The Travels of Increase Joseph
by Jerry Apps
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Increase Joseph Link, an itinerant preacher, arrives in the wilds of central Wisconsin in 1852. A small band of followers who call themselves the Standalone Fellowship come with him. They take up farming near Link Lake, named for their revered spiritual leader.
The Standalone Fellowship almost immediately falls on difficult times. To earn money for the Fellowship, Increase Joseph takes his message of “listening to the land” to nearby towns where he preaches in a round tent and sells a special curative tonic for fifty cents a bottle.
Increase Joseph’s preaching becomes known throughout the region for its content and especially for his powerful manner of delivery. His spellbinding oratory is based on the mysterious Red Book that Increase Joseph carries with him everywhere and allows no one to see, not even his immediate family.
He takes on wheat farmers, lumber barons and those who accept technology without questioning it. He speaks against war and Slavery and the Fellowship becomes a part of the Underground Railroad. |
With a cast of characters, real and fictional, Apps tells a fast moving story that examines human progress in a new light. The story of Increase Joseph Link is nuanced with philosophy and history, and told with humor and Apps’ special story telling flair.
Jerry Apps has researched and written about Midwestern rural history for many years.. For his writings, Jerry, who is Professor Emeritus of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has won awards from the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Wisconsin Council for Writers, the Wisconsin Library Association, the School of the Arts at Rhinelander, the University of Wisconsin-Extension, the Robert E. Gard Foundation, the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
Jerry and his wife, Ruth, live in Madison and at their farm near Wild Rose, Wisconsin.
Praise for Jerry Apps’ Writing
"Jerry Apps is a born storyteller and observant historian of rural life." --Midwest Book Review
"It’s always fun to get a new book from Wisconsin storyteller and historian, Jerry Apps." -- St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Madison rural historian Jerry Apps often reminds people that 'When we forget our histories, we forget who we are.'" -- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"(Apps) has been honing the skills that make him one of the most popular regional writers in the Midwest." -- Chilton Times-Journal
The Travels of Increase Joseph
Publication date: November 2003
Fiction
Hardcover
ISBN 1-932542-01-9
Price: $22.95 |
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