American Grit - a Book Review

American Grit:  A Woman's Letters from the Ohio Frontier is a collection of letters written by Anna Briggs Bentley, a Quaker who, in 1826, moved from Maryland to Columbiana County, Ohio.  Because I have ancestors who lived in an adjoining county during about the same time period, I thought the book might add insight into the conditions of their lives.

I think this is the first book I've ever read that was entirely letters.  There are short chapter introductions that explain the settings or events of the time, and even briefer explanations between some letters, but those fall to the background of the letters themselves.

The book was slow-going -- letters are written much differently than a book, written as thoughts come to mind and not necessarily in a logical order or in well-composed sentences -- and, though interesting, I almost stopped reading after about 50 pages.  I deliberated and finally decided that despite the slowness the information was interesting enough to continue.  I'm so very glad I did:  having persisted to the end it was almost as if Anna had become a friend.

Anna was about 30 when she moved to Ohio with her husband and their six children, all 12 or younger.  One child died before the move and 6 more were born in Ohio.  She left behind  her mother and eight younger siblings in Maryland.  She had been raised in a genteel family with the comforts of money, servants, the society of friends, local shops, etc.  She was not a born pioneer, but she was strong-willed, determined, and willing, along with her family, to "carve a homestead out of virgin forest with the sweat of their labors."

In the introduction Emily Foster, editor of the book, writes,

[Anna] wrote voluminous, detailed letters to her family in Maryland about life on the frontier.  No inadequacies of grammar, spelling or punctuation ever stood between Anna and a lively account of her daily affairs.  She followed a philosophy of letter writing that she frequently recommended to correspondents:  "Don't fear a repetition, but just give daily concerns, the affairs of the neighbourhood, the sayings and doings of the children, how little Henry looks, your garden, your cows, horses, chickens, and pigs, and even Ajax . . . so that as I am journeying on through time in my distant habitation I may keep up a kind of acquaintance and not feel like a stranger in my own dear native land, if ever I should visit it again."  Anna's letters poured unedited from her pen . . . [and] . . . became her lifeline to Maryland, a strong, binding cord made of stories, jokes, descriptions, gossip, hopes, and fears that would keep her tied to them for life, even from far away.

Here are a few observations from the book -- thoughts, events, and activities that stood out to me as I read.

• Anna seemed desperately homesick during her first years in Ohio and begged her family to write to her often.  She wrote, "I now look forward to receiving letters from you as one of the highest pleasures I shall ever enjoy in this world..."  During those early years she had difficulty obtaining paper either because she didn't have money to buy it or it wasn't available.  At times she wrote both horizontally and vertically on the paper, the writing crossing at 90-degrees.  Some of the typed letters in the book are pages long.  I imagine even more pages when they were handwritten.
• At first the family lived in a small, borrowed cabin -- the two older boys slept in their wagon -- until a larger cabin could be built.  The larger cabin was 24' x 36' with two stories and a balcony on the second.  They finished the rooms as they were able, over a period of time.
• Early letters mention the hard work of clearing the land, felling trees, having log rollings, and building buildings.
• Anna loved coffee and smoking her pipe.  She thought going without her coffee caused the drowsiness and stupidity she sometimes felt.  She commented that she wished she could have the coffee grounds her family threw out and lamented how often she had wasted coffee in her lifetime.
• Food was sometimes scarce and money was often scarce during the early years.  She said they didn't go hungry but there was little variety in their diets.  She wrote, "When I think how many dollars I have spent that need not have been and what a small sum would now make us so much more comfortable, I feel certain I should never abuse prosperity as I have done."
• There was coal on their property which her husband and son mined and sold.  She wrote once that they couldn't sell it because they had no means of transporting it (either no cart and/or no oxen) but they did not have the money to buy cart or oxen until they sold the coal.
• In nearly every letter during the first decades Anna wrote about mending clothing and knitting stockings.  Both wore out quickly.  She mended using parts from clothing that was too worn out to mend.  She was grateful when family sent fabric and needles.
• Anna's family was dependent on the weather.  The mills were operated by running water.  During times of drought the mills weren't able to operate.  Anna waited anxiously for flour, fulled cloth, and other mill-produced goods while she hoped for rain.  Forest fires were a problem during drought, too.  When the weather was good their crops flourished unless an infestation of insects attacked them.  Their crops included maple sugar, oats, wheat, linen, corn, hay, broom corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, cantaloupes, peas, beans, potatoes, and honey.  They also owned various animals including oxen, milking cows, sheep, and pigs.
• There was often someone ill in Anna's family.  Reading the remedies was surprising, sometimes shocking.  

The other aspect of the book I must mention is how often Anna wrote about family members including siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, even extended family.  The editor makes a good effort of let the reader know who they were but it became too confusing for me to keep track of everyone.  That did not diminish any aspect of the book.  Anyone researching the surnames Bentley, Brooke, Briggs, Farquhar, Garrigues, and Stabler (among others) who lived in Ohio or Maryland might find this book interesting.

Looking back from the letters of later years to ones from earlier years, it was obvious that Anna and her family had made a success of their efforts.  Progress helped and life became easier as the decades passed.  Anna's last letter was written in November, 1881.  She died in 1890 at the age of 94.

I highly recommend this book if you'd like a glimpse into the life of a frontier woman from 1826 onward.

--Nancy.

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