On his 17th birthday, August 30, 1860, Kade Zachary left Berea, Kentucky, arriving in San Antonio, Texas at the end of February; 1,200 miles in 180 days, an average of 6.7 miles a day. A boy and his horse, alone in the wilderness, no marked trail, not even a map, nothing except sun and stars to guide them on an incredible journey, like Davey Crocket and Daniel Boone making their way through the wilderness dependent on their wits and fortitude to achieve their objectives. Today, we find such a venture difficult to imagine, yet in the days before internal combustion engines thousands of pilgrims and fortune hunters crossed America seeking their fortunes or escaping misfortune. The Autobiography of Kade Zachary is a fascinating tale of determination about a boy motivated by his father on his death bed."to get an education ... it's the only way to get ahead." He learns to read and write while apprenticing in the blacksmith trade. As his story unfolds through good fortune, he meets understanding mentors: He writes: "Another curious matter was how good fortune kept replacing Poppa with new guardians, always men who liked me, wanting to help my learning, each different in his own way. Mr. Fee, the learnéd professor; Mr. McCreith, the perfectionist; and now, a weathered old cowpoke who'd lived his whole life in the wild west, willing to take me on, to teach me the trials and perils of the trail, demanding nothing in return except a little sympathy and no talk while recovering from binges. Why did these men take me on, I wondered, never realizing their common denominator until years later. Despite the wide difference in skills, learning and personalities, each was a lonely man, wifeless, childless, or abandoned by offspring, alone, filling the void with alcohol, books of learning, endless hours of toil, wanting desperately to share what they had. Suddenly, a youth appears, independent, capable, responsible, asking nothing except to learn, to some degree a replica of how they imagined themselves at my age, igniting the smoldering memories of family, teaching and loving. And I was the beneficiary." An inspirational story well worth reading.
About the Author: Stephen P. Byers was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1924. After war service in the European Theater during WW II, he obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University. His entire working life was devoted to industrial construction. He participated in a wide variety of projects in Canada until 1972 when he relocated to Kansas City to work on a major commercial development in Missouri. Sixteen years later, he retired to Arkansas where he has been extensively involved in storytelling and creative writing. He has had wide experience as both actor and director on a variety of Community Theater stages in Kansas City. In 1948, he married Mary Elspeth Rankine. They have four children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren