Through "Poverty's Vale": A Hardscrabble Boyhood in Upstate New York, 1832-1862

by Henry Conklin, Wendell Tripp (Editor)

Writing his full-length reminiscence in a lonely Adirondack cabin during the winter of 1891–92, Conklin recounts the first thirteen years of his life on a farm in Schoharie County, his young manhood in Herkimer County, and his service in the Civil War. The story is one of a hardscrabble life, of farming on marginal land, and of struggling each day for the necessary food and clothing. And yet Conklin asserts that these years were the happiest he knew. The Conklin family was close-knit, loving, and self-sufficient. They built their home, made their own clothing, and grew much of their food. Everyone contributed his or her share to the good of the family group. In this vivid portrayal of family life, we read about ordinary events that are unfamiliar to us today—weaving cloth, churning butter, making shingles, starting a fire with flint and steel, setting traps—and about the technology of the nineteenth century. With insight, humanity, and a perspective gained through distance and time, Henry Conklin gives us a dramatic and moving narrative in which we become deeply involved. In telling his story, Conklin is not only reliving the past but also saving the events, experiences, and persons of his life from oblivion, and contributing to our historical knowledge of the rural backwaters of antebellum America. Conklin’s reminiscence was preserved by his son and then by his grandson Roy Conklin, who brought it to the attention of Wendell Tripp. Several engravings supplement the text, and the editor has provided footnotes to many references that may be unclear to present-day readers.

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1974

Reviews

[Michael Lennox]

This book was written by my Great, Great, Great Grandfather so of course I love it. It's basically his memoir of growing up in the Adirondacks, kind of like a northern version of a Mark Twain novel.

[Keturah Hickman]

This was a courtship gift from my husband that I failed to read for awhile because the cover looked boring. Finally picked it up and it's such a joy!! It's a manuscript of a man's life from 1830-1860 discovered by one of his grandsons years later.

Not only was it enjoyable to read about the childhood of someone from the 1800s living where we now live, I also found some of the tales contrary to popular rhetoric of the past. The family lived in abject poverty, but not so much because times were hard as much as because the father was a wanderer and a drunk. However, even then the father wasn't a "mean" drunk, but was quite jolly and the children had a hard time hating him for his habits because of his generous spirit even though it put them all through hard times. The family was staunch Methodists, but also even in that time didn't really think denominations mattered. The girls worked out as much as the boys. One of the author's early girl friends broke up with him in part because she didn't want to have babies (presumably abortion and birth control were a choice). When the author did marry, he married secretly and without the father's permission because the father of the bride was mean-spirited. However, nobody looked down upon him for this. Also there's a picture painted of how kind and neighborly people use to be, but the author's stories showed another perspective. When he was sick and trying to get home and would stop at stranger's places, he had to work off his meals or pay for them. Very few would just do him a favor, even those who were Christianly. Even in his own town, his brothers were misused by their employers and not giving a proper education, lodging, or food even those all those things were written into their work agreement.

Even so, the author paints a charming picture, even with the poverty and hard times. Well worth the read!

[Tiffany Packard]

A recounting of local life here in the mid 1800's. A story unlike any I have ever read yet I was compelled to keep turning the pages.