The piano goes to america part 3

The piano goes to america part 3

fiction
edward w pritchard

She had began to argue with her husband for the first time on their trip through Pennsylvania. They had left Connecticut to come to the Western Reserve, [Ohio since 1803], to work with and minister to the suffering of the remaining Indian tribes of the area. They were Lutherans and her husband was a new Lutheran minister and the flock in Connecticut had subsidized their move to Ohio. They had traveled by wagon across Pennsylvania, staying and eating with Lutheran families and visiting Lutheran churches. At each church they visited the faithful would donate to them valuable personal items to help set up the household in Ohio for they were newly weds and it was difficult and expensive to obtain furniture and household goods in Ohio because the Ohio Canal had just opened recently and shipping was very expensive.

The woman, the wife, named Olivia had dreamed since being a little girl of helping the Indians who she suffered for. They had been treated cruelly and unfairly and now that she was an adult she wanted to put her faith to work to help them. Her Grandfather whose house she was raised in in Connecticut had been a kind Pascal loving Catholic and he had taught her that all men were equal and for us to exploit the Indians and steal their land was sin. Her Grandfather also taught Olivia to love Philosophy her passion. When she converted to Lutheranism after meeting her husband who was a divinity student and a Lutheran she agreed to convert to his religion and be at his side, and he agreed that she could continue to study philosophy and that they would come to Ohio and help the Indians there. For a wedding present the Grandfather, who knew he would never see his grand daughter again when she left his home in Connecticut gave her a barrel to take on the wagon with 24 expensive leather bound philosophy books. Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, Plotinus Rousseau, Kant and others, the greatest of all time, In all likelihood she would have one of the best collections out in far away Ohio, for books were rare because of the shipping costs.

In one swell swoop her husband had shattered her dreams as they traveled in the crowded overloaded wagon through Pennsylvania. About half way through the journey to Ohio he told her he had accepted a lucrative position at a church in Dover, Ohio. The congregation agreed to give them a fine house, 100 acres of land, some of the land already being farmed and to provide him with an attractive salary. He had accepted the offer without consulting her a few days ago while they stayed at one of the families here in Pennsylvania. There were several other ministers being offered the position but her husband was the first choice and he had to answer immediately if news of his acceptance was to get back to Ohio. By accepting the position he was giving up their plans to administer to the Indians because few tribes were left by 1844 in the area around Dover, Ohio.

Additionally at each house they stayed at the Husband became more and more obsessed with the fine furniture, valuable antiques that the prosperous farm households were giving them. In time the wagon was over loaded and the horses could pull no more weight. Near the border of Ohio, a family gave them a very valuable chest of drawers made in England and worth a fortune. The husband had to ask the wife to leave the barrel and the philosophy books if they were going to take the chest of drawers in the overloaded wagon. The wife agreed but she would have to wait for several months to have the books for it would be several months before they could be sent because of expense and weight.

The stage was now set for Olivia and her husband Dr. Sharp to argue and fight and it had started in Pennsylvania and as they came to the new farm in Dover Ohio it intensified. In an attempt to alleviate his wife's unhappiness Dr. Sharp bought his wife an expensive piano imported from England.

End part 3