THE HISTORICAL TIMES

NEWSLETTER OF THE GRANVILLE, OHIO, HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Volume XI Number 4 Fall: 1997

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT

Historian of the West

One of the more famous historians to come from Granville is Hubert Howe Bancroft. Born in Granville in 1832, Bancroft went from student at Doane Academy to bookselling to history writing. Ann Natalie Hansen has written this delightful biographical account of Hubert Howe Bancroft. The editors of The Historical Times are pleased to publish for the first time Miss Hansen's original work on the life and times of this famous Granville native. HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT of these Puritan families, the Bancrofts Historian of the West moved westward into the Connecticut Valley taking part in local government, A transplanted and transformed the French and Indian War and the Yankee who rose from farm boy to American Revolution. This spirit of bookseller to author and publisher, restlessness continued in the family. Hubert Howe Bancroft holds a place in Azariah Ashley Bancroft, in 1845, American historiography which is often moved his family to New Madrid, disputed. The question invariably Missouri. The fertile bottom lands arises --- was he really an historian at yielded good crops for which there all, or merely a shrewd Yankee trader? were only poor markets, so after three It seems most fair to say that he was a years the trek was made back to little of each. Granville. In a few years, though, the West beckoned again and Azariah Massachusetts Roots Ashley was off to the gold fields of California where he stayed for two Bancroft's father, Azariah Ashley years. After another stint in Ohio, he Bancroft, was born in Granville, set out again for the West where he Massachusetts. He and his parents served as Indian agent at Fort Simcoe, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1809, and Washington during the Civil War. He to Granville, Ohio in 1814, there finally settled down in San Francisco. joining their old neighbors from the Berkshires who had founded the village An Ohio Boyhood in 1805. Lucy D. Howe, at sixteen, also moved westward across the Hubert Howe Bancroft's boyhood Alleghenies from Vermont with her in Ohio was exactly what one would family who settled in the new Granville expect of such a time and place. He on a farm adjoining that of the hated milking the cow and raking hay Bancrofts. In time Azariah Ashley in the hot sun, and he hated going to Bancroft and Lucy Howe were married school. The town abounded in New and became the parents of Hubert England piety and thrift and love of Howe Bancroft who was born May 5, education; laziness was the root of all 1832 in Granville, Ohio. evil. As a consequence, Bancroft was reared in the strict Puritan tradition There was nothing spectacular with large doses of church-going on the about the Bancroft family. Of Anglo- Sabbath and all sorts of admonitions Saxon stock, John Bancroft had arrived for living a Godly life. The impression in Massachusetts from England aboard this made apparently was not very the James in 1632. Like so many other deep; in his adult life the church-going 2 habit lasted for only about ten years, and one of the largest of its kind in the due largely to the influence of his first world. Its owner admitted, " ...no one wife, Emily Ketchum to whom he was was more interested and absorbed in married in 1859. money-making while engaged in it than

As for education, he seems to have gotten over his early dislike for school, Bancroft's book collecting was a aspiring to graduate from college, be natural outgrowth of the business, and elected to Congress, and perhaps the in turn, his writings were the outgrowth Presidency. With this ideal in mind, he of the library he so diligently formed. began his studies at Doane Academy in He had already published a handbook Granville, where he stayed for a year. of the Pacific Coast. One day in 1859 Realizing the need for money, he he conceived the idea of shelving accepted the offer of his brother-in-law, together the fifty to seventy-five titles a bookseller in Buffalo, New York, as a he had in stock on the subject for the clerk in his store. His decision ended convenience of the handbook's editor, the first distinct phase of his life. The William H. Knight. Sometime later he principle of industry which had been happened to notice some early deeply ingrained in him as a child, he California pamphlets in another San kept throughout his long life. This and Francisco bookstore, and he promptly the knack for quickly turning a dollar bought them. This was the beginning were the survivals of his Puritan of his search which was to extend all heritage. over the Western United States, New York and Philadelphia, Mexico, A Bookseller's Life Alaska, and various parts of Europe. The result was a collection of 60,000 After two attempts at bookselling volumes. Bancroft himself poked in Buffalo, the second more successful through the bookstores of London and than the first, and a brief interlude of Paris finding great quantities of books selling books by subscription in the dealing with his subject, and then went country around Mansfield, Ohio, on to Spain where he was disappointed Bancroft set out in 1851 for California in the result. He did not realize that by ship from New York going overland Spain's wealth of material was in across the Isthmus of Panama. From manuscript form in the archives of the humble beginnings, Bancroft profited government and Church, especially in in business and continued to expand the Casa Longa at Seville. He was not until the house of H. H. Bancroft and alone in his ignorance. Few others of Company of San Francisco, booksellers his day were aware of it either. and publishers, was unique in the West 3 All this only whetted his appetite working eight hours a day, four for the search. He had enlarged his hundred years to do this superficial job. field of interest from just California to He hired assistants to aid him in this Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Lower work, but then when he set to writing California and Pacific States, and a from these notes he found that he history of the Pacific States in popular needed the book to understand the one-volume form. After much mental connection. warfare he concluded to write a complete and detailed history of the The Literary Mill western half of North America. From this unsatisfactory beginning Installing a Librarian came the idea of an index to the whole for the Collection library. When finished, it was completely analytical of the subject In the spring of 1870, Henry matter of every scrap of material he Lebbeus Oak was installed as librarian had, whether it be books, periodicals, of Bancroft's collection. A native of newspapers, or manuscripts. Even the Garland, Maine, he had attended most seemingly insignificant subject Bowdoin College and was graduated was included, such as the texture of an from Dartmouth College during the Eskimo's hair. All together, more than Civil War. He was of invaluable twenty men worked on the project, assistance throughout the duration of some over a long period of time, and the project, beginning with the the cost mounted to $35,000 which cataloguing of the collection and the Bancroft regarded as well invested. removal of the books to the fifth floor of the new building on Market Street The writing moved forward with which was destined to become a the assistants working from eight to "literary workshop." twelve and from one to six with smoking freely allowed while they The Writing of History worked. By this time Oak was ably When the decision was finally made to assisted by William Nemos, whose write the history, Bancroft sought a surname was assumed to cover his way to abstract the necessary identity as a member of a distinguished information from his library. He first Polish family. He perfected the note- tried reading through the books and taking system, especially for beginners copying paragraphs which had been on the job so that they would become marked for the purpose. After doing familiar with "the respective merits of this with a dozen or so volumes, he authors, their bent of thought, and the calculated that it would take him, by age in which they lived, and the 4 fullness and trustworthiness of their The Publication of Books works." The complicated system of note-taking and filing in paper bags is First to be published was The detailed in Bancrofts book, Literary Native Races of the Pacific States of Industries, published in 1891. North America, in five octavo volumes, covering every phase of culture of all Bancroft allowed his note-takers to the Native American tribes that put anything they pleased into their inhabited the seaboard and the interior own words, but he insisted that when from Alaska to Panama. Over the the exact words of the author were used period of fifteen years thirty-four more they must be plainly indicated. The volumes appeared. Those dealing with notes pointed out contradictory the history of the Pacific Coast were statements of different authors and the published under the general title, The evidence for each interpretation. This Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, thus enabled Bancroft to draw his own avoiding any direct claim to authorship conclusions when he studied and wrote by not using a by-line as such. These from these notes. Minor sections of the were published by his own company, history were written by the more able and after 1886 by a subsidiary and experienced assistants and company formed for the purpose and incorporated by Bancroft into his own called The History Company. The writing after some condensation and preparation of the manuscript for the change. history began in 1871 and ended in 1889, but Bancroft continued writing After a minor fire in the building, until he was eighty-four, publishing Bancroft hired about twenty copyists to five more books. transcribe everything he had written. Writing by hand, it took them three or Hubert Howe Bancroft never made four months to complete the task. A a secret of his literary mill; he second copy was made in a copy press, recognized that his "greatest safeguard and deposited in a different place from was publicity." Each worker knew the original to guard against fire what each other worker was doing, and destroying the fruits of all their labors. visitors, strangers to the place, were not asked what they wanted. One of the staff was always on hand to show visitors through the firm and the library and explain rare or curious books to them as well as the nature of the work being carried on. The doors were never locked during working hours. To 5 Bancroft it was only sensible to apply comments on his work. With the first business methods to the writing of volume of Native Races in print, he history. His division of labor had been went East in August 1874 to solicit highly successful in the operation of his reviews and comments. His success far-flung book empire, and he merely was a bit phenomenal. Bancroft called adapted the same basic technique to his on Francis Parkman, Charles Francis literary endeavors. Adams, James Russell Lowell, Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier, and He did not rely entirely on the George Bancroft. His efforts were information his copyists extracted from repaid with an honorary Master of Arts the books and manuscripts in his degree from Yale University, a review library. When certain facts were by Clarence King in the Atlantic and lacking Bancroft set out to find them several splendid reviews by Francis himself. He traveled many miles Parkman in the North American Review interviewing the priests of the as the various volumes appeared. The California missions and members of work was also published in England, the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Mexico France and Germany and was and those in civil authority. For favorably reviewed in all the leading instance, he once with a native literary media of the day. He admits, stenographer took down the life and however, that not all was unadulterated career of Porfirio Diaz as he told it to praise. him. When Bancroft was unable to go himself, he sent others who were well Some were clever in circumventing qualified. Such was the case when he the heart of the matter in penning their discovered that he lacked Russian praise. Oliver Wendell Holmes in a material for his history of Alaska. Ivan letter to Bancroft commented only on Petrof was dispatched twice to Alaska that which was obvious to anyone who and then to Washington where he spent was familiar with the methods two years. The result was all the employed by Bancroft for producing information contained in state papers as his work. He said nothing about the well as dictation from Russian officials literary merits of the contents or of and from officials of Hudson's Bay their historical worth. Company. No stone was left unturned. Considering the method utilized for An Entrepreneurial Spirit his Works, it is not surprising that the style is not entirely uniform; it is more With the instinct of the surprising that it is not less uniform businessman, Bancroft set about than it is. It was ever Bancroft 's acquiring a long list of favorable concern to narrate every related scrap 6 of information in the most condensed should not be allowed to detract from form possible; he did not pretend to be the intrinsic merit of his work. His a philosopher of history. At times, books certainly are not literary however, sandwiched between his masterpieces, but they are mines of almost breathless detailing of facts are information and they have the pithy phrases which, in a few words, advantage of having been written at a give a penetrating analysis of the time when untapped source materials subject at hand. He had a passion for were available. Within another accuracy, objectivity, documentation generation many of the early books and and good indexing. The thousands of manuscripts that Bancroft collected and footnotes contained in the Works cite used might have been lost forever. not only source material but pertinent The product of an early Ohio farm, information, especially an amazing a country school and a village array of biographical details which academy: in the light of this would have broken the continuity of background, Hubert Howe Bancroft's the narrative had they been included in contributions to American the text. historiography are little short of amazing, if not especially profound. Death in San Francisco PostScript When Hubert Howe Bancroft died in San Francisco on March 2, 1918 at In the past few years there has been the age of nearly eighty-six, he left a wide press coverage of the Columbus- monument of forty-one volumes of America Discovery Group financing history and essays plus a magnificent the endeavor to salvage the gold from collection of 60,000 volumes of rare the sunken S. S. Central America. The books and manuscripts which he had ship went down off the Carolina coast given to the University of California at in a furious hurricane in September Berkeley. His work was criticized 1857 carrying 425 passengers and crew during his lifetime and since because of to their deaths. The side-wheel his methodology and because he did steamship was laden with gold being not give sufficient credit to those who transported from the San Francisco did a large part of the writing. This can Mint as well as the gold of the be attributed to his business acumen. successful prospectors who were on First and foremost he was a board. Bancroft, writing in 1912 in businessman -- everything about his Retrospection, referred to the Central life was geared to making money, and America as "an old condemned steamer in this he was enormously successful. whose name had been several times This facet of his personality, however, changed. " 7 One of those who went to a watery Hubert Howe Bancroft grave was Alvin Ellis of Waterford, Writing on the Slavery Issue Ohio. His wife, Lynthia, and their and the Great Granville Riot three children were saved from the wreck. Many years later Lynthia The following passages are from became the second wife of Henry L. Bancroft's chapter, "Some Ohio Bancroft, Granville banker, who was Yankees," found in his book, an uncle of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Retrospection: Personal andPolitical, Henry died in 1890, nine days before published in 1912. his 90th birthday and lies in Maple Grove. Lynthia, who had been I do not pretend to any described as a delicate woman, died in remembrance of it, but I may state the 1912 at age 92. She is buried in Red facts as history, that when I was four Lodge, Montana where her son, Alvin years old, while yet Abraham Lincoln Ellis, Jr., owned a ranch. was playing seven-up with slave- holders in his back office, and William Ann Natalie Hansen Lloyd Garrison was being mobbed by The Granville Historical Society the good people of Boston, since then evolutionizing themselves into a state of sympathy and sentiment regarding the poor people of color, there came to our town certain zealous men to hold an anti-slavery convention, the first in central Ohio. The use of the church in which town meetings were held, being refused for the purpose, my father offered his barn, a nice new one, and as yet unfilled with hay, which was gladly accepted. All went well until the meetings were over. Then as the chief speakers on their horses were slowly wending their way out of town, a one- horse wagon filled with bad men and bad eggs was seen following them. Notwithstanding the vile odors which filled the air, and the slimy substance dripping from men and horses, not the The Bancroft House on North Street faintest shade of annoyance was seen on the faces of the strangers; not the 8 seen on the faces of the strangers; from Kentucky--for the straw was not the slightest increase of pace alive with them--instead of one of was discernible. the grown-ups going himself, may not be surmised unless it arose They went their way, these from the well-known modesty of early Ohio martyrs, none the less the Yankee in matters of charity true though tamer perhaps than and good deeds; or should t h e the fiery Wendell Phillips, who slave hunters catch on such an shouted to his Boston audience that errand a little fellow like that, all tried to stop his speaking: "Howl they could do would be to send on! Howl on! You contumacious him home and to bed. curs; I speak to forty millions of freemen"--pointing to the It will be remembered that at reporters. He might almost make the time of the discontinuance of it a round hundred millions today. the slave-trade in 1807 Negro slaves numbered nearly one-fifth And that from Boston's solid of the population of the United men in Faneuil hall assembled; too States, and were fast increasing, to much like the solid men of San the peril of the Republic. The Francisco of today, our most Anti-slavery society was formed in worshipful apostles of high crime; 1833, under the auspices of Arthur they, Boston's apostles of high Tappan, William Lloyd Garrison, crime, loath to offend the white and Wendell Phillips. Public men of the south, later eager to sentiment, carrying with it the place over them these same black churches, was against the men to grind them into the dust. movement. "It hurts business," said the thrifty New Englander, the Some six years after this black Quaker silent by assenting," thus to baptism of the barn, a small boy stir up the enmity of our might have been seen, had it not customers in the south," forgetting been midnight and rather dark, that the American revolution hurt driving a big two-horse wagon business, likewise the war of 1812. filled with straw on the way to It was the same cry which we hear Fredonia, distance six miles toward to-day in the streets of our cities Canada. It was his first all-night over the prosecution of rich out of bed, and the bumps of the criminals. wagon as the old plow horses followed the road sadly interfered with the snatches of sleep taken at his peril on the slippery seat. Why the enthusiasts should send forth Hubert Howe Bancroft, Retrospection: this babe as director-general of a Political and Personal [New York: The wagon of human estrays fresh Bancroft Company, 1912], pp. 84-85. 9 different topic in looking at t h e ghostly side of Gettysburg.

Tuesday, March 17, 1998:

Major General Charles Griffin: Granville's Forgotten Hero: The Civil War Roundtable Kevin Bennett, recent head of Clarke Wilhelm announces an our Roundtable, will speak on the exciting schedule of presentations results of his research and writing for Spring Session of the Civil War about the career of a Granvillian Roundtable sponsored by t h e who was an important military Society. All meetings will once figure in the Union Army b u t again take place in the Old whose accomplishments have been Academy Building at 7:30 on t h e ignored by the historians. third Tuesday of each month. The Spring schedule runs from January Tuesday, April 21, 1998: _ through May. Grant at Cold Harbor: Tuesday, January 20, 1998: Member Nancy Winkler, who Lee's Retreat from Gettysburg: examined Grant's career and especially his final years at a Patrick Gordon, A CPA from Roundtable session in 1996, will Columbus and a Civil War lead a discussion on Grant's enthusiast from the age of ten performance at Cold Harbor. This when he learned that he was a is to be a group discussion, so it is great, great, great grand nephew of important that everyone read up Phil Sheridan, will speak on a on the battle that many consider a critical and often overlooked Grant disaster. aspect of Gettysburg. Tuesday, May 19, 1998: _ Tuesday, February 17, 1998: _ Aerostats Blue, Aerostats The Ghosts of Gettysburg: Gray:

Tom Hankins, a veteran Member Ted Collen, retired member of our Roundtable and a aerospace engineer who analyzed prominent figure in varied Civil the ironclad war for us last Spring, War activities who spoke to us a will look at the Union and few years back on surgery in the Confederate balloon service in the Civil War, will essay a quite Civil War. 10

inventory of historical items is scheduled for completion before reopening the museum next spring.

--The Archives room in the Museum was reorganized this year in order to accommodate more shelving and records.

--An outreach program for What's New with the Granville young people in our community Historical Society was initiated and includes a seminar for high school students At the Society's annual banquet on the working of the Historical in October, President Dick Daly Society; research and writing gave the following report opportunities for selected high concerning the variety of activities school students will be sponsored undertaken by the Board of that may be included in our Management and society members Historical Times. In addition, we over the last year. The list is are working on a program that impressive and indicates the includes artifacts that may be number of activities sponsored b y taken to the elementary school to your society. teach about life in early Granville. Would you like to help with this? --Museum displays are being reorganized. The museum front --We have increased our room is being arranged and membership by ten percent this various items brought out of year; we will focus some attention storage and displayed to on developing a similar increase in emphasize the pioneer history of volunteers for our society as well Granville. Future displays will as membership in 1998. focus on interesting individuals and later periods of our history. --The Society is working on an Display cards and labels are being application for an Historical made that provide a description Marker for the Old Academy for each artifact. We encourage Building. We are applying to t h e our members to join in the Ohio Historical Society for a grant research and fun this winter that from the Longaberger Legacy will provide an exciting "new look" Initiative to assist with funding. when we reopen our Museum next Wish us success with our proposal! April. --The Old Colony Burial Ground --An updated and systematic Project continues to make 11 --The Accessions Committee Housecleaning at the Museum continues to accept historical artifacts and documents. We have recently Under the watchful eye of Museum acquired for our archives a number of Committee Chair, Cynthia Cort, the documents that meet the requirements attic above the museum has been of accession; we will actively seek cleared of much of the material stored additions for our bicentennial there. Several items were recovered celebration including artifacts and which had been placed there many documents from early 20th Century. years ago. A collection of old books was also discovered. --The Board of Management met in "Brainstorming Sessions" to discuss Cynthia and her committee members our role in the 2005 Bicentennial are actively involved in arranging new Celebration for our village. It is not displays of our historical materials in too soon to begin developing a plan for the museum. Society members and this significant historical event. We their guests will want to stop by in welcome your ideas and suggestions. April, when the museum again opens for the season, in order to see first hand The Old Colony Burial Ground the new exhibits. Project

The multi-year restoration project Board of Managers Of undertaken by the society at the Old Granville Historical Society Colony Burial Ground continues on a successful path. Following a President Richard Daly successful season of work, two large Vice President Thomas Martin Secretary John Senn obelisks were set in place with the Treasurer David Neel generous assistance of the Felumlee Term Ends 20(X): Monument Company who donated Clarke Wilhelm their time and equipment. George Wales Cynthia Cort

The company also provided invaluable Term Ends 1999: assistance with the Jesse Munson Florence Hoffman Anthony Lisska replacement stone which the Munson Richard Shiels family dedicated last summer. Term Ends 1998: Robert Watson John Kessler Maggie Brooks

12