A Chance Meeting

No one knows if this meeting ever occurred. It could have happened. The date would have been sometime in June of 1870. Hank arrives first at the general store in Williamson in Barbour County Alabama. As he opens the door he notices a woman about 10 years older. His eyes go to the boardwalk sidewalk as the woman, Jane, enters the store. Hank looked down because it was a cultural reflex. Hank is a black man, a freed slave. Jane's reaction was unfortunately a natural one as well. Whites, even up through the time before integration often looked right through blacks almost as if they were invisible.
Hank was the lone child slave in a home in Newton Alabama. He was separated by his family as early as the age of 9. He received his freedom in 1865 when the Civil War ended. Just by chance, Jane and Hank left the store about the same time. Except this time, Jane was leaving first and held the door for Hank. It was an odd feeling for both of them. Jane was actually raised in Williamson by her uncle Green Beauchamp.
Both of Jane's parents had died when she was about 12 years old. Green and his wife did not have any children so they raised their nieces and nephews. Jane would later move just north to Russell County to attend a private school. She was caught up in a scandal when she eloped with one of her teachers at the age of 16. She was basically disowned by her Beauchamp family.
She had returned to Barbour County to attend the funeral of her uncle Green. She wanted to see the store once again. This story would be interesting just for the odd facts within. But the oddity of it actually involves who these two people are, and their relationship to our story A Rainbow in the Dark. For you see, Hank was a slave in the home of a white man that would actually die the Civil War. That white man was Henry A Kirkland.
When that young slave got his freedom, he would take the name of his former owner. He became Henry Kirkland, the former slave. Young Henry married Isabelle McSwean and started his family. He would later move with his young family to Montgomery, where another son was born-- Henry Kirkland. This Henry would later move to Northeastern Texas, and later to Atoka, Oklahoma. For you see, Hank (Henry Kirkland), the former slave, is the grandfather of Henry Kirkland, Jr-- my friend and main character of A Rainbow in the Dark.
So who in the world is Jane? She is Nancy Eliza Jane Beauchamp, who eloped with my great great grandfather, James Gimble McCoy. Jane is my great great grandmother. So, Dr. Kirkland's grandfather raised his family in the exact town my great great grandmother was raised. About 130 years later, I would walk into Dr Kirkland's class and that would change my life.