J. Howard
A Prophet of Our Times
by
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The molding of a life like the weaving of a tapestry is a lengthy dedication of effort and skill, and the ultimate results in the case of a person take a lifetime. Like the warp which are the fixed threads running the long way of the loom and the wool which are the threads carried back and forth across the warp, the design formed by this process, so are the genes, the family, the friends, the skills, the talents, the events woven in and out, in and out, in and out over the course of one's life, producing a unique individual -differing from all other individuals even as finger- prints differ from one person to another. It is fascinating to view the intricacies of an individual -to theorize as to how one side of a person's nature is shaped by another side and vice versa. How did Howard's parents and siblings help him to become what he became? How did events hinder him in developing into the man whom we knew? Did he teach because he didn't want to preach? Did he become a writer so he could be a publisher? How was he affected by having a large family of his own -by having to be a provider not only for himself but also for that family? Who was this man who proudly recounted how he had worked as a brick mason with his father and yet who scoffed at the workaday world? Who was this person who praised Christ and quoted Paul, whose closest friends in a community were apt to be the ministers in the local churches, yet who had little respect for established religion? Who was this individual who savored the memories of his years at the public institutions of learning which he attended and where he taught, yet who for a large part educated his own children at home? Whoever he was, whatever he was destined to become, he entered the world in the same manner as people have entered since time immemorial: born of a woman. The weaving of the tapestry began on that twenty-first day of May in 1883 when the second son and third child of Dennis and Nancy Flower was born. On that Monday long ago his older sister, Lucy, barely eight years old herself, heralded the event with this entry in her diary: "Howard was born today." Just that! Nothing more! What an impact! Yet for over eighty years Hartland Four Corners, Vermont was never quite the same. Yes, the tapestry had been completed. The threads, the colors, the designs were all in place. So on February 15, 1967 the finished work was hung. Nothing more could ever be added. At last others could step back to view and ponder and evaluate. At last others could admire or disapprove, could smile or frown upon, could agree or disagree without thought or fear of rebuttal or reprisal. All the movements of the shuttle had taken more than eighty years for the fulfillment of the task. The intricate weavings, the struggles and triumphs. had required much time and effort to put in place. They were the struggles and triumphs of a determined individual marching to the beat he heard from a drummer other than the ordinary kind. He had stepped to the beat which at most times had been heard by him alone. But neither people nor events could deter him. And while people and events helped to shape him, he was the sole determiner as to which people and which events; he alone put the bits and pieces into place. He was. first and foremost an individualist, a nonconformist. His nonconformity finding expression in both the spoken and written word, with the predominant emphasis falling on the latter. To understand the depth of his commitment to his cause, to understand the prophetic aspect of his life experience necessitates a study of the varied facets which were the fabric of each portion of the tapestry. Each portion of the total wall hanging had its own intricate thread, texture. color and design. The separate chapters of this section of the book are an unraveling, as it were, of the fabric of the tapestry that was J. Howard Flower the Man. lust as it is essential to look at the hanging as a whole, so is it vital to view the strands of the warp and the strands of the woof that went into comprising the fabric. The colors, the designs of each segment of the tapestry were similar, complementary, interwoven, yet at the same time for clarity and intensity of each segment it is absolutely crucial to put each under its own scrutiny. This unraveling, if you will, endeavors to portray J. Howard the Prophet in a more specific, detailed fashion.
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About the Book
J. Howard: A Prophet of Our Times tells in two parts the lifestyle and experiences of J. Howard Flower, a lifelong resident of Hartland Four Corners, Vermont. Part I details the biography of the man; Part II portrays the prophetic aspects of his lifestyle and experiences. Born in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, Howard lived far in advance of the times. Time Herself bears this out. He loved freedom in all its aspects and abhorred conventionality in the same manner. A social reformer, he became a vegetarian at an early age, took care of his health in natural ways, wore his hair long, dressed in radical fashions. As a young man he scoffed at formal titles and marriage. In his view there was no such thing as inequality between the sexes. Long before it was accepted practice, and in defiance of the law, he was home schooling his children. Early on he cast formal religion out the window. Disagreeing vehemently with the need for war, disagreeing in the same way with the two major political parties, he was not afraid to make his positions known. We have here an individual destined to present a foreshadowing of social change.
About the Author
I am a proud native Vermonter who was born in Hartland Four Corners. I was home-schooled up through the seventh grade. I graduated from Windsor High School and the University of Vermont where I received a B. A. Degree. Then followed many summers of taking additional courses in Languages Arts. Having taught Eleventh and Twelfth Grade Language Arts for a number of years, retiring in 1981, I had assigned, read and evaluated countless papers for literally hundreds of students. I decided in the 1980’s to write this book, spending years in researching, writing, evaluating and rewriting (many times!) the subject matter. Much of my time now is given to helping maintain the Hartland family homestead.