Journey Away

By Doris Lee Gainer

I began to write poetry and short stories to express the unspeakable pain of losing a child when my son, a multi-talented dynamic young
man, had endured several cruel twists of fate which forced him to return home to live with me. These were to be the final five years of his life, which ended one month after his diagnosis of leukemia. There was a certain release in my struggle to find the best words to put down. Some people have told me that my writings have helped them deal with the hurts in their life, and to sympathize with mine. I am humble and complimented to hear this.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 16, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462831203

Doris Lee Gainer

A native Virginian, I was blessed with loving, practical, talented parents - a younger sister, dozens of cousins with matching aunts and uncles Raised with the constant sound of music, witty people, and the cultural exposure available in a small city boasting three notable colleges in their time, I was lucky to be in an idyllic southern lifestyle. Always a singer, I studied piano and voice with private teachers and later in college. I loved English, History and Composition in high school. In college my major was Business Principles and minor in Music and Voice. I began to write poetry and short stories to express the unspeakable pain of losing a child when my son, a multi-talented dynamic young man, had endured several cruel twists of fate which forced him to return home to live with me. These were to be the final five years of his life, which ended one month after his diagnosis of leukemia. There was a certain release in my struggle to find the best words to put down. Some people have told me that my writings have helped them deal with the hurts in their life, and to sympathize with mine. I am humble and complimented to hear this. After 35 years in Florida I moved back to the hills and mountains dear to me. I live near my sister in Tennessee and am about two hours from Bristol. Recently inspired by the history of my own ancestors’ migration from old world Germany to southwest Virginia in the 1700s, I found myself writing my first actual book, entitled Journey Away.

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by Doris Lee Gainer.

Registration file no. 1-93345714 given on Aug. 14, 2008.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

55931

Contents

Chapter ONE

Juliana

Chapter TWO

Helga’s Day

Chapter THREE

Maria and Jacob

Chapter FOUR

Recovery Path

Chapter FIVE

Jubilation Day

Chapter SIX

Awakening

Chapter SEVEN

Gift Of Love

Chapter EIGHT

The House

Chapter NINE

The Wedding Day

Chapter TEN

New Beginning

Chapter ELEVEN

Old Wilhelm Welsch

Chapter TWELVE

Born In The Storm

Chapter THIRTEEN

Fear and Taxes

Chapter FOURTEEN

Aftermath

Chapter FIFTEEN

Secret Meeting

Chapter SIXTEEN

Hearts Broken

Chapter SEVENTEEN

Trek to Safe House

Chapter EIGHTEEN

Immigration

Chapter NINETEEN

Voyagers

Chapter TWENTY

Philadelphia

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

Johan and Herman

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

War Talk

Chapter TWENTY-THREE

Found Family

Chapter TWENTY-FOUR

Virginia Homestead

Chapter TWENTY-FIVE

A Chapter Closes

Chapter TWENTY-SIX

Ready, Set, Go

Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN

On The Trail

Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT

Tracking Bernard

Chapter TWENTY-NINE

Caravan

Chapter THIRTY

The Cherokees

Chapter THIRTY-ONE

The Exchange

Chapter THIRTY-TWO

Release

Chapter THIRTY-THREE

Renewal Visit

Chapter THIRTY-FOUR

Endurance

Chapter THIRTY-FIVE

New River

Chapter THIRTY-SIX

Promised Land

Chapter THIRTY-SEVEN

Sunset

55931-GAIN-layout.pdf

OUR BEGINNINGS

If we cannot look back to search and see

From whom or whence we came, you and me

Then our paths wander aimlessly as we roam

Our spirits unanchored and knowing no home

We must learn these from our family forebears

Or hear from someone else who tells of theirs

How foundations of us each were laid with care

Of the spiritual seeds we grow in us unaware

Our elders let waters of strength loose to flood

Our lives with knowledge of family in our blood

The Creator knows names for each one and all

From Eden to Heaven’s door we answer His call

Doris L. Gainer

My story is fiction, but fiction based loosely on the paths and journeys of my own family ancestors. The characters are from my own imagination and are also based upon the human probability of their actions given the circumstances of their period in the history of the old European world and our own Nation’s infancy and its efforts to mature.

I have grown to know each character and in fact, have grown to love many of them. They remind me of the pride I have in my own family members. Juliana could have been our own great, great, etc. grandmother, Anna Repass.

Dedications of this story would have first gone to my Parents, Elizabeth Repass and PC Weeks, my husband, Richard Lee Gainer and my son, David Laurence Gainer. However they are gone from this world and from me, except that they are always in my heart.

Dedication of this story is to my sister, Barbara Adams, who encouraged me and hurried me along.

In recognition of the tireless efforts, time consuming research and ultimately the inspiration I found in the book of our Repass family history authored by my cousin, Beverly Repass Hoch, From Ziefen to Sally Run, I tender my most sincere gratitude. In writing my story I found I was able to be guided by much of the general history of the times so lovingly referenced and recorded in her book.

CHARACTERS

JOURNEY AWAY

By Doris Lee Gainer

*Juliana Gerber-[Rozbach] Roebard

*Jacob [Rozbach] Roebard

Johan Gerber                        Juliana’s father

Ursula Gerber                       Juliana’s mother

Hans Gerber                     Juliana’s brother   2 yrs. Younger

Maria Gerber                    Juliana’s               4 yrs. Younger

Daniel Gerber                   Juliana’s brother  7 yrs. Younger

Joseph [Rozbach] Roebard           Jacob’s father

Gertrude [Rozbach] Roebard        Jacob’s mother

Charles Meyer-Roebard                Adopted son of Joseph & Gertrude

Amy Meyer-Roebard                    Adopted daughter of Jos & Gertrude

Helga Gerber Mueller          Juliana’s cousin and friend

Friedrich (Fred) Mueller      Helga’s husband and Gerber friend

Eula Mueller                     Deceased Daughter of Helga and Friedrich

George Mueller                Son of Helga and Freidrich

Gertrude Eula Mueller         Truly, twin Daughter of Helga and Friedrich

Joseph Johan Mueller        JJ, twin Son of Helga and Friedrich

*Franz Joseph [Rozbach] Roebard   Son of Juliana and Jacob

*Miscarried child

*Hannah Eva [Rozbach] Roebard   Daughter of Juliana and Jacob

*Samuel Jacob Roebard                  Son of Juliana and Jacob, 1st born

                                                    in America

Chapter ONE

Juliana

Honey colored hair streaked with sunshine fell to one side of Juliana’s solemn face. She sat on a tree stump with head bent forward as she studied the grass and leaves at her feet. Feeling a bit guilty about just walking out of the door, but stubbornly enjoying this respite from all the tasks at hand, she seemed to gather this idle time into her being. Juliana expected to hear her mother call her to come back into the house at any minute, for there were chores to do. Always there were chores to be done.

At seventeen, Juliana was older than her sister and two brothers so, as was customary in 1764, it was expected that she would probably marry in a year or two. However, being the elder, she was usually first in line for whatever task needed to be done unless it was work better done by her 15 year old brother, Hans. She could claim only a few brief snatches of time, for peaceful moments were hard to come by. She was oft times a dreamer with a restless yearning for something she could not quite identify. But Juliana was first and foremost the dutiful obedient daughter whose conscience behaved as her parents and her village customs and her religion, based strictly on the Bible and simplicity, bade her.

The house before her was community built of timber and stone, just barely sheltering her parents, Johan and Ursula, with four offspring. It stood, much like the other houses of the village, neat and clean, on a hill with space for a garden, and a few out-buildings for the farm animals. There were maybe a dozen or more houses around and about, along with a larger structure used for church services, schooling and neighborhood meetings. Johan Gerber was a teacher, and the village clergyman, so his family were perhaps a little better off than some. Such was life in the Swiss Canton of Basel, village of Reinslif in 1764.

Relatives and neighbors were the only social contact for the villagers. Most of the population were members of the Swiss Reformed Church where her father, Johan, led services. These pious folk were descendents of persecuted refugees from a small northern French town in Burgundy. The Swiss had been fairly friendly to these emigrants but did not embrace them, appreciating mostly the increase in tax money they represented. Languages of French, German and a Swiss dialect were spoken here, but the Gerbers chose to speak mostly German since their earlier family members had first lived there for some time.

During the 1500s, the French ruling class and French Catholics in general had a great hatred for the Huguenots and indeed all protestant believers, so persecution, purges, huge fines, imprisonment or murderous attacks forced many to flee to Switzerland and Germany. The worst and possibly the widest known of these atrocities was The Holy Massacre or Bloody Sunday in August 1572 ordered by King Charles IX and the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici. Those who escaped brought only what they could smuggle out in material things, but they each carried with them innate abilities rich in talents for crafts, weaving, lace making, music, a healthy sense of humor and deeply moral beliefs. This was the two hundred year old family history that was Juliana’s heritage from her forefather Claude Gerberier.

Juliana sat apart this day, wondering as she often did, what lay ahead in her life. There was a serenity in her features that belied her feelings. Strands of hair fell over her smooth brow. Her face was pleasantly formed with a straight nose winged by long-lashed sky blue eyes, and plump lips that parted over slightly uneven white teeth. Her closest friend and cousin, Helga was newly engaged to Friedrich Mueller, so now Helga spent much less time with Juliana. Unhappily, she expected they would likely grow further apart when the marriage took place. Her thoughts wandered off to Jacob Rozbach from the nearby village of Zieren. Jacob had been noticeably attentive to Juliana when events brought him to Reinslif. She liked him, he was two years older, of sturdy build, industrious, and a good looking devout Christian, with dark brown wavy hair and kind gray eyes. She smiled to herself. Then as expected the voice of her mother broke into her musings. Ursula called out that the breads must be baked now, and cheese gotten from the spring house. There was weaving to be done and stockings to knit. Always, there were chores to be done.

Chapter TWO

Helga’s Day

Within a few months, soon after harvest, the wedding of Helga and Friedrich was the occasion of joyful celebration. Johan performed the simple ceremony with profuse prayers and hymn singing. Helga’s sweet apple-cheeked face was lovely beneath the beribboned lace cap her grandmother had brought with her from France all those years ago. Specially prepared dishes appeared from everywhere. Laughter and a warm, welcome happiness filled the place, embraced with grins and giggles of enjoyment.

But some were happier than others. Juliana smiled, hugged and laughed with the others, but inside her, that anxious unrest she could not always fight down made itself known. She already longed for the familiar camaraderie that she and Helga had always shared. Things seemed to be rushing past her while her own life was standing still, always the same. Underlying all the fun and gaiety with Helga in recent weeks as they prepared for the wedding, Juliana had a foreboding of change and something final slipping away.

Too soon everyone returned to the usual necessary tasks that filled their everyday lives, and to the never ending routines and worries of getting by. Life was never easy since every facet of living required working by hand. Fall season quickly gave way to cold wintry winds and storms of snow. This time of year brought with it increased chores made more difficult by bad weather, deep snowdrifts, icy mud, keeping the bin filled with chopped wood for the fire, making warm clothes of flax, hemp and wool, and quilts for