Excerpt from Blue Creek Farm
Pa! I had to get home to Pa!
Over and over I cursed myself for staying too long in town. I never should have left him alone, should have insisted that he go with me. I knew that if I could only get home, back to the farm, I could save him. I fixed my gaze on the smoky glare on the horizon and urged my horse onward over the uneven terrain.
My stomach was knotted in fear, and my muscles ached as we flew along the creek road, my head throbbing, tears running down my cheeks. The cold November air was numbing my fingers and toes, yet I was sweating. Leaning over, I clenched my legs tightly against my horse, and I could feel her respond, her smooth muscles rippling as we streaked along at full gallop through the pitch-black Kansas night.
I began to feel dizzy and fought the urge to close my eyes. I had to keep going. I had to save Pa.
Suddenly, I was alone, random impressions swirling before me—the sound of gunshots punctuating a shower of flying sparks tossed upward into the night sky, the intense heat of the blaze singeing my eyelashes, and then the cracking of timbers as the barn collapsed, walls giving way in the early morning light, leaving just a blackened smoldering shell.
This fifteen-chapter serial is part one of a thirty-one chapter story.
BLue Creek Farm is illustrated by Larry Howard. Each chapter comes with its own drawing, and the story has its own distinctive logo.
Note: This serial comes with additional information about the settlement of Kansas in the 1850s.
Teacher's Guide
Blue Creek Farm is set in Douglas County, Kansas. The story starts in October, 1860, just a few weeks before the national election, and a few months before Kansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the 34th state. In Part One of the story, all the characters are fictional, except for Bill Cody. Blue Creek is not a real place, but the other locations—Eudora and Lawrence, for example, are real, as is Simsbury, Connecticut, where Matty’s family is originally from.
Kansas was opened for settlement by in 1854. At the time, the question of slavery was a major issue: southern states wanted to see slavery extended as Americans moved west, while northerners preferred to limit the number of the slave-holding states. Kansas Territory became a battleground between these forces. Between 1856 and 1861, an undeclared civil war was waged, leaving hundreds of people dead and wounded and making Kansas a dangerous place to live, earning it the nickname, “Bloody Kansas.”
Part one of Blue Creek Farm covers the six-month period prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Part two tells the story of Matty’s adventures in the first two years of the war, including the 1863 raid on the city of Lawrence, Kansas.
Matty Trescott’s story continues in the book,
Matty’s War, written by Carroll Thomas (pen name of Carole Shmurak and Tom Ratliff). You can learn more about the Matty books at
www.matty-trescott.com.
