Pirates, Native Americans, capture and rescue, treasure, buffalo hunting, and even killing an attacking bear with just a knife! Now there’s a combination of exciting events for a story!
Down the Big River by Stephen W. Meader is a story of travel, adventure, danger and rescue, and is set in the early 19th century during the time of early westward expansion in America.
I have 25 books by Stephen Meader. His 40 plus books are fiction, upper elementary and up reading level, and many are set in an actual historical time period. Forty-four of his books are listed on Biblioguides website! Some of his other titles include: The Black Buccaneer, Boy with a Pack, Buffalo and Beaver, Everglades Adventure, and Clear for Action.
Stephen Meader was an American author who was born in 1892 and died in 1977. Many of his books have been reprinted. Purple House Press has recently reprinted Down the Big River, and I hope will do many more. Southern Skies has also reprinted quite a few of Meader’s titles. On the Southern Skies website, Meader is quoted as saying, “I think I developed the idea, after publishing about 20 books, that I had a mission and that mission was to cover all of America, all of the periods that were adventurous and romantic and hadn’t been written about and all the, to me, fascinating places.” Many of Meader’s books can be read on Internet Archive, and Biblioguides website gives the links for those.
The Southern Sky website also records that “if you look over the list of Meader’s books, they cover the United States from Maine to Hawaii, Puget Sound to Florida…Meader states, ‘What I wanted to do is give children from sixth grade on a chance to open their minds to the bigness of the country and the richness of its history and that has been my aim. I think a lot of kids have developed some of that feel. They have enlarged their horizons. If I have done anything that is worthwhile in this life, that is it.’”
Down the Big River was first published in 1924 and is historical fiction taking place in the year 1805. The story has exciting action right from the start in the first few pages with an unprovoked fight on the riverbanks near Pittsburgh as Tom Lockwood, and his aunt and uncle journey westward from their Pennsylvania farm to join friends living in Missouri.
As they made their way down the Ohio River, his family is taken captive by river pirates. With the help of his faithful dog Cub and some friends he meets along the way, Tom, who escaped, sets out to rescue them with courage, determination, and a little bit of luck.
For those of you who might read this aloud to your family, It would be fun to get out a US map and trace their journey to combine fiction with geography.
Of course, Tom and his friend Andy, a younger boy he meets, are the “good guys,” and those rough mean river pirates are decidedly evil. And the “good guys” win! The story also has some Native American characters and although they are stereotyped with the typical verbal response of “how” in greeting, they are definitely sided with the Tom and Andy to outwit the river pirates. The Shawnees are there to help at key times.
Even Daniel Boone makes an appearance, entering the story at an important point. He speaks to Tom and Andy of the future of America. He passes the dream, the excitement of the journey that lies ahead, and the baton of exploration to these two young men in this poignant moment:
And I quote, “The old man rose and spread his great arms to the east and west. A light was on his face brighter than the glow of the fire. ‘The people that have come to live in these valleys,’ he said, are own kin to the folks back in Virginny an’ New England an’ the rest o’ the states—brothers, sisters an’ cousins. Some came an’ some stayed. An’ all this land, from the Lakes down to the Gulf is ours – America. It can be – it’s goin’ to be the greatest country in the world.’ The stern light left his eyes as he concluded. He returned to sit once more between Andy and Tom.. ‘Ye see,’ he said, after a little, ‘I’m getting’ along past the age when I’ll see much o’ this myself. Reckon I wasn’t cut out fer that sort o’ livin’ anyhow. But you boys’ll see it, an’ be part of it. So, Andy, that’s why I say you’re right to go East an’ git some schooolin’. But, ‘went on the white-haired hunter, “ye needn’t to worry about that yet awhile. Come fall, ye kin go down to New Orleans, an’ git aboard a packet bound for Baltimore or Philadelphy, an’ make the whole trip in less’n a month. An’ long ‘fore the time comes to start, ye’ll be a full-fledged Missourian. ‘You boys have got some great sights ahead o’ ye,’ he chuckled. “There’ll be the ol’ He-River, runnin’ a couple o’ miles wide, slow an’ yaller. An’ you’ll go up, polin along for days on end. An’l you’ll see prairie, stretchin’ away, green an’ rollin’ without a sign of a tree, clear to the far ridge. You’ll shoot your first buffalo, an’ watch the herds of ‘em run, with their tails up an’ their heads to the groun an’ their eyes shut, while the earth shakes. ‘Yes,’ he repeated, a trifle sadly, ‘you’ll see a heap o’ things. Wish I was your age, an’ goin’ with ye.’”
I can highly recommend Meader’s books, especially for boys in those middle school years. The Southern Skies website tells that “by the time Meader finished his last novel in 1969, the world of the 1970s youth literature involved sex, drugs and more contemporary subject matter. Harcourt indicated that they would not be publishing any additional Meader novels, and Meader decided that he didn’t really want to try to change his style to match the times. According to his son John, “He did some writing for the Cape May Historical Society, but that was about all. By then, he was well into his seventies and content to relax and read.”
Biblioguides website quotes Chesley Howard Looney in her dissertation Stephen W. Meader: His Contributions to American Children’s Literature, “Values that Meader expressed in his books, such as self-reliance, patriotism, courage, doing the right thing, working diligently, loyalty, community, free enterprise and entrepreneurialism, and taking care of oneself and one’s family, are important in American society.”
And I can say that all
those themes are present in Meader’s book, Down the Big River.
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