Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family [Hardcover]

Linda H. Matthews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

Historians and biographers have traditionally favored stories of the powerful and the trends they set in motion. More recently, they’ve spotlighted the neglected lives of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. “But,” asks Linda H. Matthews, descendant of the pragmatic, adaptable, and lively Hammill family, “who tells the stories of the people in the middle?”

Spanning three centuries and three seas, from the bluffs of Scotland and Ireland to colonial Chesapeake Bay and Virginia, then across the expanding nation into the Pacific Northwest, Middling Folk makes the compelling case that the experiences of the middle classes--those who “quietly, century after century, conducted the business and built the livelihoods that made their societies prosper”--reveal a great deal about the founding of the United States and the ways in which customs and traditions are perpetuated through the generations.

Matthews combines meticulous research and deft storytelling to show how the Scots-Irish Hammills--millers, wagon makers, and blacksmiths--lived out their lives against a backdrop of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and westward expansion. Readers will come away with a newfound respect for the ordinary families who helped shape this country and managed to hold their own through turbulent times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From North Ayrshire, Scotland, to Northern Ireland to various locations throughout North America, a middle-class family named Hammill is documented with stringent attention to detail by Matthews, founder of Chicago Review Press and a Hammill family descendant. Weaving historical prose with mawkish (though clearly set-off) sections of fictions of my own devising, Matthews attempts to illustrate a multigenerational drama in order to convey the history of ordinary people. The best documented family history begins with John Hammill, who left Northern Ireland for Maryland colony in 1725, yet even here the author occasionally injects a personal note (I hope that Lucretia rose above her housewife's dismay). Matthews is at her best relating major events that draw on primary sources, such as the transcript of the post–Civil War trial of Virginian Hugh Hammill, charged with providing a boat to the Confederates, or the trek west made by William and Lucretia Hammill in the 1880s. Matthews succeeds in showing that the Hammill family passed along its preferences through several generations, yet fails to validate her dubious claim that if more people... retrieved and told their family stories to see what they reveal—well, this would be a better world.... Illus., maps. (Nov.)
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Review

"Matthews is a graceful writer, providing the necessary historical facts and documentations while keeping us squarely focused on the people and their stories . . . Simply splendid."  —Booklist, starred review

"A deeply felt, illuminating narrative."  —Kirkus Reviews

"A richly textured, strongly researched and documented, beautifully written family history that any student of Americana will find irresistible. The 'novelistic' inventions that punctuate Matthews's historical narrative are uncannily evocative. A wonderful book!"  —Christopher Herbert, Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities, Northwestern University

"An often poignant story that is both instructive and witty—and likely to impel many to take a closer look at their own family trees."  —Larry Lockridge, professor of English, New York University; author, Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr.

"Middling Folk examines generations of a middle class family and in so doing opens a window to a part of America's history that has long been missing." —Katherine Bateman, author, Kentucky Clay: Eleven Generations of a Southern Dynasty

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press; 1St Edition edition (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556529694
• ISBN-13: 978-1556529696
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Linda H. Matthews grew up in a modest middle-class family near Madison High School, which she attended. Her mother was a first-grade teacher and her father worked for the FHA. Linda graduated from Reed College, an eye- and mind-opening experience for a naive Portland girl, and then studied at Tufts University before moving to the Chicago area, where she has lived most of her adult life. After brief interludes teaching medieval literature at Northwestern University and managing a small Chicago bookstore, Linda cofounded Chicago Review Press along with her husband, Curt. She was publisher there until 2005, when she stepped down in order to research and write Middling Folk, her second book. In the 1970s she coauthored The Balancing Act: A Career and a Family, which made something of a stir as women first began combining a professional career with raising children. Linda enjoys contributing articles to historical newsletters, practicing yoga, and working in her vegetable garden. She has three excellent grown-up children and four equally promising grandchildren. Linda and her husband have lived for many years in Evanston, Illinois, where she loves the trees and lake but misses--of course--the hills and rivers of the west.
Be sure to take a look at the book Web site at www.middlingfolk.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For a self-selected reader..., September 5, 2009

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I don't think Linda Matthews' book would appeal to many readers, but for those who enjoy family histories, with a little social commentary thrown into the mix, I can highly recommend it. Matthews, interested in her father's family history after receiving notebooks he and his sister had put together, traces the Hammell family from its beginning - seemingly - in Norman France. The family first settled in southern Scotland, and then when opportunity struck, moved to the Ulster counties of Northern Ireland. Then, in the 1600's, they took advantage of opportunities in the American colonies, and settled, and for the most part, prospered in the Maryland/Virginia areas near what is now Washington DC. Finally, after the Civil War, Matthews' great-grandfather, Hugh Hammell, left Virginia and, after a short stop in Kansas, finally settled in Washington State. Her book ends with her grand-father's generation.

Matthews calls her book "Middling Folk" because she believes that her father's family has always been middle-class. Never particularly wealthy, most members of the Hammill family were educated, from their days in Scotland and Ireland. Their education gave them an entree, in most cases, into middle-class professions. Most were businessmen - women never worked outside the home - working as mill owners, teachers, lawyers, ministers, hotel owners. A couple of the men were quite successful for their times, but losing much of their wealth due to conditions outside their control. One lived in contested territory in Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Another opened up a mill in Washington State and depended on grain to mill from land not suited to raise grain.

One very interesting point was the very randomness of life in past centuries. One family did quite well in Virginia in the 18th century. They had nine children,but only ONE survived the deaths of his siblings from diseases and the fatal accidents of farm living common in the times. And, the survivor, Hugh, lost his first wife and only child to disease. It would seem the family line would be lost, but Hugh, at the age of 50, married a second time and fathered two healthy sons, before dying a few years later. It was the sons from this late marriage who would continue the line to Matthews' family.

Matthews uses family records and public records as much as possible (the state of Virginia, for instance, lost many of their public records after the Civil War and in the early 20th century). She also writes clearly marked "fictional vignettes" in the voices of - possible - family members and friends. I think she's a good enough writer that they added, rather than detracted, from her book.

One of the problems about reading an "uncorrected proof" of a book is often the absence of supplemental material often included in the final, printed edition. In Matthews' book, I was pleased to see the maps and some pictures included in the book, but not the family tree that will be later included. I'm a "map-addict" and having the maps helped me with the story.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Finish it, September 10, 2009

By 

Kitten Kisser (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family (Hardcover)

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This is not at all what I expected. I thought it would be written more like a nonfiction novel rather than a history timeline. The author is writing about her own family history & using the info. she gathered from her family. She goes back very far. I'm sure to her, the story is extremely interesting. After all, it is in a way about her.
My problem is it reads as a choppy broken History lesson. I guess this is because she doesn't have all the information. She admits that she adds in fiction to fill in the gaps to make it more interesting. I thought this would add to the book & make it more enjoyable. When I got to her first fiction part, I didn't care for the way it was put in the book & I don't feel it went with it. It was like suddenly having a little story in the middle of all these dates & clipped bits of info. It just didn't flow. She clearly indicates that what you are reading is her little interpretation of how she feels things might have been when she fills in the gap. Anyway, I gave up. Simply not my cup of tea & I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Family History for the Rest Of Us, September 12, 2009

By 

Tetsu Uma "The 'Iron Horse'" (Illinois Native in Manassas Park, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

In Middling Folk, Linda Matthews tells the story of her middle class family from their roots in Scotland, through immigration to colonial America and life in Virginia through the Civil War and final settlement in Washington State in the latter part of the 19th Century. While not a scholarly work, it does show extensive research. The author does quite a bit of speculation on events based on small details discovered in records but makes a point to identify speculation. The short sections where she writes first person narratives for past figures are mildly entertaining but neither add or detract from the overall story.

I particularly liked the section on the family's time in Prince William County, VA. I recently relocated to Price William County myself and find the bits of local history bring the area to life.

Matthews makes no pretentions that her family is anything but middle class, which makes the book all the better. She shows the little places where her family has left a lasting memory such as a park named for the family's mill or an old plaque in an even older church in Charles County, MD. She does nothing to hide her ancestors' slave ownership but uses it to show their failings, the same as their 18th and 19th Century neighbors in Maryland and Virginia. What Matthews does accomplish is to make an entertaining story out of her otherwise unremarkable family which goes to show that with the right presentation, any of our families is worthy of a history. An entertaining read.