The Story of Pooville

By Fenton Roades

Take a journey with George Poo as he travels from England to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. It's one of those good historical fiction books about the American dream and social issues that the Pacific Book Review called, “…one of the most original narratives within the humorous fiction genre.”
It's a story that explores the American class system through a humorous style that is entertaining and easy to read. George Poo uses his scientific knowledge to create a successful fertilizer company that enables people to express themselves how they want. As he transforms into one of the wealthiest men in America, he founds a town in southern Maryland and creates a unique society. But will George ever achieve his dream of making America a better place?
The Pacific Book Review went on to say, “the fusion of this (humorous fiction) genre and historical fiction genre made for an engaging plot, and study of the class system and corporate greed within a funny setting made the story stand out.”
It’s a rare combination of humorous and historical fiction that combines social issues, the American class system, and the American dream to shed light on the greatness and problems of the United States. Readers will laugh and empathize with the “pooers” and “doers” that might make this story one of the best fiction books about the American dream or perhaps one of the best fiction books about social issues.
Nonetheless, readers will get an important message in this humorous fiction book as the Poo family journey spans over 150 years. During that time, the story presents the best and the worst that our nation has to offer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532087837

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 William Niessen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-8784-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8783-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020910107

iUniverse rev. date: 07/17/2020

This book is

dedicated to my wife,

but please do not tell her.

Contents

Chapter  I

Meet the Poos

Chapter  II

The Poos Move to America

Chapter  III

George’s Big Idea

Chapter  IV

The Town of Pooville is Born

Chapter  V

Does Anybody Want to Poo?

Chapter  VI

Long Live the Pooers

Chapter  VII

Shut Up and Poo

Chapter  VIII

The Pooville Company Is Born

Chapter  IX

Smells Like Money to Me

Chapter  X

Organize the Dooers

Chapter  XI

The Expansion of Pooville

Chapter  XII

Where Have All the Pooers Gone

Chapter  XIII

Times Marches On

Chapter  XIV

The Great Poo Shortage

Chapter  XV

Drugging the Pooers

Chapter  XVI

Let the Best Pooer Win

Chapter  XVII

A Star Is Born

Chapter  XVIII

The Times They Are a Changing

Chapter  XIX

Toilet Paper to the Rescue

Chapter  XX

T.P. Returns to Pooville

Chapter  XXI

The Plot Exposed

Chapter  XXII

The Story of Pooville

Chapter  XXIII

The Rise of the Pooers

Chapter  XXIV

I Want to Change the World

Chapter

I

Meet the Poos

G eorge Poo was born in Manchester, England, in 1860. He was born into a middle-class family and was the oldest child of Henry and Mildred Poo. George was the most curious of the Poos and was always trying new things as a lad. He grew up and received a college education and became a schoolteacher at the Wilson School in Manchester. He was responsible for teaching all forms of science to the ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-grade students at Wilson School. George Poo was known as a good teacher who always presented new ideas to his students. Oftentimes, his students won awards for new and innovative ideas. Professor Poo, as he was called, often received awards for his teaching skills.

He was by far the most successful of the Poo family. He had four brothers and three sisters, all of whose accomplishments fell short of George Poo’s, although George’s father, Henry Poo, and his twin brother, Pepe Poo, were very successful in the horse-manure-hauling business. While he was going to school, young George worked part-time in his father’s business, shoveling poo. He liked shoveling poo but wished he could figure out a way to do something profitable with all that poo rather than paying to dispose of it in the dump.

Throughout the mid-1800s and into the early 1900s, the elder Poo brothers dominated the horse-manure-hauling business. As Henry Poo always said, the Poos were meant for that business—and they were. Pepe Poo always said, I love the smell of horse poo in the morning, or in the afternoon, or even in the evening, and Henry always agreed.

I never met a horse I didn’t like, said Henry Poo. It’s the smell of money. They always lamented, If only we could find something to do with all this poo, we would be rich, but they never could figure out what to do with the poo, except to dump it in a landfill, which cost them money.

But all in all, they made a good living. At the peak of their business, they had more than thirty wagons hauling poo. The company was sold in 1910. The automobile did the company in over the next thirty years, but during Poo’s time, the Poo brothers were raking it in and were well respected in the field of poo hauling and horse manure.

George’s younger four brothers were not as motivated as George. Thomas, who they called Tom Poo, got a job shoeing horses at the public stables in downtown Manchester. His father, being influential in the poo-hauling business, helped Tom Poo get his job. Poor Tom never seemed to have any luck. He was kicked in the head while shoeing a horse at age twenty-one and killed instantly. The Poo family was devastated.

William, who they called Billy Poo, and his brother Peter Poo, who was nicknamed Pete Poo, both worked in the local ink factory. There is not much known about these Poos, but it was thought that they did a pretty good job making ink. We do know that they both married and had little Poos. How many Poos they had is not documented, but the speculation was that they had a lot of little ones running around. Wallace Poo was the youngest, a lazy fellow who seldom had a job. Wally Poo, as he was called, died of the flu at a young age. There is not much known about him.

George’s three sisters were quite another story. These were triplets who did everything together. Penelope Poo, who they called—you guessed it—Penny Poo, together with her other sisters Patrice Poo, who they called Patty Poo, and Margret Poo, who was called Maggie Poo, all lived together in Manchester. Together they started the Poo Family Laundry. These Poos were quite successful in the laundry business. None of the three ever got married. These three Poos always stuck together. They all lived long lives. None of them left Manchester, and they all died within a year of one another. It was thought that those Poos died in their seventies, but official death records for some reason are not available.

George Poo married Martha McCarthy of London in May 1893. George was thirty-three, and it looked like this was one Poo who was ready to settle down. He was now quite established at Wilson School as a capable teacher. Martha was a pretty girl who was born to be a mother and homemaker. She had a good heart and wanted to make George Poo and the Poo family as happy as she could. She also wanted a lot of little Poos to raise. It wasn’t long before George and Martha had their first Poo. It was a boy they named Paul. They immediately nicknamed him Pauly Poo. They thought it was catchy. More Poos came along pretty quickly. Peggy Poo was the next to arrive. You guessed it. They nicknamed her Peg Poo—a big girl with a great laugh and a good sense of humor. Twins ran in the Poo family, and George and Martha had two sets of twins back-to-back. One set of identical boy twins and then a set of fraternal twins, a girl and a boy. That was a lot of Poos.

The twin boys were pretty perky Poos, full of life. They were named Peter Poo after George’s brother and George Jr. The other set of twins were named Pepe Poo after Henry’s brother and Betsy Poo after Martha’s sister. The family was really coming along. Things were stable over the next ten years, and the Poos were busy raising their family.

Chapter

II

The Poos Move to America

A round the turn of the century, the Poo family was in generally good spirits. George Poo was elevated to the head