The Endless Forest (88 page)

Friend John Mayfair has opened a law office in the new building next to the schoolhouse. Please stop by to consult with him any weekday morning between eight and twelve of the clock.

Curiosity Freeman would like all to know that she has chicks ready for sale. Potential buyers should remember that these are the descendents of Chicken Number Three, who was an excellent layer and of an unflappable temperament.

Daniel Bonner invites all schoolchildren and their families to stop by the schoolhouse to meet Mr. Lawrence March, who will be taking over the junior classroom now that Martha has withdrawn from teaching to care for her sons.

As you may be aware, the printing press that made publication of the
Paradise Sun
possible arrived in Paradise six months ago. In recognition of that fact, the editor invites suggestions from any interested party on how the newspaper might better serve the needs of its ever-increasing readership. This includes anyone who would like to offer an editorial on matters of public interest, with no restrictions as to political affiliations or world views. Please stop by the newspaper office on the town square to share your thoughts.

Elizabeth Middleton Bonner, Editor

Ethan Middleton would like it known that he has taken on Nicholas Wilde of Lake in the Clouds as an apprentice builder. Given the rapid expansion of the town, Ethan is likely to be hiring again within the month. Those interested should inquire at Ivy House.

Levi Fiddler tells us that this past winter’s success of the Bleeding Heart cider has enabled him to add another two acres of trees to the orchard.

Mr. Bookman has announced his intention to petition the county for funds to cobble the main road into the village. Friend John Mayfair will assist him with this task.

Doctor Hannah Savard reminds the residents of Paradise that all drinking water and water used in preparing food
must be boiled
. Further, it is of crucial importance that the new guidelines on the digging of privies be observed. These measures are our best hope to bring the quickest possible end to the typhoid epidemic that has struck at the very heart of our families.

In the past week three children and five adults are dead of typhoid or complications of typhoid. They are

Mrs. Lorena Fiddler and her daughter Margaret, age four

Mr. Baldwin O’Brien

Friend Margery Blackstone

Friend Magnus Allen

Mrs. Jennet Scott Bonner and a stillborn daughter, in childbed

Friend Alois Farmer

Mairead Ballentyne, age three

On last Wednesday, November 2, Runs-from-Bears of Lake in the Clouds was struck down by a sudden apoplexy and died within the hour. He was seventy-three years old.

Runs-from-Bears was a member of the Turtle clan of the Kahnyen’kehàka at Good Pasture. He came to Paradise in 1792 when he was joined in marriage with Many-Doves of the Wolf clan, also originally of Good Pasture.

Runs-from-Bears fought in the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War and was renowned for his bravery and daring. The trip he made to New Orleans during the War of 1812 together with his lifelong friend Nathaniel Bonner is still spoken of both in that city and here. In peacetime he was considered the best tracker in a hundred miles or more, and his furs were sought after for their quality.

Runs-from-Bears is survived by his son Blue-Jay and good-daughter Susanna, their children Callum, Grace, and Sarah; by his daughter Annie and her husband Gabriel Bonner and their children Tobias, Jay, and Liza; and by many dear friends. He is preceeded in death by his wife Many-Doves, and by his adult children Kateri and Sawatis. On a personal note, this loss is an especially painful one for the editor and her family. Runs-from-Bears was the best of men, and we mourn his passing.

Elizabeth Middleton Bonner, Editor

Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner would like their friends and neighbors to know that they are in receipt of a letter from their daughter Birdie, who has arrived safely in New Orleans to take up the study of medicine with Dr. Paul de Guise Savard and Dr. Phillipe Savard at that city’s Free Clinic. The doctors Savard are the brothers of Ben Savard of Downhill House.

Further good news from the Bonner clan: This past week Lily Ballentyne née Bonner was delivered safely of a healthy girl, her fourth daughter. On the same day Martha Bonner née Kirby added twin boys to her brood for a total of five sons. It seems that age and wisdom have not
tempered the spirit of friendly competition between the original Bonner twins, Lily and Daniel, and their respective spouses.

Ethan Middleton has announced plans for yet another addition to the schoolhouse.

Yesterday three of our young men departed Paradise for Manhattan, where they will take up studies at Columbia College. They are Henry Savard of Downhill House, and Nathan and Adam Scott-Bonner of Ivy House. All three will take up residence with Nathan and Adam’s father Luke, a face well known to us here in Paradise.

We wish them great success.

With this issue of the
Paradise Sun
, the editorship is passed on to Mr. Lawrence March, one of our teachers. Mr. March would like to thank Mrs. Bonner for her hard work in establishing the newspaper, and hopes she will continue to contribute editorials on the topics of the day.

Lawrence J. March, Editor

With great sadness we report that Mrs. Curiosity Freeman, the oldest surviving citizen of the original settlers of Paradise, died quietly in the
first hours of this new year, 1834. Her daughter, Mrs. Daisy Hench, and her dear friends Mrs. Elizabeth Bonner and Mrs. Hannah Savard were by her side. She was 99 years old.

Mrs. Freeman was born into slavery on a farm in Pennsylvania in the spring of the year 1734. In 1762, when a Quaker Abolition Society purchased manumission papers for herself and her husband Galileo, the young couple came to Paradise to take up employment with Judge Alfred Middleton and family. After Judge Middleton’s passing, she kept house for Dr. Richard Todd for many years.

Burial services were conducted on Thursday, January 2, in the course of an unusually mild and pleasant winter afternoon. There were more than two hundred people in attendance on very short notice. Many of those who attended had been helped into the world by Mrs. Freeman, who was an exceptional midwife.

The wisest and most generous of souls, Mrs. Freeman was a loving mother, the most caring of friends, a gifted healer, and a constant source of stories. War, disaster, illness, in all of life’s challenges she remained the steadiest of lights. It is not too much to say that Mrs. Freeman was the rock on which Paradise was built. She will be sorely missed.

She is survived by her daughter Daisy Hench and her son Almanzo Freeman, as well as six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her beloved husband Galileo preceeded her in death by more than thirty years.

The Savard, Bonner, and Ballentyne families, with whom she was especially close, and who considered her one of their own, are also in mourning.

Gabriel Bonner of Lake in the Clouds has a large number of especially fine marten and beaver pelts taken this winter. Before he arranges to
have them taken to market in Manhattan, he would like to offer them for sale to any resident who might be interested.

This past Saturday Mrs. Daisy Hench, a widow since her husband Joshua passed on five years ago, married Levi Fiddler, a six-year widower. A small party was held at Orchard House. We wish the couple every happiness.

Mr. Daniel Bonner and his wife Martha announce the birth of their sixth child, a daughter to be called Jennet. We wish this newest Bonner good humor and fortitude growing up with the five Bonner boys, well known in Paradise for their abundant energy and inventive natures.

We have received word of a steamboat accident on the Hudson River which has taken the lives of two of our citizens. Ethan and Callie Middleton were returning home from Manhattan when the Steamboat
Reliance
was rocked by an explosion and sank almost immediately. There were no survivors.

Nicholas Wilde, Callie’s half brother and Ethan’s partner, traveled to Albany to bring the bodies home to Paradise for burial. He was accompanied by Levi Fiddler.

The Middletons were much admired by their friends and neighbors, and dearly loved by the families they leave behind. Ethan was responsible for the revitalization of Paradise by means of careful planning, innovative design, and meticulous building practices. While they had no children of their own, the Middletons took in the five children left behind when Ethan’s cousin Jennet Scott Bonner died in the typhoid epidemic of 1830.

They leave behind Nathan, Adam, and Alasdair Scott-Bonner, Mariah Mayfair, and Isabel March, their spouses and children, as well as grieving aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Gabriel Bonner was in town today and stopped by the newspaper office to announce that his wife, Annie, has given birth to their fourth child and second daughter, who will be called Carrie. With such unanticipated incentive, Gabriel plans to move ahead quickly with the plans to rebuild the old homestead at Lake in the Clouds.

We are delighted to announce that Curiosity Bonner, better known to us here in Paradise as Birdie, is newly married to Henry Savard of New Orleans, and further that the young couple, both certified physicians, will be coming to Paradise to take up residence. They will join Hannah Savard’s practice, which has long been stretched to its limits.

Henry Savard is the nephew of our own Ben and Hannah Savard of Downhill House.

Please join us in welcoming Birdie and Henry home.

It is our understanding that Becca LeBlanc, widow and innkeeper, intends to sell the Red Dog to her daughter Anje and Anje’s husband Jeremy Reed. We wish Mrs. LeBlanc well in her hard-earned retirement, and Anje and Jeremy on their new business venture.

Mrs. Lily Ballentyne is returned from Boston where a selection of her drawings and watercolors were on display at the establishment of Messers Johnstone, Purveyors of Fine Art. The event was mentioned in both Boston and Manhattan newspapers, as Mrs. Ballentyne’s work is in great demand.

Mrs. Ballentyne, who was widowed last year, was accompanied by her
mother and father, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner. The Ballentynes’ four daughters joined the family party in Boston. During this trip Mrs. Elizabeth Bonner’s second collection of essays was first offered for sale at Boston bookstores. Copies are available for sale in the
Paradise Sun
office.

At sunset on Thursday, June 15 of this year, after a particularly beautiful autumn day, the town of Paradise lost one of its leading, most respected and admired citizens.

Nathaniel Bonner died at Downhill House, the home he shared with his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Dr. Hannah Savard, son-in-law Ben Savard, and their family. All the Bonner children and many of the grandchildren (all of whom he still referred to as Little People) were with him. His mind remained clear until the very end. He was eighty-five years old.

The son and only surviving child of Daniel (Hawkeye) Bonner and Cora Munro Bonner, two of the town’s founders, he was born and raised at the family home at Lake in the Clouds. Later in life he moved in to the home known as Uphill House, originally owned by his father-in-law, Judge Alfred Middleton. For the past ten years he and Elizabeth have been living with their daughter Hannah and her family at Downhill House.

Nathaniel fought in two wars and returned home to take up trapping and hunting, skills he learned from his father and grandfather. Like his father before him, Nathaniel was a marksman of astounding skill.

His first wife, Sarah, bore him three children, of whom only Hannah survived. Some eight years after Sarah’s death he married Elizabeth Middleton, with whom he lived in harmony for the rest of his life.