Wed. noon, Frank came downstairs with his grip packed & said he to Pa, “you need not look for me back anymore”. He left the house, Pa following but couldn’t persuade him to go back in the house. Pa took the grip back in the house thinking Frank would follow, but mistaken for Frank struck out up the road. Pa came out & called & he stopped & Pa persuaded him to come back promising to do better by him. The Lord God be blessed for it was through him that it was all reconciled & I realize that my prayer has been answered. God bless them both & help them to see the light. Jesus Christ Our Redeamer. Most of April spent plowing & harrowing & planting.
This is the most emotional conflict that appears in Jesse’s entire diary, and boy is it mysterious! If Jesse and Mary are not living in the big house anymore, then it’s possible that Jesse did not know about this until Frank came downstairs. Even afterwards he might have minded his own business and not asked what happened, but what did happen? What disagreement would cause 18 year-old Frank to pack his things and try to move out? Jim Bench called the shots on his own farm, but did he try to exert too much control about a particular matter? Was adolescent Frank in some hormonal mood? And by the way, how about that 1902 mid-Missouri vernacular?
Here is something that is also curious: Most of the people interviewed in later decades who knew Jim Bench said that he had some business acumen and he became wealthy, but no one ever said he was kind. One of his grandkids talked about how Jim would expect the boys to work for him, but he would not pay them for their time. It appears that Jim left home very early, as early as 15, so he did not seem to have generous or coddling parents. This smoothing things over with his teenaged son, possibly humbling himself to an apology or promise to change something is a bit surprising. It could be that we don’t know enough about Jim’s personality and behavior. It could be that he understood and identified or favored Frank, or maybe he remembered when he left home so early, and did not want that to happen to Frank. Maybe there’d be hell to pay from his wife Sarah if he didn’t mend this with a quickness. Or maybe Jim did a quick calculation and realized that he needed Frank’s labor on the farm, especially during this busy planting season.
Anyone with any good gossip about this 118 year-old drama is welcome to send us a note and spill the T as the young folk say!
Today in 2020 is April 15th. The 16th Amendment and individual taxes did not happen until 1913.
Reminder, we are now one day off because of the 2020 leap year.
