author
Hewson L. (Hewson Lindsley) Peeke
1861–1942
A lawyer and local historian with a taste for unusual subjects, he wrote lively works that ranged from early American drinking customs to the history of Erie County, Ohio. His books preserve the texture of everyday life as well as the larger sweep of regional history.
1 Audiobook
Americana Ebrietatis The Favorite Tipple of our Forefathers and the Laws and Customs Relating Thereto
by Hewson L. (Hewson Lindsley) Peeke
About the author
Born in 1861, Hewson Lindsley Peeke built a career as both a lawyer and a writer. Accounts of his life describe him as a graduate of Williams College who later taught school, moved west to Dakota Territory, and was admitted to the bar before settling in Sandusky, Ohio.
He is best remembered today for Americana Ebrietatis (1917), a curious and entertaining study of the drinks, laws, and social customs of earlier America, and for A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio (1916), a large-scale local history. Those books show the range of his interests: he could be scholarly and detailed, but also drawn to the colorful corners of the past.
Peeke died in 1942. Though not a household name, he remains of interest to readers who enjoy local history, Americana, and the kind of nonfiction that rescues overlooked details from the past.