- Near this spot many Erie artifacts have been found
Dan came to me about a year ago and explained that he had an idea for a novel and had completed the first chapter. He wanted my wife and I to give it a quick read and let him know if we thought he should continue to keep going. We both thought it had great potential and encouraged him to go on. Yesterday he delivered to me the finished product. He asked if I would read and report my reaction. Here it is.
The main character is a carpenter who has done work at the Elementary School in Collinwood, Ohio which burned to the ground with the loss of 172 school children and 3 teachers. He suffers psychological damage by what he sees and is literally forced out of town and seeks refuge in Lake County, a rather primitve area east of Cleveland. More specifically, he hides in the Chagrin Valley near it’s primary river the Chagrin as it winds Northward through small towns now known as Gates Mills, Willoughby Hills, Kirtland, Willoughby, Eastlake, and finally ending at Lake Erie.
The story has sinews that hold it together. The carpenter’s trauma never escapes from him. His frustrations in his desire to be a fine cabinetmaker never ends. His relations with his wife and her desire for a formal church relationship continue to put a strain on both of them. His son has problems that continually verge on catastrophic actions. His innate moral values keep him resolute as he struggles with these issues.
His success comes about through the aid of a remnant of Mormons whose families did not flee from Kirtland in the early nineteenth century. Ironically, one of the descendants of a Morman man is featured in the ending of the story.
This book is rich in local history, complete with thinly disguised names and locations and also lots of Native American lore. Who will find good reading here? Anyone who is interested in antique furniture. Anyone interested in Western Reserve History circa early 1800′s. Any naturalist interested in the Chagrin River. Any church member looking for conformation that the organized church can reach out and help non-members achieve goals.
I must disclose that I knew a carpenter named Elmer and his son named Dan. They built a large table for me by hand out of White Ash which Elmer and I selected at an Amish sawmill in Burton. The rough boards were planed and trimmed in Elmer’s shop. I am seated at that table in my own “cabin” on the Chagrin River as it winds through Kirtland and Willoughby Hills. I have spent close to 70 years floating and playing in that river. As Dan constructs his plot I have difficulty keeping fact from fiction. That doesn’t stop me from recommending it to you. I wonder if that Blue Heron that is squawking down at the river is a descendant of the one Dan includes in his story? Is the woolen mill really Dodd’s Mill in Pleasant Valley?
This capricious and much maligned body of water suffered from pollution so badly that Dan’s writing that “they drank pure water” was indeed a fantasy in recent years. Even though our population has increased since the 1800′s, the river has been making a comeback. Through my “cabin” window can be seen herds of deer eating everything in sight. Occasionally a Red Fox runs through, and a Coyote comes around and kills large numbers of Canadian Geese whenever he can. Wild Turkey show up in large flocks, and a Beaver loves to mow down trees at the water’s edge. There are even recent sightings of Bear. There is an annual migration of Steelhead Trout that spawn right in my backyard. We even have a resident American Bald Eagle near by. To tell you the truth, I would not be surprised to see one of Dan’s Erie Indians walk out of the woods some day soon.
From Dave and Delores on the Chagrin River
