Book Reviews

Alder's story occupied a prominent place in Ohio's popular culture in the latter half of the 1800s, and the history of the manuscript itself is just as fascinating as the life-story it contains.  Alder wrote his memoirs in the 1840's, but by the time of his death in 1849, they had been lost.  Portions remained, however, perhaps verbatim, within Henry Howe's monograph, Historical Collections of Ohio (1847).  Following Alder's death, his son, Henry Clay Alder, recreated his father's story from memory, and this version formed the basis of George W. Hill's serialized account of Alder's life, "The Shawnees and the Capture of Jonathan Alder" (1882).  Alder's story is told, again, in a county history by W. H. Beers (1883), supplemented by additional information gleaned from interviews with Alder's contemporaries.  Half a century later, Doyle Davison, a descendant of Jonathan Alder's, produced a typewritten copy of Henry Clay Alder's manuscript.  This copy, subsequently housed at the Ohio Historical Society, was forgotten until Nelson's recent discovery. 

Nelson's edition includes Davison's 1935 forward, insertions of Hill's and Beers' accounts where Nelson felt they added to, or differed from Davison's version, and includes descriptive notes and a bibliography.  An introduction by Nelson outlines Ohio's frontier era during which Alder lived, and provides an overview of captivity narratives such as Alder's. Although, as Nelson admits, this work does not serve the purpose of a primary source, it exists as a unique form of literature for its time.  It also tells an interesting history and, if nothing else, gives valuable insight into the specifics of Jonathan Alder's life and the lives of the Ohio Indians with whom he lived.  But while we have the facts of Alder's life, lost with his original manuscript is an irreplaceable perspective--the subtleties inherent in his own words and phrases as he told his personal reminiscences.  The current narrative cannot help but be limited as told by members of the Anglo-American culture.  At times, it presents typical nineteenth century romantic contrasts of savagery versus civilization, and readers are left wondering if these are Alder's sentiments or those of his chroniclers.  Nonetheless, students of Ohio history, the Great Lakes frontier, and Indian life will find that this small book offers an interesting and, indeed, a vital point of view of frontier Ohio history--the Native American point of view as told by Jonathan Alder.

Phyllis Gernhardt
University of Saint Francis
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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