Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a set, tax and shipping included. Each book is about 120 pages written for intermediate readers (4th grade) with local illustrations. Volume I is Amelia Changes Her Tune. Volume II is Isaac and Wolf Paw Find Their Home. Volume III is Autumn Keeps Her Secret. Volume IV is Mr. Gamble Starts a School. Volume V is Jacob Blows his Horn. Volume VI is Cassie Fights the War.
“I am so glad for this news of the two of you adding to your family. So many families have lost loved ones in this war, I am glad for you to gain,” Mr. Day said.
“Thank you, Matthias,” Mr. Pleasants said, “But we must face the truth that we add to our family only because of losses in another family.”
“We understand that, too,” Levi said, quietly, and he nodded briefly at Emilene.
Emilene found herself in a strange place. She was trying to be happy for these two girls, but they reminded her too much of how she felt — lost, alone, afraid, even though she was surrounded by nice people.
Everyone here is nice, they are kind, friendly, helpful. They treat me nicely; they seem to care about me. I don’t need anything. Except my family! My mother and father. Why doesn’t anyone understand that?
“Isaac, I understand where the girls came from, but how did they end up in your care?” Levi asked.
“Friends from Canada knew of them because they had known their parents. The girls were brought to a friend’s home in Oberlin, but they do not have the means to raise them. We prayed about it, then decided it was the right thing to do,” Isaac said.
“You have friends in Canada?” Emilene asked.
Isaac laughed.
“Yes, child, does that surprise you?” he asked.
“Well, Canada is a whole other country, like Germany,” she said.
“True, but much closer than Germany. Just across the lake from Ohio. We used to live there,” Isaac said.
Everyone was quiet. Isaac looked around.
“What? The war is over. I suppose it is not wrong to let that fact be known,” he said.
Why would that be bad? What is it about Canada that would be kept a secret?
“Child, we lived in Canada because there we could be free,” he said.
“But people are free here. That is why my parents came here,” she said.
“We have freedoms here, yes, but I was in Canada to be a free man,” he said.
“A Freeman.” Emilene furrowed her brow and the rest of the room seemed quiet. All were listening to the conversation.
Mr. Day looked serious. Mrs. Zimmerman was smiling, like she knew something. Mrs. Day and Mrs. Pleasants were studying their children. Suddenly, Cassie jumped up.
“I knew it. I knew it. You were the one. I knew it.”
Mr. Pleasants sat back and smiled at her. She looked at her mother.
“He’s the one, isn’t he? You said someone we knew was one you helped in the Underground Railroad when you were a little girl. Isn’t that right?”
Autumn looked at Isaac.
“You opened the box pretty wide this time, Isaac,” she said. “Well, friends, don’t you think our children should know? The family stories. The good stories. The heroic stories. How will they rise to their own greatness if they don’t know from hence they came?”
And Mr. Pleasants recounted to the children his journey as a boy escaping with his parents from slavery to freedom in Canada, how Autumn as a girl helped his family through this part of the trip, and how Isaac, with his new bride, decided to come back to the area to serve as a barber, and help other runaways escape.
And how he and Mr. Day worked together to send “freedom runners” to Sandusky by hiding them in freight cars on the trains next door, to be retrieved by friends up there, using special signals they had devised.
Cassie and Jacob even got to tell of an episode in which they helped a local farmer, Mr. Finney, move some runaways away from danger. That is when Mrs. Zimmerman had hinted that she had helped someone that they knew.
“Now that Mr. Lincoln, God rest his tired soul, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and this wretched war is complete, stories such as ours will start to surface,”
Isaac said. “We must still be somewhat discreet because we still live with the same neighbors who would have turned us in when they could, but our families should know the stories. “They will be told to their children, and their children’s children, and should be told as long as there is a United States of freedom.”
Emilene sat in awe of what she was hearing. She knew about slaves running away from their masters and of people helping in some ways, but she did not imagine it had happened so close to her, right under her nose.
During a lull in the conversation, which did not happen very often for the three families involved, Mr. Day brought up something else.
“I came to tell you this, then chose not to, because of the good news of Lilly and Ivy’s arrival, but I am afraid I have received most unfortunate news.”
“Editors are the ones to know things first,” Levi said.
“All this news of the President’s funeral train has overshadowed a report I received of an explosion on the Mississippi River two nights ago. The Sultana is a steam boat that was traveling up river bringing a large number of Union prisoners of war back from Andersonville Prison.”
“That wretched Confederate prison camp that was so hard on so many of our men,” Isaac replied.
“Apparently the boiler exploded and the ship burned and sank. Nearly everyone was killed,” Mr. Day said.
“How many?” Levi asked.
“Nearly 1,800.”
Everyone gasped. There had never been a ship disaster of that size.
“I am afraid it gets worse.” He paused. “Many from Mansfield were on this ship.
“As many as a hundred,” he said.
Emilene’s eyes got wide as she watched Mrs. Zimmerman drop her fork, and Mrs. Pleasants started crying.
A lot more children will miss their fathers. It’s just not right.
