Book Reviews

The Diary of Calvin Fletcher. Volume VI, 1857-1860: Including Letters to and from Calvin Fletcher. Edited by Gayle Thornbrough, Dorothy L. Riker, and Paula Corpuz. (Indi- anapolis: Historical Society, 1978. Pp. xxxviii, 709. Illustrations, notes, index. $10.00.) Calvin Fletcher, a native of , migrated to in 1817. At Urbana he read law, was admitted to the bar, and in 1821 married Sarah Hill. Later that year the Fletchers settled in , the future capital of Indiana. A civic-minded lawyer, landowner, and banker, Fletcher was a leading citizen of Indianapolis until his death in 1866. His diary is fragmentary for the early years, but from 1835 on it provides a systematic daily record of the many and varied interests and activities of his large and prosperous family. Dur- ing the four years covered by this volume, Fletcher allegedly “was slowing down in all his activities and taking more time to read, to contemplate, and to visit with friends and neighbors’’ (p. ix). Nevertheless, this segment of the diary reveals a man who was still actively concerned about the success and well- being of all eleven of his children, though only three of them were still at home. During this period he also devoted consider- able time and energy to liquidation of the Indianapolis branch of the State Bank of Indiana, of which he was president; the establishment of the Indianapolis Branch Banking Company; and the acquisition of controlling interest in the Madison branch of the State Bank. He was a nonsectarian supporter of organized Christianity in the city, and he led the way in rais- ing money to keep the schools of Indianapolis open and free after the Indiana Supreme Court declared the school tax law unconstitutional. Though not optimistic about the prospects for success, he continued to work with the temperance movement, and he supported actively the Indianapolis Benevolent Society, the Widows and Orphans Society, and the Kansas relief com- mittee. Fletcher preserved a record of his life and work, his hopes and fears, and his successes and failures in public and private relationships. The Indiana Historical Society has made that record available to all and deserves the gratitude of everyone who reads it. Any person who is interested in life in Indian- apolis on the eve of the Civil War should consult Volume VI. The editors’ introduction, the chronology, the explanatory foot- notes, and the forty-five-page index are most helpful. 58 Indiana Magazine of History

The editors are to be commended for their careful treat- ment of a manuscript that is in part barely legible and for their skillful handling of the entire editorial process. The standard of excellence that was established by the first volume, published in 1972, and maintained through the next four volumes has been upheld. Indiana Central University, Frederick D. Hill Indianapolis

A Home in the Woods: Pioneer Life in Indiana; Oliver Johnson’s Reminiscences of Early Marion County As Related by HOW- ard Johnson.By Howard Johnson. Foreward by Martin Ridge; afterward by Willard B. Moore; drawings by Caro- lyn Hickman. Reprint. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, in association with the Indiana Historical Society, 1978. Pp. xxv, 133. Map, notes, illustrations. $8.95.) Born in 1821 and raised just north of Indianapolis, Oliver Johnson grew up with Indiana. He lived until 1907, long enough to regale his grandchildren with stories of his boyhood days. One grandson, Howard Johnson, soaked up these remi- niscences, distilled them, and later penned them in the first person, producing an unusual, useful, and always interesting account of pioneer life. Oliver Johnson’s contemporaries appear as individualistic, resilient, inventive people, people who sought and achieved a large measure of self-sufficiency. Their society was also broadly consensual, warmly supportive, participatory, and amazingly trusting. These traits emerge from Johnson’s recollections of grist mills, new farms, and hog drives. Social tensions surfaced frequently, the products of local political maneuverings, con- flicting customs among settlers, and clashes between eastern values and aspirations and western conditions. Rough play and fist fights were socially acceptable outlets for aggression. This work is generally free from the sentimentality and sweeping generalizations commonly found in oral histories. Valuable, detailed glimpses of everyday life abound: working with farm animals, solving crop problems, clearing and con- structing, balancing a diet, and attending a subscription school. Even so, the many decades separating Oliver Johnson’s boy- hood from Howard Johnson’s writing cast some uncertainty on the work; time may play havoc with memory and motives, making evidence somewhat suspect. The work is further dimin- ished by the omission of an index.