Time is a river, they say. And like those in the great western Pennsylvania watershed, it never stays still.

19th-century novels always ended by telling people what happened to all the characters. So I might as well do that here.

John Dougherty lived to a ripe old age, beloved by all. He also lived to see the triumph of Temperance in Brookville: in the late 1840s, the town voted to go 'dry'. This did a lot to make the streets quieter on Saturday nights.

Mr Gallagher and his wife prospered and became leading citizens of the town. Gallagher held several public offices at one time or another, including Constable.

'Billy McNab' is based on William McKnight, who was a child in Brookville in 1844, and whose mother really did teach school and also found a rattlesnake in her cupboard. William grew up to be a doctor. As a young man, he was involved in a body-snatching conspiracy along with other doctors who aspired to anatomical knowledge. They were never caught, but Dr McKnight later repented and confessed to the misdeed, on which the statute of limitations had long run out. He helped author Pennsylvania's laws regulating consent for autopsies, and is honoured for that by an historical marker in Brookville.

George Hayes was a real, and very accomplished musician. His skill lived on in Dr McKnight's memory long after his passing.

What happened to the murderers? James Green, the father, was pardoned after a year. He found himself unwelcome in Brookville and moved to Pittsburgh. The son, Edwin Green, served his full sentence. According to a contemporary witness:

Green got off with a sham punishment, and went to California; but vengeance followed. I suppose he had read dime novels, and he made a vow to kill the first Indian he saw. This proved to be a squaw, nursing her babe on a stone. Next morning the tribe surrounded the camp, demanding the murderer. He was given up, with the request he might not be tortured. The chief replied the woman's relatives must decide that; he would not interfere. He was flayed alive.

– Boyd McCullough, The Shamrock, or Erin Set Free, 1882.

As for Jim Tanner and his friends, I made them up, though not out of whole cloth. Everything they did, somebody did. All¹ of this happened in 1844-1845, in or around Brookville. Which just goes to show that if you look hard enough, the quietest place in the world has a hundred stories to tell.

I like to think that when Jim went down to Pittsburgh, which was rapidly rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1845, he found congenial people. That he attended the premiere of 'O! Susanna!' at the Eagle Ice Cream Saloon and was greatly disappointed in Stephen Foster for writing 'Ethiopian songs'. (Never meet your heroes.)

I like to think that Jim found a good music teacher, some German with a gift for pedagogy. That in 1848, he began writing and publishing his own music. That in that same year, he befriended a little Scottish immigrant boy named Andy, who reminded him of himself in a lot of ways. That Jim kept in touch with his friends. That Hannibal, now a promising young iron craftsman, came to Pittsburgh with Cherry, and that he proudly became Jim's brother-in-law. That he and Jim helped young Andy scope out an oil claim in Venango County. That they all participated in the prosperity which followed….

Little of which mattered to Jim Tanner, who was happiest when making music, or playing with his kids, or taking orders from Cherry, who became a major force in the women's suffrage movement.

There, is that enough story for you?

Reading Up on Brookville

A lot of this stuff comes from the works of Dr William McKnight, who loved to reminisce about his childhood, and who wrote a really good book. Several of them in fact:

• My First Recollections of Brookville, Pa, 1840 to 1843, 1895.
• A Pioneer Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, 1905.
• Jefferson County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People, 1917.

There is also History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, by Kate M Scott, 1888.

I've also used the notes on Brookville from Boyd McCullough's wonderful The Shamrock: or, Erin set free. A poem on the conversion of the Irish from paganism by Succat or St. Patrick, and other poems, published in 1882, as well as many references and items from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, and sundry and divers other sources along the way.

Dmitri Gheorgheni