Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813 to 1840: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813 to 1840, credited to William Cooper Howells, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813 to 1840 by William Cooper Howells. Read by Sue Anderson. Recollections of Life in Ohio is the autobiography of William Cooper Howells (1807-1894), father of the American novelist William Dean Howells. William Cooper's father brought the family from Wales to Ohio in 1813. This was a time and place where neighbors joined together to raise log barns and husk corn, where local peach brandy was a staple drink, and where religious revivalism permeated the social fabric, fanned by itinerant preachers such as Johnny Appleseed. Howells' recollections see him herding the family pig down the road with a noose around its hind leg, acting as "corner man" at a log barn raising, curing tobacco in a smoke house, grubbing stumps, fighting snakes, and wrestling with what it meant to be "religious" at the camp meetings to which father took him. Early on, William Cooper showed a literary bent and an interest in politics. He became a printer and a newspaper man and, in the 1870's and 80's served as U.S. consul in Quebec and Toronto. Recollections of Life in Ohio is a fascinating and enjoyable read for anyone interested in U.S. frontier history. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813 to 1840
• Author credits: William Cooper Howells
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 12
• Listed recording duration: 6:34:49

Catalogue topics

• audio
• memoirs
• howells
• ohio
• frontier
• pioneer
• non-fiction
• america

Track guide

1. 01 - Emigration to America; Down the Ohio by Keelboat — 31:37
2. 02 - The Woolen Mill; Sketch of Quaker Usages and Customs — 30:26
3. 03 - Scanty Schooling; A Religious Enthusiast — 30:28
4. 04 - A Log Cabin; Pigs in the Woods — 36:00
5. 05 - Early Steamboats; Rafts on the River — 35:54
6. 06 - Camp-Meeting in the Rain; A Night Grammar School — 32:50
7. 07 - Washing of Blue Feet; Hewn-Log Farmhouses — 34:49
8. 08 - Tobacco Raising; The Ohio Canal and Work on it — 36:14
9. 09 - The Author Opens a Grammar School; How Singing was Taught — 31:32
10. 10 - Six Cents Fine and Five Minutes in Jail; The Author Starts a Magazine — 30:55
11. 11 - Public Executions; Slaveholders' Panic in Wheeling — 33:10
12. 12 - Opposition to the Mexican War; Declining Years — 30:54

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.