A Century of Lutherans in Ohio (review)

BOOK REVIEWS367 reading rich in human interest, they are so filled with inconsequential matters that the central point is obscure. Had the author digested the contents and woven the most significant into her account, using only spotquotes , the focus would have been sharper and the style less rambling. The book is excessively wordy and the biographical and genealogical sketches often take the reader so far afield that the continuity is destroyed. This probably will be more appealing to ancestor-conscious ladies than to the professional historian. The encyclopedic sketches of prominent pohtical figures also disrupts the reader's trend of thought and are too amateurish to be of great value to anyone who has studied history. There are a great many generalizations which are, at best questionable. For example, "Edward Everett is not much remembered now." Among the omissions is the failure to include Georgia in the list of seceded states, and misleading is the reference to the states of the Upper South. There is some repetition as in the references to Mrs. James Chesnut, and a few errors as when citing Mrs. Robert E. Lee as Mary Lee Fitzhugh Lee instead of Mary Custis Lee. When letters cannot be found for certain periods, the author leaves the impression of padding the account with irrelevant comments on contemporary events. This reviewer is disappointed that the study is not footnoted and that greater use was not made of newspapers. Despite the weaknesses in the book, the ladies' courageous batde comes shining through. Mount Vernon is Ours was apparendy written for the general reader and should be especially popular with women's groups. There is much of interest in this volume, but condensation would have improved it. Mary Elizabeth Massey Winthrop College A Century of Lutherans in Ohio. By Willard D. Allbeck. (Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch Press, 1966. Pp. viii, 309. $6.00.) The author of this important and informative volume is well known as a life-long student of the story of Lutheranism in the United States. This reputation has been earned as the result of a rich and varied career as a minister, historian, educator, and writer. Willard Dow Allbeck, who is Wittenberg Synod Professor of Historical Thelogy in Hamma Divinity School, Springfield, Ohio, has contributed numerous articles on Lutheran history to leading periodicals and co-authored the History of the Lutheran Church in America. In A Century of Lutherans in Ohio Dr. Allbeck proceeds with patience and ingenuity to explore a relatively untouched topic: the development of Lutheranism in the "Buckeye State" from its inception until 1918. He has successfully combined a sympathetic appreciation of his subject with adherence to the best traditions of the historical profession for thorough research and careful synthesis. Utilizing a variety of primary sources, including "parish and courthouse records, tombstone inscriptions, diaries, 368CIVIL WAR HISTORY and bound volumes of local and denominational newspapers," he has produced a readable and reliable narrative of a period of Lutheran history that was frequently fraught with "complexity and competition." Lutheranism was brought to Ohio at the turn of the nineteenth century by German speaking settlers from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Pioneer circuit riding pastors, such as John Stauch and Paul Henkel, followed the frontier, gathering the scattered Lutherans into congregations. Within two decades a semblance of "piety, order, and authority" was established, and in September, 1818, an Ohio Synod was formed. Substantial growth occurred, and by 1833 the Ohio Synod was "the second largest Lutheran synod in the nation." Large families and an influx of German immigrants during the next thirty years caused communicant Lutheran membership in Ohio to increase 165 per cent, or more than twice the rate of population growth. By 1880 the Lutherans composed a statistically significant portion of the church-going population in a state which ranked third in size in the Union. Lutheran expansion, however, opened a Pandora's box of perplexities. As the issue of sectionalism began to aggravate the nation, Ohio's Lutherans found it to be virtually impossible to preserve their unity against the devisive forces of geography. Poor transportation and communication facilities encouraged the emergence of competing Lutheran synods, and the original expectation that the Ohio Synod would...