Allan W. Eckert on the Ohio Frontier

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

I was first introduced to the works of Allan Eckert through "That Dark and Bloody River", an excellent history of Ohio's frontier period I quickly found myself caught up in his Winning of America Series, particularly "The Frontiersmen", and later his Tecumseh bio-epic "A Sorrow in Our Hearts". I have not been disappointed with any of Eckert's books on the early history of America, but find myself re-reading his books on the Ohio country over and over again. I have also been a fan of the works of James Alexander Thom.

Eckert has also become somewhat of a controversial author in the past few years as well, particularly due to accusations that he often takes significant license with historical fact and confuses myth and legend with truth. I know there has been some dispute over his book "Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnee" for the fact that Eckert promotes the disputed belief that the great Shawnee chief was actually an adopted white man. And he had also come under fire for his popular outdoor drama "Tecumseh!" which is performed every summer in Chillecothe, OH in regard to its portrayal of a love affair between the Shawnee leader and Rebecca Galloway, the daughter of early Xenia settler James Galloway. Historians today claim that the love story was fabricated by Galloway descendents and that the historical evidence shows that the affair never took place.

Despite these issues, Eckert continues to be a favorite and hopefully will continue to write entertaining books that bring history to life as never before.

I was wondering if anyone else was as enthusiastic about the books of Allan Eckert as I am. Anyone else out there share an interest in these books? Feel free to sound off about Eckert's or Thom's books or recommend any books that others might not be aware of.

[Phantom]

Big fan of Eckert, like Zohoe, "The Frontiersman" made me an avid reader of his books and the series. A principal, I worked for back in 1974, loan me his copy of "The Frontiersman". I have read the book three times, and have the frontier series in my collection. When I was still in the classroom, I used the information from the books in my lectures about the Northwest Territory unit. Born & raised in Cincinnati moved west in 1976.

[joncincy323]

I like Eckert's work, although I'm only just beginning to scratch the surface (the man is a prolific writer). I'm in the middle of TDABR now, and it's one of the more detailed works I've been able to find on the place and period. I do have a few issues with some of the facts he uses. I'm using his work primarily as research as well as interesting reading, and it's sometimes a little tough to split fact from legend. There are particular instances where he'll refer to an event, mention that "most sources say" one thing, and then he'll simply say that "this is wrong, it was this," without presenting any proof one way or the other. That makes the story a little shaky in terms of presenting accurate detail.
Still, it is fascinating reading, and I appreciate the work he's done to introduce the subject to a lot of people who probably wouldn't be aware of the events that happened here.

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

Yes I do think that one Eckert's greatest contributions has been that by writing historical fiction, he brings to the general public the history of a time and place that is often forgotten or simply ignored. As a kid growing up in Ohio, I had heard of Tecumseh and Daniel Boone, but never learned the truly fascinating history that took place in my own backyard. It was only much later that I learned about Simon Kenton and Sam Brady and the plight of the Ohio Indians and that this region was some of the bloodiest and most heavily contested ground in American history. If it had not been for Eckert's books, I might never have been exposed to it. Too often, the history of the Eastern frontier is lost on us in exchange for the history and myth of the Far West. We are led to believe that western expansion began with Lewis and Clark and totally lose the important history of everything that happened East of the Mississippi in the years prior to the War of 1812. We learn about Crazy Horse and Custer. and we learn all about Geronimo and the Gunfight at the OK Corral, but what we lack is a firm grasp of what preceeded all of that. I think Eckert's books help to fill those gaps. He often does leap to some questionable conclusions, but what can be interesting is following up on those questionable issues and making your own educated conclusions. Just out of curiousity, are there any specific examples that you can think of? The Blue Jacket issue and the Rebecca Galloway story are the two big ones that come to mind for me and honestly I think those are pretty big IFs to be passed on as fact, even in a work of historical fiction. But I guess when you are trying to write entertaining fiction based on actual history, sometimes it becomes necessary to make those leaps in order to make an interesting story. But there are dangers to this as many people who read these books don't follow up on sources or do further research on their own. I have even seen Eckert's books referenced as sources in several popular history books and magazine articles!

[joncincy323]

The only specific thing I can think of off the top of my head was actually in the forward when he was discussing the early European contact with the Ohio River valley. One passage described one of the early British colonial expeditions over the Alleghenies from Virginia. He mentioned the pass they used (I don't remember the watercourse it was associated with), and the accompanying footnote said something along the lines of, and I'm roughly quoting here, "most references suggest they passed through <some other pass>. This, however is not true." Period. No additional information as to why he thinks that, just that statement. I know it's a very small issue and has practically nothing to do with the story at large, but unfortunately it did serve to leave a nagging question in my mind about any other similar statements he makes throughout the book. Thus it hurts the story's fidelity to history in the eyes of the reader. Of course, it's a wildly subjective topic, and it all depends on if you're using the book for hard research on the topic or just casual reading. I'm somewhere in the middle.
As for the Blue Jacket controversy, I have far too much to learn yet before I offer an solid opinion on what is obviously a very sticky (and heretofore unknown to me) subject to a lot of people. My gut, however, suggests that he wasn't white.

My thoughts.
Jon

[Darryl]

Eckert is the reason I have interest in this period in the first place. While he does bend the historical facts at times, his style of writing is quite enjoyable and encourages one to do further research.