Blue Shadows Farm: A Novel

29. Greed—Summer 1874

Summer 1874 Two years passed quickly. Sophia continued helping Increase Joseph with his tent ministry, especially when he set up in such nearby towns as Pine River, Grand Rapids, Waupaca, and Coloma. She had become convinced by Increase Joseph’s message, about how saving the land was as important as saving souls. Most preachers spent their time with soul saving and the afterlife; few talked about the importance of preparing a place on earth for future generations. “Good people,” Increase Joseph would intone as he addressed a group. “Think of your grandchildren, and their children. Think of their future when you misuse the land, when you plow up huge acreages that the wind will tear apart. Think of your grandchildren’s future when you plow up and down hills, allowing the rains to wash away the rich topsoil. You are destroying the future of your grandchildren when you do such things.” Sophia found it remarkable that people would sit quietly and listen to this preacher chastise them and scold them for how they treated their land. Perhaps it was his way of speaking with his large, booming voice. Perhaps it was his manner of telling stories with 172 29 Greed 173 Greed—Summer 1874 deeper messages. Sophia, like everyone else, enjoyed hearing Increase Joseph’s stories, even though she was quite certain most were not true but merely the result of the famous preacher’s vivid imagination. She remembered one in particular. “I knew a man who lived south of here, a good man in many ways,” Increase Joseph began. “But like all of us he had faults. Success became his problem. Ah, you are thinking. How can success be a fault? Aren’t we all seeking success?” The famous preacher paused to allow the words to settle over the audience of several hundred who sat crowded in a too-hot tent with the sun beating down on the canvas . Its sides had been rolled up to allow a breeze to enter, but there was no breeze on this warm day. “Success becomes a person’s fault when it is contaminated with greed,” Increase Joseph continued. Then he repeated himself, “Success becomes a fault when it is contaminated with greed.” He paused for a moment, with his long, thin arms hanging at his sides. Then he continued, “This man, this once good man whose name I will not divulge, lost his soul to greed. To greed. Greed!” He said the words so loudly that some later said the canvas tent began shaking as the words rolled out over the crowd. Increase Joseph stopped speaking for a moment and fished in his pocket for a white handkerchief, which he swiped across his sweaty brow. “This once good man started with a modest farm. A quarter section, it was. One-hundred-sixty acres of land. With his family, he cleared these acres. He chopped down the trees. He sweat behind a breaking plow with three teams of oxen strung out ahead of him. He sowed wheat on these rich virgin acres. At first twenty acres, then forty acres. Then he bought his neighbor’s farm. His neighbor was another good man who lost his wife and had to sell out and move back East. The man continued planting more and more wheat until he was growing a hundred acres. His enormous fields stretched from horizon to horizon.” The preacher made a huge sweeping motion with his left arm. “The money rolled in when he harvested his crop and hauled the wheat to the mill for grinding into flour. He bought yet additional acres and a new reaper. Then another new reaper. Old Cyrus’s invention. “Then it happened. Greed has its consequences. Almost always the greedy will suffer.” Once more Increase Joseph paused to allow the words to settle. Someone seated directly in front of the preacher, hanging on every word he spoke, blurted out, “What happened?” He couldn’t help himself. Increase Joseph had that kind of effect on people. They became a part of his stories as he told them. “My good fellow,” Increase Joseph said, looking the man straight in the eye but talking in a voice that could be heard in the far corners of the massive tent and beyond. “This once successful farmer. This good man once respected by his neighbors and loved by his family. This model farmer. This example to follow.” “So what...