Chapter 1
Before I start, let me tell you that this is my life, in my words. My words may not be long and fancy but I can tell you in truer style than any man about how my life has gone. It aint been a grand one, it’s been hard, it’s had its troubles, but I would rather it be told by me and so this is it.
As I sit here writing this, the year is 1883, I never was much of a one for stories. I’ve had enough of them made up about me throughout my life, but this is my account, make of it what you will but know this, I don’t need to make up any nonsense about myself or about what has happened throughout my life. It’s close enough to over now and I’ve seen and done more than most. Some of it good, some of it…..well some of it not so good, but happen it did and no man can change history.My name was and still is John Garrison Johnston, although many have named me otherwise.I’ve heard many an account of my life, mostly from people who didn’t know who I was and that the man they spoke of was sat right in front of them. Some accounts have surprisingly been quite factual and others, well others not so factual at all.
I was born in New Jersey in the summer of 1824, I won’t talk much about my parents or my childhood. It was not a very happy childhood shall we say. My mother was a timid woman made that way by my father who was, and this is coming from me with my history, an evil son of a bitch.He was a lazy drunk and brutal man who thought his right was to put me and my ma to work so he didn’t have to. I’ve heard the stories about how I left home at 12 to work the seas and returned at 20 to kill him. The truth is I have no idea what became of my parents once I left, I had no contact with them and I wouldn’t waste a breath on that man. I do sometimes wonder what became of my mother, I like to think she got out of there not too long after me. Perhaps the harsh treatment from my father led me to be the man I became, but I worked hard as a child earning money that i handed to my pa in the hope he’d drink himself to death. It was a tough world then, more so than now and I got a reputation as a hard and strong worker on farms and loading wagons as a youngster.My understanding of number and math has never been great but I know when I’ve been done out of a dollar and my mother did teach me to write words down and to read.I guess I was around 10 years old when my pa started sending me out to work.
