The Making of a Soldier

By Elmer Williams, Sr

At age one, John Wesley Williams, the descendant of a long line of carpenters and woodworkers emanating from Wales in the 1830's, was transported, along with his mother, westward into the wilderness of Western Pennsylvania. It was there that his father, Maicaigah, homesteaded a niche that he and his wife had carved out of the dense forest to raise their six children as real pioneers. Maicaigah used his God given talent, honed as a boy, working with his father, to build what they needed: a real deluxe log cabin, a new school, a post office and furniture, as well as all their own outbuildings, teaching anyone who wanted to learn, including his son, John Wesley. At age sixteen, John decided it was his patriotic duty to enlist in the army, substituting for a young attorney who was willing to put up $300 to someone who would go in his stead. However, the gut rendering tales told by veterans and older soldiers who had been in battle quickly dispelled much of the illusion of glory, particularly after the newer enlistees were engaged in battle facing hordes of rebels with muskets belching lead and smoke, plus cannon balls exploding in their ranks and no place to go except forward. Orders to charge the enemy before daylight with fixed bayonets and no charge in weapons must have been pretty challenging for a boy of sixteen, with an already serious wound from a mini-ball caught in the shoulder and a still-hanging-on southern general headed south, who had to be stopped before he could hook up with more southern troops headed north. All of this, with a bloom or bust romance trying to hatch out in the wings, offers some pretty exciting reading, especially when laced with ‘word for word’ excerpts from a soldier’s one hundred forty year old diary. The author, John Wesleys’ great grandson, inherited this diary at age seven and studied, coddled, and protected it for sixty-five years before beginning to write this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elmer Williams, Sr
• Release date: Dec 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310987694

Elmer Williams, Sr

Elmer Williams always had a knack for writing, but it wasn't until he began work on his first novel, The Girl in the Green Dress, that he really became serious with his talents. The idea for his first novel developed over a period of thirty-four years- years which were also filled with avid involvement in organizations and the task of raising eight children. In addition to writing, Elmer enjoys music, travel, and public speaking. He has always been an active volunteer and member of his Ohio community and now resides near Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and family.

Book preview

THE MAKING OF A SOLDIER

By

ELMER A WILLIAMS

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Elmer A. Williams

All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 1

Maicaigah Williams was born in Baltimore County, Maryland of emigrant parents, on February 5, 1825. His parents arrived in America two years earlier, his father from Wales and his mother from England. The two had met aboard ship, struck up a friendship and married six months later.

Maicaigah’s father was skilled in the art of carpentry. At an early age, he had learned to use hand tools to create ornate moldings and trim work. The carpentry trade in America during the early 1800’s was a very profitable occupation. The demand for carpenters capable of using dimensional lumber and making carved moldings had escalated soon after the revolutionary war and there had lately been a substantial increase in interest on the part of some of the more influential citizens to live in homes more equal to their European counterparts. With the advent of steam-powered sawmills and woodworking shops coming on the scene, however, the need for craftsmen who could make their own moldings rapidly disappeared. On the other hand, the mass production capabilities of steam-power had enabled the mills to build large inventories of building products. Emigrants who had been pouring into the country in a steady flow since the revolution, were gobbling up the materials. Many of them were skilled carpenters, anxious to ply their trade as soon as they arrived. Elegant buildings were popping up all over the landscape, replacing the old log cabins, except in remote areas where it was still more practical and cheaper to build with logs.

Maicaigah’s father was one of those people who had honed his skill in Wales, working beside his father in an environment that demanded that every young man develop a skill or be forever relegated to serfdom. As Maicaigah grew, it was naturally assumed that, he too, would be destined to learn the trade of his father. It was something of a tradition in the family, but being a carpenter all of his life wasn’t exactly what this young man had in mind. From the time he was a wee small lad, his ardent desire was to be a farmer. He wanted more than anything else to till the rich black soil, plant crops and watch them grow. He wanted to raise those precocious little piglets, baby calves and horses. In fact, as a small boy, he would constantly wander off to a neighbor’s house where they had all kinds of animals. When his mother couldn’t find him at home, all she had to do is listen for animal noises, follow her ears and there he would be.

As Maicaigah grew older, it became increasingly difficult for his father to keep him occupied as a carpenter’s helper. It wasn’t that he was lazy, or that he didn’t like working with his father, or that he disliked doing carpentry. As a matter of fact he welcomed the idea of learning a trade. He just didn’t want to be tied to it for the rest of his life, because it just didn’t fit into his plans for the future. Even before he quit school after the eighth grade he had been squirreling away money, taking any assignment he could find, in which he could make a few cents, all of which he kept stuffed under his mattress. By the time he was fifteen he had amassed a pretty tidy sum, most of which, he had earned working with his father. After all, it was a pretty rewarding occupation, not just for the money he earned, but the pride of riding around on Sunday with friends and family showing off their handiwork, particularly since most of their work was done in pretty distinctive neighborhoods.

The Williams family had lived very near the state line, between York County, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland for about as long as Maicaigah could remember. One day, while shopping for some traps at a country store just over the line, in Pennsylvania territory he happened upon a young lady who was bent upon buying some gingham for a new dress. Actually he rescued her from two boys about his own age who were aggressively teasing her about a very distinctive case of freckles, a pretty brave thing for him to have done, except for his size and the unsolicited support of the shop keeper.

The young lady’s name was Adeline Freeland and she was forever thankful, if not a little awed by his display of bravery in confronting the other two young men. She gratefully allowed him to walk her to her home. In so doing he learned that her mother, like his own had emigrated from England. That fact, besides giving them something to talk about, gave Maicaigah reason to believe that fate perhaps had brought them together. That and the fact that she was very pretty and interesting with whom to converse, gave him ample reason to make numerous excursions to the immediate vicinity of her humble abode during the ensuing weeks and months, often on the pretext of helping her father care for their many animals.

Before long he began sharing his dream with Adeline. In time, she too became enthralled by the excitement of farming and exploring the frontier and the two eventually vowed that they would do so, together. With that thought in mind, they decided they would petition her parents for permission to marry, as soon as Adeline had attained the age of sixteen. Meanwhile, Maicaigah was busy worming his way into the hearts of her parents, not that it was, in the least, a contrived endeavor. He was not only a likable young man, he was honest and diligent. Not only did he do his chores at home but he tended the garden and animals for the Freelands as well. Besides, he refused to accept anything in the way of recompense for his efforts, notwithstanding the fact that he ate gobs of cookies and all manner of pies and tarts, offered up by Adeline’s doting mother. The situation was stimulated by a literal truth, that Adeline was an only child and the couple had always wanted to also have a son, but to no avail.

As Adeline approached the age of sixteen, she began dropping subtle hints to her mother of her desire to marry Maicaigah. At first her hints fell on deaf ears but, as her birthday got nearer the hints became stronger and more pronounced until they became more of a proclamation than a subtle hint and her parents began to realize that the two youngsters were very serious about getting married and heading off to the frontier. It was not that they disliked Maicaigah, even a little, in fact they literally loved the lad and they did not want to scare him away, but Adeline was their only child, she was so young and they were planning to strike out into the wilderness, halfway across Pennsylvania, where they hoped to homestead a farm. It had always been Maicaigah’s dream and now it was Adeline’s dream as well. Finally, after many evenings of struggled discussion, Adeline’s parents relented with but two caveats attached. One that they would not embark upon their journey until Adeline was at least seventeen and the other that they would apply for a homestead before they left. After talking it over with his father, Maicaigah realized it was a wise decision. Aside from delaying his plans a little it was an ideal situation because it would give him time to work with his father a while longer and save some extra money.

It was a simple ceremony, performed by a local minister on July 16, 1846, with only the couple and a handful of friends and relatives in attendance. When it was all over, Maicaigah became the immediate and total custodian of the whole of the Freeland menagerie in exchange for food and housing for he and his new bride. Aside from that there was very little that was changed, since he had long ago taken over the care of three cows, two calves, eleven pigs, twenty three chickens, two work horses and one lighter horse to pull the buggy. His father referred to the arrangement as having his cake and eating it too. If it was a good arrangement for the two youngsters, it was more than that for her father, because his health had not been too good lately and now he could sit back and relax for a year, or as Mrs. Freeland put it, Now ‘e ‘as more time to worry about what ‘e will do when the kids are off.

It was a hot summer in 1847 and Maicaigah put in long days, working with his father during the day and doing his chores in the evening, but he relished the fact that they had very little in the way of expenses. Therefore, they could save practically everything he earned, for the purpose of fulfilling their dreams. Meanwhile Adeline and her mother spent hours canning and preserving food, to satisfy the needs of her young’uns until they were setup and established in the wilderness, as she said over and over again, primarily to emphasis the hardship the two young folks were about to face.

By the spring of 1847, there was much excitement in the household. Adeline was pregnant and due to deliver in early May. Two more calves and a litter of pigs had appeared on the scene and Maicaigah had convinced his father-in-law to buy a couple of sheep to control the weeds.

Maicaigah had bought a wagon with high wheels and wide rims for the trip west, providing, however, that he would be approved for a land grant, somewhere between Maryland and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The high wheels and wide rims, he was told, would make the wagon much easier to pull through the mountains. He was now engaged in installing bows and a canvass covering, so when they were ready to go, all they would have to do is pack up and leave. He had gone over and over the list of tools his father and he had assembled and they were both very confident they had everything covered.

On May 7, 1848, the newlyweds were blessed with the birth of John Wesley Williams. It didn’t take long for the young couple to realize that the longer they stayed, the more difficult it would be to leave. Adeline’s mother had latched on to John Wesley as though he were her own. It was more than obvious that she was continuing to lament their inability to have more children of their own, but it just didn’t work out that way. It was understandable to the young folks, but she was so possessive of the child that, they were worried about the effect it would have on her when they took him away. They determined, therefore, that they should be ready to leave as soon as they received word from their land patent application, thus Maicaigah, henceforth departed for York Pennsylvania to submit their application. It was a two day trip, so he took along some rations for the horse. The folks at the patent office were neither overly friendly nor encouraging and he returned home completely disenchanted. It would be from three to six weeks before he would receive an answer and since he was not a resident of Pennsylvania he would have no priority whatsoever. He had applied for 160 acres of land anywhere in Pennsylvania, providing a major portion of the land could be used to produce crops, the land officer pointing out that most of the choice land had already been allotted, adding that he had no priority and he must sign the acceptance form and return the same within thirty days, agreeing to the terms and conditions or the allotment would be retracted and available to the next eligible applicant. The next six weeks seemed like an eternity, when, at that point any kind of answer would have been a relief from the uncertainty of their future. It already was too late this year to plant a garden and build a log cabin before winter.

Finally, the answer came on a Monday of the seventh week in a large manila envelope which Adeline placed on his plate at the dinner table so Maicaigah would see it the minute he walked in the door when he returned from work. He slowly and carefully opened the envelope, apprehensive about what he might find inside. As he pulled the contents from the envelope and scanned the first few lines, his eyes welled up with emotion as he began reading aloud to Adeline, "Dear Mr. Williams, Your recent application for a land patent, requesting a 160 acre tract in Pennsylvania has been approved subject to your acceptance, with the following conditions;

Number one. That you take possession and build a habitable home on the subject property within two years of this date, July 16, 1848.

Number two. That you do not encumber said property for a period of one year after taking possession and establishing residence.

Number three. That you do not seek to divide said property for a period of ten years from this date.

Number four. In the event said property is sold by you to another party within a period of ten years from this date, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall be reimbursed for all proceeds derived from said sale, over and above your recorded cost of improvements, excluding an allowance for your own labor.

With that said, Maicaigah sprang from his chair, grabbed Adeline and the two danced around the table, howling with delight.

Upon further examination, they discovered their property lay in the Raystown River valley in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The papers included a map of the area, a copy of the survey and the surveyor’s notes, indicating that the property, for the most part was fairly level, but heavily wooded. The property lines extended to the center of the river, since at that point, it was not considered a navigable stream. The soil was described as heavy loam, obviously alluvial with a subsurface of rock and gravel. It was also noted that there were several springs on the property and an abundance of wildlife. The two young folks were jubilant, as could be expected, but aside from being pleased that their plans had come together for them, it was obvious the news was not all that pleasant for Adeline’s parents.

With the departure of the newly acquired family, the house was destined to