An Anthology of False Starts

By John B. Bartholomew

This is an autobiographical work. I am not a famous character, and so, to be meaningful and interesting to the reader, an autobiography of a historically unknown person should represent more than just some cathartic endeavor; this book accomplshes this objective. It presents references and descriptions of some relatively famous people in my family history who have touched my life, and it also provides information that a reader can utilize in pursuit of their own quest to know more about themselves and the world around them. That is my objective and hope for this endeavor. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Bartholomew
• Release date: Nov 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393250340

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An Anthology of False Starts

John B. Bartholomew

Copyright 2020 by John B. Bartholomew

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An Anthology of False Starts

By John B. Bartholomew

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978 1393715641

All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. The views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the publisher.

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Preface

I don’t want to live in the past; I just don’t want to lose it.

Jake Giddes, The Two Jakes

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This is intended to be my autobiography. I don’t recall who said it, but someone once said that there are three things you must accomplish in your life to call it complete. Plant a tree, have a child and write your autobiography. I’ve planted many trees when I built my home in Montrose, Colorado, had several children, so then, this is my attempt at accomplishing the third thing.

By way of introduction, I believe that, to be meaningful to others, an autobiography should represent more than just some cathartic endeavor. Of course, while it is obvious that the only person in the entire universe who is interested in your life is yourself, it is possible for a person to make his or her autobiography interesting to others, and that’s what I hope I’ve been able to accomplish. I have not led an interesting enough life to entertain or educate others, but one of my hobbies is genealogy, and I do have some interesting relatives. Another of my hobbies is writing and publishing books on theology, comparing various religions to Christianity and practicing apologetics, the reasonable defense of the Christian religion so I hope to have included in this autobiography some jewel the reader who practices the examined life can use in their own quest to know more about themselves and the world around them. Socrates once said that the only fulfilled life is the examined life. Auntie Mame once said that Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death. I have tried to live out my life with the thoughts of those two people in mind.

Of course, as a Christian, I would hope that my comments on life are not merely received on a secular level but serve to focus the reader’s mind on our Creator and Savior. I subscribe to the thought expressed in Psalm 71:18: When I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation. I believe that most people, even famous people, who take the trouble to actually write an autobiography intend for it to be limited to a mere recapitulation of their lives but hope that it may serve a higher purpose. Charles Darwin, the originator of the theory of Evolution, did not intend his autobiography for publication but as a lesson in morality for his children. He was a humanist and practiced a different faith than I do, and, while our respective lessons in morality may have much in common, the foundation for our respective beliefs is quite different. While I cannot provide the details of a relatively interesting life, as would be the case with some celebrity like Darwin, I would at least hope to accomplish what I believe he could not, that is to convey to my children and grandchildren a lesson in the morality of the truth, the morality expressed in the Holy Bible.

The title of my autobiography suggests that I have undergone a number of stops and starts over my adult lifetime and have met with some degree of frustration over the years, as have we all. The frustration arises from the thought that we did not accomplish what we set out to do in our lives. No one can honestly admit to doing this to their own satisfaction. As Meriwether Lewis once reflected in his journal of the Lewis and Clark voyage of discovery, we too have wondered what positive impact our lives would ever have on mankind. I quote from Lewis, I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed the many hours I had spent in indolence. Who really hasn’t been frustrated by the thought they could have lived their life differently and believed they fell short of what they thought they could have been?  The children’s game Chutes and Ladders exemplifies the game of life itself. Sometimes you get a boost up the ladder and other times you tumble down the chute. This analogy falls short, however, because it indicates that whether you fall down the chute or zip up the ladder depends entirely on a spin of the wheel. A certain aspect of randomness is implied. Since I am a Christian, I believe that nothing that happens to us is caused by chance. God is our divine micro-manager and everything that happens to us is by His will. While we entertain thoughts about how better we could have best served our families, our country, our fellow human beings and even ourselves, our life will turn out exactly as God intended it to turn out. That should be a source of comfort for all of us.

Our Creator has given us free will, and we are to exercise that free will in making the choices we make. But, at best, we are secondary causes. Our sovereign God is the primary cause. We make the plans, He determines the steps. Unbelievers spend all of their time and energy trying to keep God at bay, to no avail. They say they don’t want to aim so high (Albert Camus). They don’t want to answer to some external power that holds them accountable for their thoughts, words and deeds. But, as C. S. Lewis once said, God is all around us and we cannot avoid thinking about Him. Theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul said that we all have a theology; the challenge is to have the right one. The belief that God is personal is evident too if we are paying attention. It’s not hard to see evidence of His presence in our lives in the miracles He performs in our lives and that small voice speaking to us through our conscience.  

It’s not hard to see evidence in our lives that God cares for us. What survivor of an airplane crash has not thought about why he or she was spared when so many others were taken? I remember asking a friend of mine who survived that tragic crash in Iowa back in the early nineties that question. He was not a Christian so he responded with the usual reply: I guess it just wasn’t my time to go. But, that begs the question, who determines when that time will be? The only answer left to an atheist is No deity; it’s just the luck of the draw. But, logically, we know that luck cannot be the cause of any effect.

Robert Redford’s character, in his movie The Natural, said, I believe we lead two lives; the life we learn with and the life we live after that. And that is exactly the way most of us look at it. But this isn’t entirely the reality either. We are constantly learning and constantly growing spiritually. The Bible refers to this process as sanctification where God melds us to be closer to Him. We should look on life as a challenge, a learning experience and we should never be bored. Of course, most people do get bored with their lives and try to fill in the void by pursuing material things and chasing down false gods. Redford also said in another of his movies, Out of Africa, that he preferred animals to humans because they don’t muck it up and they never get bored.

Our earthly struggle, then, is never with age; it is with boredom, with routine, with the danger of not living at all. We can endure life’s inevitable pain and suffering better than we can adjust to the swing from boredom to anxiety and from depression to worry. Settling into the routine of life stops our growth. We become bored with life when we cease to learn. Our continual struggle to maintain equilibrium and feel good about ourselves is stifled; we no longer become who we think we are. We are the living dead, living life without thought, purpose or hope.

We muck it up by immersing ourselves in the mire. This is not what our Creator intended for us. This sort of experience exhausts us and defeats us. How can we avoid falling into this rut? Those who do not believe in a God who cares must turn to the philosophers for an answer. As Shopenhauer wrote, we are to ward off pain with cheerfulness and ward off boredom by intelligence. For believers, we must turn to the Word, specifically those particular books of knowledge, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

I turn to God for answers; I turn to God to thank Him for the fullness of the life I have lived and the ability and opportunity to provide some information to anyone who is attracted to those pursuits which make life more interesting: religion, philosophy, history, genealogy, poetry and the fine arts. These disciplines constitute the focal point of my life and, if you are in that special class of people who find joy and happiness in every act, in every moment, they are undoubtedly your focal points as well.

I love to read history and visit historical places to see those places I have read about. I love to write non-fiction, short stories, and poetry. I love writing because I cannot always be sure that I have communicated verbally what I really want to say and maybe the written word will succeed where I have previously failed. I write because the thoughts inside of me have to be put in a more visible form. I am a bad poet, but I love to write poetry. It is therapeutic. As James Dickey, a really good poet, once wrote, a really good poet is like an engine with the governor off. Another really good poet, Percy Shelley, once said that Each of us should take an hour away from a life of error, ignorance and strife, and introduce love and beauty and delight." Someone once said that there’s only love; the rest is smoke and mirrors.

I like to do my part in producing beauty when I set up a blank canvas on my easel with brush in hand or pick up my guitar and sing a song or take a blank piece of paper with pen in hand and, as my late, great father-in-law, Francis Lee once said, Go for it!  I believe that information gleaned from my participation in these hobbies during my years on this earth make a much more interesting and entertaining story than those little episodes people usually include in their autobiographies. I hope you will agree with me and find this work more than just an exercise in self expression.

The title, An Anthology of False Starts, while suggesting something interesting is to follow, is really a restatement of a very biblical concept. Because of our inevitable death, we must continuously begin all our various labors again and again. We are never really satisfied with the results and are driven to repeat previous efforts. This I have done, again and again. And so have you. In theory, this behavior suggests that a person is interested in so many things, that one lifetime cannot be enough time to allow the pursuance of all of his dreams. In reality, however, one lifetime is always enough for whatever is to follow because God has ordained exactly what is to happen each step of the way. As I say, we just make the plans, He determines the steps. While it seems at times as though God is ignoring our present level of completeness, He favors our ultimate future completeness. I firmly believe that heaven will allow us to do those things we have done on earth which we totally enjoy doing and never tire of doing.

As difficult as this is a concept for us humans to accept because we are instinctively control freaks, people close to the real truth know that our lives and those of all others are not really about us; our lives, in unique ways, are all about our creator and His glorification. As the old hymn goes (I love old hymns), take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.  For the author of this hymn, Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), this hymn was her prayer. We may resist the truth her hymn presents but that is the way our brief existence on earth has been designed, like it or not. The journey is so brief. As the poet says: At my back, I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near.  As we take this journey, we are to grow spiritually; we are to become closer to God. This process is called sanctification in Christianity, and God, in His goodness and mercy, has provided this process for us to grow in holiness, to become more like Christ. So, in this sense, our lives are all about us too.

Speaking of the present and the future, I did make and still continue to make my plans. We all do and we all should. John Hammond, as in Hammond Organs, once said: I live in the past, I work in the present and I think in the future.  That quote explains how I have lived my life. My Indian name would have been He-who-lives-in-the-past. I would recommend you do the same with your life. It is a great way to tie together the three phases of this thing we call time.

The Bartholomew family is a fine family, a good place to be in this world and a very good way to go through this life. Children inherit effects of emotional trauma, and we had our bad times with our good, but overall, if I would have the choice to live my life all over again, I would chose to be in the same place at the same time. God indeed provides many more blessings than challenges.

Our Family Background

I have done some research on my roots on Ancestry.com and have thoroughly enjoyed the study of genealogy. I discovered that I come from a long line of interesting, adventuresome, educated, ambitious people. The first John Bartholomew of record was born in 1710 in Rotterdam, Holland. He was the son of Jacob Bartholomew who was born in Holland in 1678. Since many people from Holland were encouraged to move to England and Scotland by the example set by William of Orange, the Dutch leader who later became King of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689, Bartholomew’s are a mixture of Dutch and Scottish heritage. Interestingly, we are actually even related to British Royalty through one of the illegitimate sons of King James V of Scotland, John Stuart.

The first John Bartholomew immigrated to America in 1727 and settled in Germantown, PA. He and his family later moved to Pennsylvania and then to Ohio and later the lineage ended up in Indiana. Horace Greeley’s advice of Go West, young man was followed in this family migration. As a matter of fact, an Indiana County is named after a direct relative of mine, General Joseph Bartholomew, the older brother of my great, great, great grandfather, John Bartholomew (1770-1845). I am the third John Bryson Bartholomew and proud of my heritage. My grandfather, the first John Bryson Bartholomew, was born in Valparaiso in 1880 and later moved to Chicago where my father, John Bryson Bartholomew, Jr., was born on October 16, 1916. I did not sire a son and, to date, no other John Bryson Bartholomew has been named. Only my youngest brother has sired a son, but, alas, he ignored family tradition and did not name him the fourth John Bryson Bartholomew. Maybe his son will father a child and continue the tradition.

The maiden name of my grandmother  (my father’s mother) was Wishart. Her great grandfather, Alexander, was born in Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. A Wishart married a MacLean of the MacLean clan of Duart on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. Duart Castle is a thirteenth century castle which has been completely restored. 

A Wishart, the grandfather of my grandmother, Frank Wishart, embarked on a hazardous journey to the Yukon Gold Fields in the late 1890’s and served as the model for James Michener in his book Journey. He was the only survivor of a group known as The Duluth Expedition.  We are also related to the great Scottish Reformer, George Wishart who was burned at the stake on March 1, 1546 for his beliefs. Wishart was the mentor of John Knox.  Knox was one of six men who wrote the Scots Confession and the First Book of Discipline for the newly founded Presbyterian Church in Scotland.

My grandfather Houck’s mother’s maiden name was Murray which connected us to the Murrays of the Atholl Scottish clan whose thirteenth century castle, Blair Castle, has been completely restored. We therefore are a two-clan, two-castle family with two coats of arms, two mottos, and two tartans. The MacLean motto was Virtue Mine Honor. The Murray clan motto was Quite Ready. Bartholomew’s are therefore honorable and virtuous people who are ready for whatever life brings on us. Of course, like any family, we had our fair share of scoundrels too. One of our Ohio relatives committed murder.  One of them also committed suicide.

Another of our relatives, David T. Adams was one of the original founders of the great Mesabi Iron Ore Range near Duluth, Minnesota.  David Adams also founded several towns.  One of them, Hibbing, Minnesota, is best known as the birthplace of Bob Dylan. Another town, Eveleth, MN has its main street named after him for founding that town.  Iron is used to make steel and the Adams Corporation sold steel to Andrew Carnegie who founded U.S. Steel. David also partnered with business magnates such as Chester Congdon and John D. Rockefeller in creating an empire which insured an inheritance for generations to come. Complete details of his story are to be found in the genealogy file. Congdon’s biography is on Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia.

Bartholomew’s founded other towns in Ashtabula County, Ohio and Indiana and were instrumental in founding a number of Presbyterian churches in these states. A county in Indiana is named after the brother of my great, great, great grandfather, John, General Joseph Bartholomew.

A number of Bartholomew’s served as physicians and lawyers. One of them, my great grandfather, Alvin D. Bartholomew, was a District Court Judge and Mayor of Valparaiso, Indiana. There are still many Bartholomew’s settled in this area and many are buried in the two cemeteries in the area.  Another relative, Stanley D. Service, was the brother of the famous poet, Robert Service, who wrote The Cremation of Sam McGee.

Many Bartholomew’s also served our country and fought in wars over the centuries. A number of our relatives fought in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Tippecanoe and in the War of 1812.  The most famous of these men was General Joseph Bartholomew, whom I mentioned before. He was one of the trusted friends of William Henry Harrison, and like Harrison, gained fame in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.  Harrison was our ninth President but did not serve a full term, dying of pneumonia after only serving six months in office.  As I mentioned before Indiana’s Bartholomew is named after General Joe. More information about him can be seen on Wikipedia.

Another relative fought alongside his two brothers at Chupultepec Castle in Mexico City in the Mexican-American war.  One account indicates all three brothers were killed in that battle. Can you imagine how their parents felt when they received this news?

A relative fought with Grant at Shiloh, one of the most important battles of the Civil War. Another relative, Marston Clark Bartholomew, the son of General,