John E. Johnston
1881-1910
We lived nearly eight
years in Texas, and I wrote a book each year. Much of my writing was done
at John's bedside. I thought of him whenever I wrote of Jack Ware, and he
was my inspiration for "The Jester's Sword." "And it came to pass
wherever he went men felt a strange strength-giving influence radiating
from his presence. One could not say exactly what it was, it was so
fleeting and intangible, like warmth that circles from a brazier or
perfume that is wafted from an unseen rose . . . . So blithely did he bear
his lot it seemed a kingly spirit dwelt among us, and earth is poorer for
his going."
--Annie Fellows Johnston, in Land of the Little Colonel", Chapter 8
John, 1902-1903 at Lee's Ranch, near Phoenix,
Arizona
about age 21 or 22
If there is
a tragic character in the Little Colonel stories, it is Jack Ware. His
sad story of a devastating injury casts a dark shadow over much of the later
Little Colonel books. His plight teaches many lessons, but in the end he
triumphs.
Sadder still
is the story of the model for his character, Annie Fellows Johnston's
step-son John. John's mother died when he was but two, and shortly
after, his father married Annie Fellows. Then his father died when he
was 10, and his sister Rena when he was 18. Sometime during his early
life he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, the same illness that had taken
his mother. By the time of his early adulthood, his disease had
advanced to a point where he required extra care. Without the
antibiotics that could have saved his life today, all there was to do was to
go where the air was clean and dry, and thus his loving step-mother took him
to Lee's Ranch in Arizona during 1902/3, and
later to California and Boerne, Texas.
Despite all
the care Annie could give, John died in September,1910 at the age of 29.
His
character in the books has a happier outcome. In 1912, in the last of
the Little Colonel books, Mary Ware's Promised Land, Annie Fellows Johnston
decided to let Jack be saved. But in the books before that we can
sense the agony that Annie Fellows Johnston must have often felt in her own
life at the time because of John's illness.
Many of John's exploits present themselves in the character Jack
Ware. You might remember the animal menagerie in
Little Colonel in Arizona.
A letter from Boerne, Texas
in 1908 describes Johns real menagerie and some of what Annie and John were
going through at that time.
John Johnston's Graduation Class from Northwestern Military Academy at Highland
Park, Illinois in 1898
From the private collection of
Suzanne Schimpeler
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: in Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero" Elsewhere:
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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