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Shadrach Yale
Jenny Creighton, daughter of Ellen and Matt, is the closest sibling in age to Jethro—she and Jethro are the youngest of the Creighton siblings. Their closeness in age and mutual admiration for Shadrach Yale, whom Jethro treasures as a friend and beloved teacher and whom Jenny loves (and later marries), bring brother and sister very close throughout the years of the war. Despite her youth, Jenny is intelligent, determined, and independent. Until Jenny leaves to tend to a recuperating Shad in Washington D.C., she and Jethro follow the accounts of the war together, reading and discussing the newspaper reports and trying to understand their implications. This showcases Jenny’s quick mind as well as her commitment to education and improving herself.
Jenny Creighton Quotes in Across Five Aprils
The Across Five Aprils quotes below are all either spoken by Jenny Creighton or refer to Jenny Creighton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6 Quotes
If someone had asked Jethro to name a time when he left childhood behind him, he might have named that last week of March in 1862. He had learned a great deal about men and their unpredictable behavior the day he drove alone to Newton; now he was to learn what it meant to be the man of a family at ten. He had worked since he could remember, but his work had been done at the side of some older members of the family; when he had grown tired, he was encouraged to rest or sometimes he was dismissed from the task altogether. Now he was to know labor from dawn till sunset; he was to learn what it meant to scan the skies for rain while corn burned in the fields, or to see a heavy rainstorm lash grain from full, strong wheat stalks, or to know that hay, desperately needed for winter feeding, lay rotting in a wet quagmire of a field.
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Chapter 7 Quotes
“I’m so scared, Jeth. Seems I hadn’t known what war was till Danny Lawrence come bringin’ us this awful word of Tom.” She closed the Bible and crossed her forearms on its faded cover. “I used to dream about the nice home Shad and me would have and how I’d keep it bright and pretty, how I’d wait of an evenin’ to see him comin’ down the road toward home. Nowadays I don’t make any plans; I just don’t dare to have any dreams for fear someday a soldier will come home and tell us that he was standin’ beside Shad, the way Danny was standin’ beside Tom—”
She got up abruptly and put the Bible back on the shelf among the books Shadrach had left. Together she and Jethro walked silently out into the barnlot and got their teams ready to go back to the fields.
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Chapter 12 Quotes
Daily the color of April grew brighter. The apple and peach orchards were in bloom again, and the redbud was almost ready to burst. The little leaves on the silver poplars quivered in green and silver lights with every passing breeze, and Jenny’s favorite lilacs bloomed in great thick clusters, deep purple and as fragrant as any beautiful thing on earth.
Then suddenly, because there were no longer any eyes to perceive it, the color was gone, and the fifth April had become, like her four older sisters, a time of grief and desolation.
[…] Jethro would remember a sunlit field and a sense of serenity and happiness such as he had not known since early childhood. He would remember […] Nancy running toward him […] He thought at first that something had happened to his father, or [John…]
Then Nancy said, “Jeth, it’s the President—they’ve killed the President.”
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Jenny Creighton Character Timeline in Across Five Aprils
The timeline below shows where the character Jenny Creighton appears in Across Five Aprils. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...back toward the plain but comfortable pioneer’s cabin with Ellen. There, they find Jethro’s sister Jenny and sister-in-law Nancy putting the finishing touches on lunch. Jenny has picked some fresh lettuce...
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...years before—sit across from Jethro. They don’t have much time for the youngest boy, but Jenny and Jethro’s favorite brother, Bill, certainly do. The neighbors consider Bill “peculiar” because, although he’s...
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Jenny and Nancy pour coffee and load the table with roasted meat, potatoes, and cornbread. John...
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Chapter 2
...in from the fields. Tom and Bill happily greet their cousin Wilse while Nancy and Jenny finish preparing a dinner of chicken, sweet potatoes, and honey-stewed apples. At first, Wilse catches...
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After dinner, Jenny and Bill wash the dishes while John and Nancy take their children home. Everyone else...
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Chapter 4
...his teacher and friend, hurries to complete his evening chores. While he’s in the barn, Jenny comes out with tears in her eyes. She’s read the letter from Tom. And she’s...
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Ellen and Jenny bundle Jethro against the cold with much fuss, then they send him down to the...
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...like an equal, making him feel “as proud as a man.” When Shad asks after Jenny, Jethro extends his mother’s invitation for Shad to join the Creightons for dinner the next...
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...turn, promises that Jethro can look forward to many nights like this with him and Jenny after the war. They plan to help Jethro get a good education—maybe even including college....
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Chapter 5
...quit cold turkey but ends up in bed, too ill to work while Matt and Jenny tend to her. Finally, Matt sends Jethro to borrow some coffee from Nancy.
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...lamp. She hands Jethro her whole bag of coffee. Then she asks if he and Jenny would come play with their nephews sometime to try to fill the gap their father’s...
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...sacks of corn. Ellen shares her cup of coffee—diluted with hot milk—with her son, and Jenny makes him a special breakfast. Jethro feels proud and exhilarated as he guides the teams...
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...under General Sigel, might have been at the recent battle of Pea Ridge. Jethro and Jenny recently read about it in the newspaper, and he relates some of the details to...
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Matt, Ellen, and Jenny greet Jethro with relief and excitement. They praise his good judgement and able handling of...
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Chapter 6
...noise at the gate. Hurrying outside, she finds Matt collapsed and grasping at his heart. Jenny runs for Ed Turner, who helps her and Ellen get Matt into bed and sends...
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Together, Jenny and Jethro take on as much of the farm work as they can while Ellen...
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Jethro and Jenny grow close over the spring of 1862, despite one last “attack of childish fury” Jethro...
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...that loneliness—or the soft springtime weather—has inspired Shad to pen a love letter meant for Jenny alone. Jethro’s anger impels him to John’s field, where he complains about Jenny’s “selfishness” while...
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When Jethro returns home, Jenny’s cheerful mood reignites his resentment. When he goes to wash in the big iron kettle...
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When a nightmare makes Jethro cry out in his sleep, Jenny runs to his room to comfort him. At first, he tries to resist her kindness....
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As Jenny stands to leave Jethro’s room, they hear hoofbeats on the road. It sounds like three...
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Chapter 7
...asks how their acts of vandalism measure up to Tom’s contribution to the Union cause. Jenny slips a cutting of this letter into the family Bible and turns to the family...
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Jenny and Jethro reflect on the working of providence, like the miracle that spared the rest...
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Chapter 8
...he saved Jethro’s life. At midday, the men devour a feast that Ellen, Nancy, and Jenny prepared. And for the hour that the meal lasts, it seems almost as if there...
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...after wave of men to reach Confederate troops entrenched atop the surrounding hills. Jethro and Jenny wait anxiously until a letter finally arrives from Shad. In it, Shad bitterly expresses his...
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Chapter 9
...county. Nancy moves in semi-permanently with the rest of the Creightons. Ellen no longer allows Jenny to ride into town for the mail alone; no one sleeps easily at night. One...
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Jenny leads the federal agents through the cabin, then she hands them the key to the...
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Jenny notices Jethro’s distraction after dinner that night. It’s hard to deceive or divert his strong-willed,...
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...feels a great deal of anxiety during the wait for a reply. During this time, Jenny mourns the distance his secret has created between them, and Eb keeps promising (but failing)...
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Chapter 10
...either dead or prisoners of war. Fear for Shadrach’s life and safety haunts Jethro and Jenny until a letter finally arrives in late June.
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Shad’s letter reflects his amazement at surviving Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, and he sternly warns Jenny that she must not count on their luck continuing. Many a sweet girl’s heart has...
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...but his wounds have become gangrenous, and she fears he will die soon. She offers Jenny a place to stay, should Matt allow her to make the long trip out East....
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Ross Milton and Jenny set off early the next morning. Jethro can’t bring himself to work after their departure...
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Miraculously, over the course of the summer, letters from Milton and Jenny keep the family apprised of Shad’s slow recovery. And, by mail, Matt finally consents to...
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Chapter 11
Jethro copies the letter and forwards the original to Shad and Jenny in Washington. He describes the battle to John’s sons, and John writes to Nancy how...
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...Ulysses S. Grant, although losses continue to mount. Shadrach slowly recovers his health, and since Jenny stays with him in Washington, his letters now come addressed to Jethro. In one, he...
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Chapter 12
...his tortured musings. After a moment the owner of the hand speaks—it’s Shad, back with Jenny from Washington. Jethro and Shad are both amazed at the changes time and the war...
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...Shad how badly he wants to go to Springfield. Shad tells Jethro how he and Jenny happened to see President Lincoln in the street the very night of the assassination. Shad...
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