Captives, the Legacy

About the Book

Melinda helped load wagons on a bitter cold day in January of 1901, then drove a team pulling one of them to the small farm her husband purchased in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The following day the mother of five fell gravely ill. "‘I’m hired out,’ eleven year old Norma told her siblings, standing by their mother’s open grave. Wiping tears with the sleeve of her plain gray dress, she explained. ‘Without Mom’s help on the farm, we have too many mouths to feed, Pop sed.’"

CAPTIVES the LEGACY is the saga of a fictional family called, "Plain.” It recounts in intimate details a lifestyle rarely described except in glowing terms. Fascinating and shocking in its extremes, the Plain lifestyle of the Stoltzfus family centers on Norma and her son turned evangelist, Aaron. “Mrs. Martin clamped Norma’s head between her hands and tilted it back. ‘In this house children speak when spoken to,’ she shrilled. ‘And you speak polite, do you understand.’ Terrified, Norma whispered, ‘Yes.’"

Maturing in this culture, Norma’s tempestuous passions invite sin. “Lying there, Grant considered the enigma of the girl by his side. He thought her the most honest person he had ever known, a temptress who expressed herself without guile or pretense. Rising on an elbow to see her better, he delighted in her loveliness; full lips slightly parted and inviting; closed eyes with skin so soft and smooth. Thick flowing hair framed her face; her long tresses a pillow that shimmered with lights in the sun. A feeling of tenderness, almost of awe, swept over him and he pulled back the hand that lay on her cape. ‘It ain’t no sin,’ Norma told him, replacing his hand on her breast. ‘I like for you to hold me.’”

Pregnancy forced Norma into a loveless marriage. Abandoned after the birth of her fourth child, she loses her possessions in a Sheriff’s Sale. “‘Remember what the Bible sez about worldly things,’ she consoled her father. ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.’”

Frank thought on the scripture, then told her, "No fear you'll love things. You ain't got none!"

Resigned to a life of submission, Norma relies on her religious beliefs through World War 1, the Great Depression, and World War II. The growing worldliness of her children troubles her and she asks church officials to speak to Aaron. After prayer, they ask the twelve-year-old boy if he has questions. “‘Were people living on earth when the devil came here.’” Aaron asked.

The bishop answered. "The Scriptures don’t say the exact time when Satan came to the earth but I think the War in Heaven happened before God created Adam and Eve."

"But ---- if the devil was already here, why did God put people where he could hurt them?"

Wartime experiences and fear of death find Aaron praying for survival. “‘What happened?’ the driver asked, draped across the steering wheel of his Jeep.

“‘Happened?’ Jenkin roared, picking himself from the floor under his 50-caliber machine gun. ‘Loney, you dumb son-of-a-bitch!’ Where did you learn to dri____’

“‘Listen!’ Aaron shouted. ‘The Jerry’s coming back to finish us off!’” Convinced that the Lord spared his life on four separate occurrences he converted and dedicated his life to saving souls.

Stateside after the war, Aaron studied for the ministry and graduated from a prestigious seminary. He rejected offers from large churches and announced plans to ride his old motorcycle around the world,...

About the Author

Born and raised in the culture described in CAPTIVES the LEGACY the author experienced many events he recounts as fiction. Drafted during World War 2, he served as an officer in General Patton’s Third Army and graduated from college after the war. Three years later he owned a small company. Elected Controller of Lancaster County and defeated in a statewide election for Auditor General of Pennsylvania, he returned to business activities. Retired, McCorkel lives with his wife in Hershey. They have two children and four grandchildren.