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Dave Burdow
Nancy Creighton is John Creighton’s wife. The couple has two sons. Born in Kansas and evidently raised in a harsh family, Nancy is shy and withdrawn. Over the course of the war, however, she comes to increasingly rely on her in-laws, and she slowly develops a relationship with her young brother-in-law Jethro.
Nancy Creighton Quotes in Across Five Aprils
The Across Five Aprils quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Creighton or refer to Nancy 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 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.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nancy Creighton Character Timeline in Across Five Aprils
The timeline below shows where the character Nancy Creighton appears in Across Five Aprils. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...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 greens just for...
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...prefer. Jethro feels neutral about his brother John, the oldest still at the family homeplace. Nancy’s shyness, which strikes Jethro as unfriendliness, contributes to the distance between them.
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Jenny and Nancy pour coffee and load the table with roasted meat, potatoes, and cornbread. John compliments Jenny...
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Chapter 2
...have come 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,...
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After dinner, Jenny and Bill wash the dishes while John and Nancy take their children home. Everyone else drifts into the yard to wait for Shad. Jethro...
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Chapter 5
...Matt and Jenny tend to her. Finally, Matt sends Jethro to borrow some coffee from Nancy.
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Jethro finds Nancy outside doing chores. Her two young sons wait for her in a darkened house; she’s...
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Chapter 6
...where he complains about Jenny’s “selfishness” while he follows the plow team. In the midafternoon, Nancy and her sons come to the field to bring Jethro a snack and to find...
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Nancy also read about Shiloh in the papers. She felt severe distress thinking about the battle...
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...relents and tells her that he’s no longer upset after talking the incident over with Nancy.
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...Creightons, but many others volunteer to take turns standing watch over the cabin at night. Nancy and her boys move in with the rest of the family for safety. After a...
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Chapter 8
...improved since 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...
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...River in Tennessee. Although technically a Union victory, it cost 13,000 lives. John wearily writes Nancy that “the sufferin and scenes of deth was sech as to make a mans hart...
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Chapter 9
While no one respected Hig Phillips, his lawless murder terrifies people around the county. Nancy moves in semi-permanently with the rest of the Creightons. Ellen no longer allows Jenny to...
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...a little better after a warm night’s sleep covered by the quilts Jethro took from Nancy’s cabin. Jethro asks if Eb would truly go back to his unit if he could,...
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...over one day at noon with the mail. Jenny hopes for news from Shad and Nancy from John, but Ed only has a “purty important” piece of mail with a Washington...
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Chapter 11
Nearly six months go by before Nancy receives another letter from John. In the weeks of silence, she and Jethro try valiantly...
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...and Jenny in Washington. He describes the battle to John’s sons, and John writes to Nancy how much it comforts him to know that the “one brother [he’s] got left” watches...
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Chapter 12
...cabin the next day, Jethro tries to relay all the details of the celebration to Nancy and her little boys. They’re excited about the imminent return of a father they can...
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