Across Five Aprils 2
This story begins in mid-April in the year 1861 and centers on the Creighton family. Ellen Creighton, the matriarch of the family was a small woman, who had been a pretty girl in her youth when she married Matthew Creighton in the 1830's. She had given birth to twelve children and Jethro, with whom this story follows, was the youngest of her children. He was born in 1852, the same year that she lost three of her children to the dreaded childhood disease known as "child paralysis". Jethro had somehow managed to survive the illness and because of this, Ellen favored her youngest son and allowed him to get away with things that her older children would have surely been punished for. She saw special talents in Jethro and was sure that he had been marked by destiny and she looked after him very carefully. Jethro's older sister, Jenny was 14 and she was a woman in most ways, she cooked meals and tended to the family as a woman would do. She was in love with the schoolmaster, Shadrach Yale, and he was a very close friend of the family. Shad was a largely built man of twenty. He had come from Pennsylvania in 1858 to study at McKendree College, where his uncle was a professor of Natural Philosophy, what we know now as Physics. He began tea
One day, while Jethro had gone into town, he met up with Shad, it was a day he had dreamed about and he knew that things were finally going to be okay. He knew that things could be restored , maybe not exactly as they were, but restored none the less. He knew that John and Eb would be coming home and things would be fine and on that last April, this child who grew to a responsible young man, knew his life would forever be changed. He learned many lessons during the last four years, and he was a much better person. He had learned the value of responsibility and the true value of human life. Some men, who were disgruntled at Matthew because of his son, Bill and his choices, decided that Matthew needed to be punished for his son's decision to go and fight for the Southern Confederacy. The men burned Matthew's barn along with his farm equipment and hay and grain and polluted his well with coal oil. Neighbors and friends of the family offered to help out on the farm and were going to build him a new barn. One friend wrote a letter in the newspaper to the arsonists, scolding them for their cowardly behavior. In March in the year 1862, Jethro was trusted to take the team into Newton by himself. Newton was fifteen miles away and Jethro left before dawn that morning for his journey, he was excited about the trip and was pleased that his father had given him the responsibility of taking care of business for him. It was during this week that Jethro went from a protected boy to a responsible young adult. While he was in Newton, he ran into some unsavory people in the store and they began giving him a hard time about his brother Bill, who was fighting for the rebels. He was quick to stand up for his brother. Dave Burdow was in the store that day and he didn't have much to say. His son was responsible for the death of Jethro's sister, Mary several years earlier and Matthew had talked the townsfolk into sparing Burdow's son, Travis's life, as it would turn out, he would be in a position to return the favor. As Jethro was heading home that evening, he had to travel right by the Burdow farm, and he saw Dave Burdow waiting on him. When he reached the farm, Dave climbed into the wagon with him. He said he had heard talk at the store of an unsavory gentleman that would lie in wait of a young boy traveling alone. Dave had saved young Jethro from impending danger and then he simply went back home. During that same week, Matthew suffered a heart attack and could no longer take care of the farm and since Jethro's brothers were off fighting in the war, it was up to Jethro to take care of the farm and the family. Jethro's brothers and his cousin had been talking about going off to war and this thought really excited Jethro. His thoughts on war were, to say the least, seriously misconstrued. He thought war was all brass bands and shining horses and men in uniform. He knew that men had died during war, but all he had ever heard were stories of war by the men who had lived through it. These survivors were his great grandfather, who had survived the revolution, his father had survived the Mexican war,
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ellen Creighton, Dave Burdow, Matthew Creighton, Shad Jenny, Ellen Matthew, Newton Newton, John Shad, Matthew Jenny, Southern Confederacy, Northern Army, jethro's brothers, ellen creighton, abraham lincoln, matthew creighton, eb finally, heard talk, jenny marry, care farm, friend family, optimistic future,
Approximate Word count = 2095
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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