Beadle's New Dime Novels: Oonomoo, the Huron

This 1863 Beadle and Adams dime novel by Edward S. Ellis follows Hans Vanderbum, a portly, indolent Dutch-descended man living among the Shawnee Indians in Ohio. Vanderbum, who was captured years earlier and married to a Shawnee widow named Keewaygooshturkumkankangewock, spends his days sleeping and smoking while his wife labors. He has two half-breed sons, Quanonshet and Madokawandock, whom he attempts to educate in the German alphabet with minimal success. The narrative details domestic quarrels, the boys' mischief-making, Hans's ineffectual scolding, and his wife's sharp rebukes. The frontier setting depicts Indian village life and centers on the comic incompetence of Hans as father and would-be educator. The text breaks off as his pipe explodes.