunboats in the Sandusky River, the cannon now on a hill above downtown Freemont that is the former site of the fort), and one of my favorites (with a photograph!), a tile mosaic of a frog in the Adams Street entrance of the Lucas County Courthouse, a reminder of Toledo’s amphibious and swamp heritage, a memorial to the once rampant “marsh maladies of mosquitoes, malaria, mud, and miasma.”
This was a good book on local history and provided a few nice northwest Ohio wrinkles to American history that I enjoyed reading. Lots of nice black and white photographs in the book as well.
April 19, 2020
I grabbed this on a whim at a craft show in my hometown, where I met the author (who also signed my copy). The history never gets too deep, but it delivers on the promise of "Historical Tales." Living in NW Ohio, I am familiar with some, and others are very new to me. I especially liked the accounts of the Black Swamp pioneers and stories of the Natives. I have a few new sites to take in, and already visited one (the Council Oak and Howard Home). The writing style is a little repetitive (I've never seen so many sentences start with "For" in one short book -lol), but that didn't really distract from the content. I will definitely look for more in the series.
This makes for a great read before bed, in the bathroom, or to carry around while you wait in a lone or for an appointment. The short chapters are very encompassing, allowing for breaks in reading.
This makes for a great read before bed, in the bathroom, or to carry around while you wait in a lone or for an appointment. The short chapters are very encompassing, allowing for breaks in reading.
May 18, 2017
This is a very small book filled with tales about the Great Black Swamp and the development of Northwestern Ohio from the 1700 and 1800s.
October 5, 2023
Very enjoyable! The 2nd book I have read by Jim Mollenkopf.
March 4, 2024
Very informative and interesting. I'd like to read the rest of the books as well!
January 20, 2014
First of a series. Seen through inter-library-loan. Some historical info and some memoirs from locals. I'm happy since now i have a much better understanding of the references to a swamp in Northwestern Ohio. There's also info on the canal industry/efforts and some mention of the Irish workers. No specific info for me, but well worth reading for background, especially for people like me who are researching in an area we've never seen....
December 26, 2023
The book was informative, educational, and entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews