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Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813-1840
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As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1895
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2020
Despite efforts, I have never managed to get far into a book by William Dean Howells. It's rather ironic then that I read with enjoyment this memoir by the author's father, William Cooper Howells. In fact, I'm going to be uncharitable and say that William Cooper was the better writer.
William Cooper Howells was born in 1807, in Brecon, Wales, the son of Joseph Howells. The Howells were descended from Quaker wool manufacturers and watchmakers. In 1808, Joseph Howells decided to take his family to the wilds of Ohio, and thus started a career in lifelong fecklessness. Joseph is arrested while his worried family waits for him at the port. Current British law doesn't allow a man who knows wool manufacturing to leave the country (in case he might set up a competing industry), but the government has little to fear from Joseph. When the Howells family is finally able to leave, Joseph blows through all his capital in two failed attempts to set up a wool business. Then he fails at farming--twice.
Like his father, William has many frustrations. He plows with ponies (it doesn't occur to father Joseph to buy horses for such strenuous labor), and when his plow hits a tree root and breaks the harness, he can't knot the pieces together tightly enough with his childish hands to make it hold. Cows and pigs on a rope herd him instead of the other way around. Every year he rebuilds a clay bake oven for his mother only to see it washed away by rains and weather. He has to struggle for what little education he can get, and he has almost nothing to read. But even backwoods Ohio shows promising fruit. William's seatmate in grammar school is Edwin Stanton, later Lincoln's Secretary of War.
Nonetheless, young William loves the primordial woods of the 1810s and 1820s. Orchards are a cornocopia of fruit and nuts, and game is everywhere. But the Howells are Quaker, and don't hold with hunting or guns. So it's a long time before William manages to acquire an ancient flintlock, which needs many a click before it goes bang, by which time all the game has wised up and left. When his new hunting dog brings home a skunk, William notes that even after the carcass had been lying in a field for three months, it still stank as strongly as it did on the day it perished, if the body was disturbed. Dangerous snakes are everywhere, and one of William's younger brothers is bitten so severely that the boy is sick for an entire month, and has symptoms of snakebite every year when the same season comes around. A Howells daughter is nearly crushed by a falling log, only saved by Joseph grabbing the end of it at the last moment.
Even the Quakers are not so peaceful anymore, for they are in the process of breaking up into Orthodox and Hicksites. Though they don't punch each other, there is much shoving of chests and bumping into each other. Meanwhile, Joseph Howells decides to convert to a Methodism of the shouting and camp-meeting sort, and drags his son William along, though William is absolutely terrified at such a drastic change from his quiet Quaker faith. Joseph can lie prostrate for hours after his fits of enthusiasm, and he nearly disowns his son when the latter tries to ease away from such histrionics. But even William would become a Swedenborgian in his later years, so he wasn't proof against against the lure of oddball religions.
Recognizing his unsuitability for farming, William eventually takes to the printing trade and becomes involved with newspaper work. He takes credit for suggesting William Henry Harrison as a presidential candidate to his editor at a paper with political influence, thus starting the boom for Harrison. A devotion to the Whig cause (and later that offshoot of the Whigs, the Republican Party) results in an eventual appointment as US consul at Quebec, and, of course, William later sired that other William, who is better known than he himself is, which is not quite fair.
William Cooper Howells was born in 1807, in Brecon, Wales, the son of Joseph Howells. The Howells were descended from Quaker wool manufacturers and watchmakers. In 1808, Joseph Howells decided to take his family to the wilds of Ohio, and thus started a career in lifelong fecklessness. Joseph is arrested while his worried family waits for him at the port. Current British law doesn't allow a man who knows wool manufacturing to leave the country (in case he might set up a competing industry), but the government has little to fear from Joseph. When the Howells family is finally able to leave, Joseph blows through all his capital in two failed attempts to set up a wool business. Then he fails at farming--twice.
Like his father, William has many frustrations. He plows with ponies (it doesn't occur to father Joseph to buy horses for such strenuous labor), and when his plow hits a tree root and breaks the harness, he can't knot the pieces together tightly enough with his childish hands to make it hold. Cows and pigs on a rope herd him instead of the other way around. Every year he rebuilds a clay bake oven for his mother only to see it washed away by rains and weather. He has to struggle for what little education he can get, and he has almost nothing to read. But even backwoods Ohio shows promising fruit. William's seatmate in grammar school is Edwin Stanton, later Lincoln's Secretary of War.
Nonetheless, young William loves the primordial woods of the 1810s and 1820s. Orchards are a cornocopia of fruit and nuts, and game is everywhere. But the Howells are Quaker, and don't hold with hunting or guns. So it's a long time before William manages to acquire an ancient flintlock, which needs many a click before it goes bang, by which time all the game has wised up and left. When his new hunting dog brings home a skunk, William notes that even after the carcass had been lying in a field for three months, it still stank as strongly as it did on the day it perished, if the body was disturbed. Dangerous snakes are everywhere, and one of William's younger brothers is bitten so severely that the boy is sick for an entire month, and has symptoms of snakebite every year when the same season comes around. A Howells daughter is nearly crushed by a falling log, only saved by Joseph grabbing the end of it at the last moment.
Even the Quakers are not so peaceful anymore, for they are in the process of breaking up into Orthodox and Hicksites. Though they don't punch each other, there is much shoving of chests and bumping into each other. Meanwhile, Joseph Howells decides to convert to a Methodism of the shouting and camp-meeting sort, and drags his son William along, though William is absolutely terrified at such a drastic change from his quiet Quaker faith. Joseph can lie prostrate for hours after his fits of enthusiasm, and he nearly disowns his son when the latter tries to ease away from such histrionics. But even William would become a Swedenborgian in his later years, so he wasn't proof against against the lure of oddball religions.
Recognizing his unsuitability for farming, William eventually takes to the printing trade and becomes involved with newspaper work. He takes credit for suggesting William Henry Harrison as a presidential candidate to his editor at a paper with political influence, thus starting the boom for Harrison. A devotion to the Whig cause (and later that offshoot of the Whigs, the Republican Party) results in an eventual appointment as US consul at Quebec, and, of course, William later sired that other William, who is better known than he himself is, which is not quite fair.
February 20, 2021
lively written, personal, and politics and observation of people mixed with a human view of life. Great read.
December 26, 2024
A fascinating and authentic glimpse into the early 19th-century. The hardships, daily life, Quaker religious undertakings, good book for history enthusiasts.
One could smell the 1800's between these pages.
One could smell the 1800's between these pages.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews