Pene-Lope and Anti-Gone: A Stand-Alone Novella Pene-

By Robert Franklin Jackson

Penelope and Antigone
Travails of a German Immigrant Family

Years ago, the author was acting in a college play and mispronounced Penelope as Pene-lope. The cast chided then laughed. The author thought the mispronouncing was worth remembering.

Years later, when studying Greek mythology, the author came across the character Antigone and realized that using Penelope and Antigone as characters might prove to be humorous. Twin sister, but what about a surname?

Once again, the author goofed. When reading about German philosophers, he read Goethe but mispronounced Goethe, rhyming it with sloth. Your author’s twins, Penelope and Antigone Goethe, now needed a book to come alive.

The author, also the family genealogist, traced his Eplers back to Germany to an area known as the Palantate. He then realized that the Eplers and the Goethes could be friends immigrating to the colonies together. Therefore, we have the travails of two German immigrant families. Johannes Goethe was the first of ten generations of Goethes descending down to Penelope and Antigone Goethe.

During the tale of their travails, they faced many hardships: the ocean voyage, indentured servitude, second class citizenship, internment during the two world wars, and kidnapping by an evil civil servant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796016956

Robert Franklin Jackson

Your Author, Robert Franklin Jackon, following an enlistment as a U.S. Navy Seabee/deep-sea-diver, four years in elementary school teaching/administration, twenty-seven years as a high school geography teacher, the office of Historian General NSSAR, is not content unless he is working on a writing project. Projects include: Family Genealogy, Sons of the American Revolution - History Vol. III, plus several pamphlets, just completing a 3,200 page encyclopedia of his home town, Oroville, Oroville 1915 - A Place in Time, ninety acrylic paintings, and presently, The Blues of Portsmouth P.D. a Series of eight episode, four other novellas, The Truth Book, wewillfindyouamach.com, No Vacancy, and Pene-lope and Anti-gone, and the book of a musical comedy, Stoneface.

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Copyright © 2019 by Robert Franklin Jackson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019901943

ISBN:                  Softcover                          978-1-7960-1696-3

                            eBook                               978-1-7960-1695-6

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. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/27/2019

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Contents

Dedications

Chapter 1     Contemplating Immigration

Chapter 2     Down the Rhine to Rotterdam

Chapter 3     Negotiations in Rotterdam

Chapter 4     Horrors at Sea on the Samuel

Chapter 5     Negotiations in Philadelphia

Chapter 6     Generations

Chapter 7     World War I Internments

Chapter 8     World War II Internments

Chapter 9     The Callihans

Chapter 10   The Wicks

Chapter 11   Millville High School

Chapter 12   A Goal Fulfilled

Chapter 13   A Plan To Locate Johann

Chapter 14   The Contents Of The Wood Box Are Examine

Chapter 15   A Friendship Renewed

Chapter 16   Asking A Friend For A Favor

Chapter 17   Confronting Elizabeth Quarles

Chapter 18   The Hunt For Johann Continues

Chapter 19   A Chance Meeting At The Wicks Farm

Chapter 20   A Son’s Return

Chapter 21   Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

Chapter 22   A New Goethe Is Born

Chapter 23   High School Choir

Chapter 24   Juilliard Pre School

Chapter 25   Juilliard

Chapter 26   Norajean’s

Chapter 27   A Change Of Leadership

Chapter 28   A Change In Relationship

Chapter 29   Divide And Conquer

Chapter 30   Evening The Score With Men

Chapter 31   Mama Knows Best

Chapter 32   Fast Eddie and Charlie One-thumb

Chapter 33   Death in the Fairview Apartments

Chapter 34    The Murders Are Solved

Chapter 35   A Visit With Grand Dad

Chapter 36   Generations - The Musical

Chapter 37   Jonathan Has Talent

Chapter 38   Another Goethe Attends Juilliard

Chapter 39   John’s Final Thoughts

One Night’s Reading Series

By Robert Franklin Jackson

The Blues of Portsmouth P.D.

A Series of Eight Episodes

Taking the Fifth

The Case of the Erroneous Homophone

Jeff Needed Killing!

The Case of the Connected Palindromes

Asked and Answered

The Case of the Acrimonious Alliteration

Gone, But Where?

The Case of the Puzzling Similies

The Mayor Went Down

The Case of the Incriminating Metaphor

The Last Home on the Left

The Case of the Misleading Direction

The New Guy in Town

The Case of Uncovering Undercovers

Is Nappy Back In Town?

Cases Of Revealing Metaphors

Also

The Truth Book

Murder at the School #54 Reunion

wewillfindyouamatch.com

Adventures of Computer Dating

No Vacancy

Murder at Summer Cottages

Stoneface

Nathaniel Hawthorn’s Great Stone Face Enhanced

And Now

Pene-lope & Anti-gone

Travails of a German Immigrant Family

DEDICATIONS

To my loving wife, Bobbi,

my greatest fan, painstaking editor,

supportive critic, and very best friend.

whose ancestor, Pilgrim Peter Brown,

immigrated to the New World

aboard the Mayflower

in 1620

"Good - Better - Best - Never let it rest,

Till your good is better, and your better, best."

Ressie Fix, 11th Grade English

Arsenal Technical High School, Indianapolis

Bobbi Jackson, Proof Editor,

insists on striving for the best.

SPECIAL THANK YOUS

to

Cash Compton & Leah Dionne

at

Copy Center

for getting my books ‘wired.’

Chapter One

Contemplating Immigration

1735 - Near Mainz, The Palatinate

Wilhelm Goethe was in his shed sharpening a scythe when Hans Eppler walked up.

Wilhelm, why are you sharpening that scythe? The grass will grow another inch by tomorrow. Hans asked.

Hans, you know that by the middle of May, tradition says that you mow your field and cure the hay for fodder.

You are letting tradition dictate your future. Hans argued.

What should replace tradition?

Making your own decisions. Hans suggested.

You offer me only words.

Wilhelm, you have barely an acre to provide hay for your cow, and to plant your vegetables to barter in town to earn enough to carry you through the winter months. Whereas, your eldest brother, Adam, has ten acres.

Tradition states that the elder brother inherits the land, and the younger brothers are left to struggle through life. We, the youngers, accept our lives, that’s tradition.

Wilhelm, you have two sons and it is no secret that Katerina is carrying another child. Your eldest, Otto, will inherit your bare acre. Have you no feelings for your other children?

Do you think I am able to change tradition.

No, just your location. Hans answered.

Immigrate? Is that what you are suggesting? I have no money saved I barely have enough to carry us through the winter."

Anna Barbara and I have decided to immigrate to America. Come with us. Talk it over with Katerina.

I admit that both Katerina and I have had enough of poverty, sickness, starvation, freezing long winters, and being caught in the middle between the warring French and German troops.

Not to mention the Catholics persecutors of we Lutherans.

Hans said, "I was unaware that you had savings. How can you afford to immigrate?

I have spoken with the Lord of the Manor. He has agreed to purchase my land. He is anxious to own the largest feudal estate in the Palatinate. I feel sure he would like to include your land. Would you like for us to tell Anna Barbara about our plans?

Yes, but I doubt she would listen.

13033.png

Katerina said. I have listened to your dreams, but dreams are just wonderful wishes that dance in our heads during sleep, only to disappear, bringing us back to our dreary lives. We are just poor peasants, living out our days waiting for bedtime. As that English playwright wrote: ‘to sleep, perchance to dream.’

Anna Barbara answered. Katerina, you expressed that beautifully. If you have those thoughts in your head, with the same thinking, your can make your dreams come true.

All eyes were on Katerina as she closed her eyes and was silent for a full minute. Finally, she spoke, Give me the details of your plan.

Hans spoke, Katerina, first, Wilhelm and I will ask for an audience with the Lord to see if he will buy your land.

Surely what the Lord gives us will not be enough to pay for ship passage to America?

You are right, I have been talking with a neighbor who is receiving letters from a relative in America, who made the move with his family. He said for a family of four, the cost of passage from Rotterdam fluctuated from fifteen to thirty pounds Sterling.

Katerina exclaimed, Thirty pounds, we can never save that sum.

There is no need to save, we cross the Rhine to Mainz and take a barge down river to Rotterdam. Wilhelm answered.

The barge trio itself is very expensive. Katerina added.

Hans and I will offer to work on the barge for our passage. Then, once in Rotterdam, we will sign contracts of indenture.

Being indentured is the same as slavery, Katerina argued.

What do we have here but slavery. Wilhelm replied.

Chapter Two

Down the Rhine to Rotterdam

1736 - Rotterdam, Holland

The Goethe family, Wilhelm, pregnant Katerina, sons Adam and Peter, and the Eppler Family, Hans, Anna Barbara, and sons Johannes and Jacob, abandoned their homes crossed from their village to Mainz.

In Mainz, the largest city and capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, The wives and children toured the Marktplatz, home to the Gutenberg Museum while Wilhelm and Hans made they way to the wharf.

The found a barge moored, pending inspection, do to regulations aimed at collecting a toll.

Bargemaster, Hans shouted, We have two families wishing to travel to Rotterdam. Do you need a pair of workers who would like to barter for a ride?

As a matter of fact, I am short-handed. A couple of pole-handlers, spent their wages on beer, and came back looking for a fight, I let them go. Come aboard, we’ll talk.

Are you polehandlers? the Bargemaster asked, pointing to a stack of poles.

No, we aren’t, but we can see they are used to keep the barge from going aground, ramming into wharfs, and colliding with other barges.

I guess experience is less important than understanding the task. You are hired, I will charge you ten guilder each rather than the usual twenty.

Wilhelm added, What if we also loaded and unloaded freight at each port city along the way?

I guess I could come down to five guilders each. the Bargemaster answered.

Hans said, Our wives are good cooks.

What can they cook?

They could shop at each port an buy fresh potatoes, carrots, an onion, and some salt pork and make a stew.

I can see you are bartering for free passage. Have your families come aboard and keep control of the children. We will head toward Koblenz when we pass inspection."

Hans and Wilhelm easily mastered poling. The women cooked their stews, and the Bargemaster, Franz Stumpel, enjoying the presence of women kept them entertained speaking on a pot pourri of subjects.

Franz asked, Did you and the children tour the Guttenberg Museum today?

Katerina answered. Only from the outside. There was a fee to enter,

Franz said, That is a shame. The collections include printing equipment and examples of printed materials from many cultures.

Anna Barbara asked, Is his printing press there?

Only a replica, rebuilt according to 15th century woodcuts.

13029.png

Franz said, Around the next bend in the Rhine we will arrive in Koblenz It is situated on both banks of the Rhine, where it meets the Moselle River. Great skill is needed when a barge makes a turn onto the Moselle, but we will remain on the Rhine. The point of land is known as the Deutsches Eck, or German Corner. There is nothing historic to see. We will dock on the East bank. Katerina, you and Anna Barbara may choose to shop for fresh vegetables. We will be required to register for inspection.

13018.png

Hans and Wilhelm skilfully used their pole to cushion the barge from crashing into the wharf at Bonn.

Speaking to Katerina and Anna Barbara Franz was again narrating their travels.

Bonn, unlike Koblenz, has a lot of historic construction remaining, - North of the there was large military installation dubbed Castra Bonnensis, literally, Fort Bonn. Initially built from wood, the fort was eventually rebuilt in stone.

Anna Barbara remarked, I can’t imagine the craftsmanship to build walls of wood out if timber.

The laborers were forced to be skilled by the slave masters’ whips Franz added. After changes in construction, the fort remained in use by the army into the waning days of the Western Roman Empire, possibly the mid-5th century. The structures themselves remained standing well into the Middle Ages, when they were called the Bonnburg."

"Then the name