The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 62

62 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
research in the records of the missions which are preserved in the
archives of the diocese of San Antonio, and of wide reading on
subjects brought into notice by the lives of the frailes whose names
are here gathered. The notes especially show indefatigable indus-
try and scholarship. This was the last work of Father Schmitt,
whose death occurred shortly after it came from the press. lie
was yet a very young man, and of great promise, and his death
will be deeply regretted by students of Southwestern history.
Boonesborough; Its founding, pioneer struggles, Indian expe-
riences, Transylvania days, and revolutionary annals.-With full
historical notes and appendix. By George W. Ranck, Member of
the Filson Club. Illustrated. Louisville: John P. Morton &
Company. 1901. Pp. xi+286.
This is No. 16 of the valuable series that the Filson Club is pub-
lishing. Though in paper covers, the volume has, in all its
appointments, the air of good taste and abundant means. One
especially attractive feature is the well chosen list of half-tone
illustrations. The narrative is preceded by an appreciative intro-
duction by Col. R. T. Durrett, president of the club. The subject
with which Mr. Ranck has to deal is one full of inspiration for
those who understand and sympathize with the pioneer work by
which the West was really won-an inspiration which he has not
failed, in a very marked degree, to catch. It is not easy to get the
true perspective of our history. It may be that men like Daniel
Boone, or even George Rogers Clark, did not have the depth of
insight or conscious largeness of purpose that appears in the work
of Washington or Madison or Hamilton, and that they builded
wiser than they knew; but what if Great Britain had emerged from
the struggle of the Revolution with its tenacious grasp still fixed
on the West-the land where, as Woodrow Wilson shows, the true
type of Americanism has developed? What would the United
States have been? Let the historian that gives a hundred pages to
the war with Great Britain and passes over with brief and careless
mention the work of Boone and Clark justify himself if he can.
The reviewer is of the opinion that such historians can learn much
worth their knowing from the publications of the Filson Club, and
especially from this number, which deals with the central feature
in the making of Kentucky.