In the headlong rush that characterizes American life as we know it today, the quieter ways of just a generation ago have all but passed from the scene and are remembered by only a few. Men's eyes are fixed on tomorrow and the day after; yesterdays pass unnumbered and often unremembered into time.

Howard E. Good recaptures a vanished way of life for those who still remember, and recounts it for those who cannot. He was born on a farm in an area of the Maumee Valley in northwestern Ohio that was known as the Black Swamp, a dank remnant of the violence of the ice age and its glaciers,...