William Nowlin

Born in 1821, he is best known as the author of The Bark Covered House; or, Back in the Woods Again, first published in 1876. The book recounts his family’s move from New York to Dearborn, Michigan, and describes pioneer life in the Michigan wilderness with the detail of someone who lived it.

Rather than writing fiction, he wrote from memory and experience, shaping his story as a tribute to his parents and to the hardships of early settlement. That gives his work a warm, personal quality while also making it valuable as a historical account of everyday frontier life.

Modern readers still find him through library archives and public-domain editions of The Bark Covered House. Although reliable biographical details about his wider life are limited in the sources available here, his reputation endures through this memoir and its lively picture of early Michigan.