Memory is often connected to a place. The house you grew up in, the school you attended as a youth, the city or state that saw your formative years take shape: these places imprint themselves on us, become the frame for our worldview.
For Jeffrey Knowles, author of “Cuyahoga’s Child: Growing Up in the Valley of the Crooked River,” the memory of his childhood home served as the impetus to a highly researched and lovingly crafted reflection on not only his own history, but that of the valley itself. “It was a little bit of choreography showing how my life brushed up against the backdrop of the Cuyahoga Valley,” he says.
Knowles’ pas de deux with the history of the valley has lasted more than a quarter of a century, beginning with a narrative memoir written in mid-life. As he grew older, he reflected more and more on his connection to the verdant land where his father and uncle built homes for their families, and where Knowles romped, explored, and came of age alongside his brother and cousins. Into his 60s, Knowles revised and edited his text, finding deeper and more meaningful links between his own childhood and that of the Western Reserve.
Each chapter presents a piece of the Cuyahoga Valley readers are mostly familiar with—the canals, the Hale House, the railroads—and links it to very personal details of Knowles’ life. It’s not that Knowles feels his own story is somehow bigger or more important than that of others in his generation. Rather, he thinks all of our stories are important, as they connect us to each other and our collective history. “We’re all water striders, skirting on the surface and not connecting on a deep level,” he says. “I encourage my audience to dig back in [to their personal histories].”
He attributes much of the meat of his book to collaboration with local historians and chroniclers of the valley’s particular beauty and historical significance. The photos come from Ian Adams, renowned Cuyahoga Valley photographer for over 30 years. Steve Paschen, former curator of Kent State’s library and Professor Emeritus at that school, helped with an early draft and wrote the foreword to the book. Most of all, though, Knowles bows deeply to the man he calls his “Cuyahoga Valley godfather,” Joe Jesensky, an idiosyncratic character who walked, sketched and wrote about the valley for most of his 101 years of life. Knowles sought Jesensky out after reading his book, “Joe’s Place: Conversations on the Cuyahoga Valley” (1999, Cuyahoga Valley Association). “We stomped through the old woods together,” Knowles says. He cherishes several long letters of encouragement from the Thoreau-like Jesensky, who worked for the U.S. Forest Service and Goodyear Aerospace before passing away in 2008.
“There’s a generally innate passion within people to understand who they are on a historical and cultural level,” Knowles says. “That’s the message I want to convey; I’d like to see that passion stoked among people.”
“Cuyahoga’s Child: Growing Up in the Valley of the Crooked River”
Orange Frazer Press, 2015, $24.99
Available on amazon.com
