An Extraordinary Ordinary Woman: The Journal of Phebe Orvis, 1820–1830 by Susan M. Ouellette

Abstract

Reviewed by: An Extraordinary Ordinary Woman: The Journal of Phebe Orvis, 1820–1830 by Susan M. Ouellette Sara C. Evenson (bio) An Extraordinary Ordinary Woman: The Journal of Phebe Orvis, 1820–1830 By Susan M. Ouellette. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2018. 386pages, 6" x 9". $34.95 paper, $34.95 ebook. Poised between the revolutionary tumult and antebellum tension lies an often overlooked chapter of history—the era of the New Republic. Despite being overshadowed in many ways, this period is fundamental to our understanding of American history. It was during this period that Phebe Orvis lived her ordinary extraordinary life in rural Vermont and the New York frontier. During her lifetime Phebe experienced and engaged with a world in which American identities were being negotiated and formed; where rural, white hinterland settlements became increasingly connected to urban areas, prompting increased frontier settlement; where the fervor of the Second Great Awakening kindled religious revivals and conversions; where global commercial entanglement complicated an individual's relationship with the market; and where, perhaps most importantly for Phebe, women were forced to reconcile their place in a shifting world with their personal ideas of love, romance, and duty. In short, it was a time of intense change that seemed in many ways to be intangible. Susan M. Ouellette's exploration of Phebe Orvis's journal brings this critical period of American history to life in an engaging and incredibly readable narrative. In this book Ouellette sets out to explore the life of Phebe Orvis and the ways in which the New Republic developed in rural Vermont and New York. She accomplishes this through a quick six chapters that chronologically follow Phebe's life from the age of nineteen to twenty-nine. The journal begins with Phebe as a young woman living on her grandparents' Vermont farm, negotiating courtship, family enterprise, and educational aspirations. The journal reveals heartbreaking moments of disappointment and compromise as Phebe relocates from her home to the New York frontier, marries, and bears her children. It ends in 1830, as Phebe's life as mother and domestic producer overtake her time. The chapters are brief but informative, and a full transcription of the journal is included as an appendix. For those who are unfamiliar with the geographic region in question, three maps are included to orient oneself to the key locations of the journal. Drawing on past scholarship such as Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale, Ouellette delicately explores the ways in which the ordinariness of this journal is actually quite extraordinary during this period. By situating Phebe's hyperlocal journal entries within a larger web of social and cultural trends, Ouellette proves deft at extracting meaning from what might otherwise be overlooked as purely quotidian. For example, Ouellette urges her readers to "use imagination and make certain leaps of faith to tease out the details" [End Page 438] of Phebe's life (1). Such use of imagination allows Ouellette to understand Phebe's relationships based on the ways in which individuals are notated in the journal. Phebe's onagain–off-again relationship with Adolphus Taylor is interpreted via the way in which she notes his name, ranging from "Mr. A. Taylor" to "Mr. Adolphus Taylor" to simply "Adolphus." While it may sometimes feel that Ouellette is reading too far into Phebe's journal, I believe that her conclusions are entirely reasonable and based in a firm understanding of the historical period. Indeed, the great strength of this book is in Ouellette's ability to connect a microhistorical narrative with important national and global themes. Without these thematic connections, Phebe's journal is an antiquarian curiosity, and thematic history remains a detached and faceless narrative. Ouellette additionally demonstrates the very tangible ways in which the market impacted lives during Phebe's lifetime. Following in the path of Paul E. Johnson's works A Shopkeeper's Millennium and Sam Patch the Famous Jumper, Ouellette gives concrete examples of how market shifts directly impacted everyday life. In her Vermont home, Phebe is used to a certain level of access to manufactured goods and the society that accompanies a more settled and established area. One of her great...