John Cook grew up in the late nineteenth century on the family farm in the American Midwest. The older he got, the more stories he heard about the world outside his family home. The more he heard, the more he realized he didn't want to spend his life in one place, working the same old soil his family had worked for generations. He wanted to seek out adventure. In order to do so, he would have to leave his home and family behind. At the age of twenty-one, he does just that. He jumps the rails and rides all the way to California, where he hopes to find his future and make his fortune. Life is different in the old American West, though; rural life taught John to be tough, but it didn't teach him all he needs to know about the outside world. John is lucky to realize dreams and to discover a sense of purpose that he didn't even know he had. From panning for gold to working as a lumberjack, John Cook strives to live life to the fullest. Based on a true story, A Farmer's Boy follows John as he travels the country and spends many years away from his family, intent on finding his own path to greatness. John seeks independence and livelihood, like so many other men of his generation living in a young nation filled with promise.
A Farmer's Boy
Based on a true storyBy Jerome StanleyiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Jerome Stanley
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4759-5056-4Chapter One
It was a bitterly cold winter night when Dr. Bailey was called to the Cook residence to deliver the baby. The doctor bundled up, put on his sheepskin cap with earflaps, and took his black leather bag with him out to the barn. The horses had not yet been unhitched from the buggy since he had come home only a short time before to eat dinner. Fortunately, it was a closed-top buggy open only in the front where the driver sat. At least he would be somewhat protected from the snow that had just begun to fall.
He jumped into the seat, threw the leather medical bag on the floor of the buggy, and snapped the reins. The horses trotted out of the barn into the snow. The whole landscape was eerie, draped in the silent black and white. The air was still, emphasizing the silence. The wheels of the buggy rolled over the new snow with very little noise. The most notable sight and sound was the heavy breathing of the horses and the white vapor from their mouths.
The trip to the Cook home took twenty minutes. He tied the horses to the hitching post and went up steps to the porch. As he knocked, he noticed that the door handle was broken. The midwife Lenora Brooks opened the door. She had prepared everything for the baby's delivery. She led him to the bedroom. He smiled at his patient, whom he had known since she was a little girl. She was drenched in perspiration but managed a faint smile in return. With the help of Lenora and the doctor, the mother delivered a healthy eight-pound baby boy. The baby was given to the mother, and the two rested comfortably.
"Mary Ann, what will you name the baby?" the doctor asked.
"We're going to call him John Henry," she replied.
He smiled at her. "Now, Mary Ann, you obey my orders to get plenty of rest, and let Lenora help you for the next day or two," said the doctor. "I'll stop by to see you later in the week. If you need anything, Lenora can let me know."
Lenora followed him to the front door, slipping out onto the porch with him and closing the door. She had a pinched and careworn expression. She whispered to him, pointing to the door.
"Julius was in a rage because Nathan spoke back to him about something. I didn't want them quarreling and upsetting Mary Ann, so I sent them both over to Ezra's place."
"That was very wise of you."
"You know that Julius is a rigid taskmaster with a temper. As a mere twelve-year-old, Nathan has a streak in him, and he tries his dad's patience. He really came into this world on the wrong foot as far as Julius is concerned."
"Let me know if I can be of any help," the doctor said.
He stepped off of the porch and turned to look back at the house. The thought crossed his mind that this new baby, John Henry, would have a big challenge later in life to become independent from his tyrannical father. He climbed into his buggy and drove off.
John Henry began his schooling at age six in the rural Harmon School. His teacher at school was Eliza Brooks. Two of Eliza's sisters were students at the school. One day Hanna, one of the sisters, lost her bustle made from a roll of brown paper. It fell out of her dress onto the floor. John was sitting in the seat behind the girl. Eliza spoke to the girl with a warning.
"Don't put that bustle back on here while John is looking," Eliza said.
"Oh, he's too young to notice anything," said the sister in an impish voice and proceeded to replace her bustle.
After school that day, Hanna and her friend Ethel Brooks left the schoolyard together to walk home. Ethel was a couple of years younger than John, and he thought of her as being a mere baby. They saw John walking ahead of them and ran to catch up with him.
"Hi, John," said Hanna. "We'd like to walk with you."
"Sure," John said. "But I have to hurry to get home in time to do some chores. Dad says that work on the farm is more important than schoolwork."
"Is that why you don't come to school sometimes?" asked Ethel. She had a very sweet smile, John noticed.
"Yeah, but I don't like school much anyway, so the work at home is fine with me. Teachers are only interested in telling me what not to do. But when I work at home, I can be my own boss and stay around the animals. They are my friends. They don't tell me what to do. And they like me when I feed them."
Just then, Lester Mitchell, the neighborhood bully, ran past them with a couple of boys shouting and calling John a sissy.
"Look at John; he's playing with the girls!" Lester and his friends laughed and ran on ahead.
"Don't pay any attention to them," said Ethel. "They are just stupid."
Chapter Two
After his eighth birthday, John attended school for only about three months out of each year. The fifth grade was his final year in school. That year there were several teachers, each one staying for only a few weeks. One of them taught for three days and then went home sick, never to return. There was a problem with unruly kids in the school. They would often play mean tricks on the teachers. When Mr. Hall was hired to teach, he gave a stern introduction, saying that he would not put up with any jokesters. After that, things were fairly quiet except for two boys who sat on opposite sides of the room and occasionally made soft meows like cats.
Parents and grandparents lived in close proximity on the land, and large family gatherings were common. It was a tight-knit family, with everyone looking out for the others. Grandpa Lewis made John a pair of boots and gave him a white pig as a pet. John went with the pig outside to play one day, and the little animal bolted away to find its mother. John's dad and grandpa were working together at the barn when the pig and John Henry ran past them.
"What's the matter with you, John?" his dad scolded. "Can't you keep that blasted pig from running away?"
John felt hurt by his dad's remarks. He ran after the pig, put it in a sack, and brought it back home. Though his feelings had been hurt, he was proud that he had retrieved the pig on his own without any help. But he realized that his dad could not see this accomplishment as something important.
Julius owned a country store and operated his pig farm. He sold his pigs to the national stockyard in Chicago. When the pigs were mature, they were shipped to the stockyards where they were killed, cured, and shipped back. Julius had to pay the freight to and from Chicago plus commissions both ways. These expenses were passed on to the consumer buying the meat in the store. John learned from his dad about running the country store. In the grocery business of the 1870s, the merchant had to buy from a commissioner instead of directly from the farmer, and he added any commissions to the cost of meat and produce in the store.
The Cook family lived in a log house on the prairie near Shouse Chapel in Bible Grove Township. Outside the kitchen door was a water cistern that supplied the family with water until one year a drought caused the cistern to dry up. Uncle Bill Lewis dropped by one summer evening after dinner and sat on the porch talking quietly with his mom and dad about the need to dig a well. Neighbors often spent evenings visiting each other on their porches amid the singing of crickets in the grass and frogs croaking down at the pond. John had a keen ear and listened intently to these conversations that always taught him new words and ideas about the world around him.
"I'll come over tomorrow and bring a water witch to look...
