Individual Author Record
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General InformationName: Charless CarawayPen Name: None Genre: Non-Fiction Born: 1888 in Raleigh, Illinois Sites: |
Illinois Connection
Charless was born and raised in Raleigh in Saline County. He lived in Southern Illinois his entire life.Biographical and Professional Information
Charless was a farmer in Makanda and Murphysboro, Illinois from 1910 through 1971.Published Works 
Titles At Your Library
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Foothold on a Hillside: Memories of a Southern Illinoisan (Shawnee Books) ISBN: 0809312980 Southern Illinois University Press. 1986 In a style reminiscent of the master storytellers of yore, Charless Caraway recounts the story of his life, as a man and a boy, on small farms in Saline and Jackson counties, particularly around Eldorado, Makanda, and Etherton Switch. He makes no bones about the hardships of those "old days," first helping his father eke out a living from the land, then scrambling for a living as a sharecropper and fruit picker, as he scrimped and saved for the day when he and his young wife, Bessie Mae Rowan Caraway, could buy a piece of land of their own. The one-room school, the general store, the trips by wagon over roads that choked you in summer and swallowed you in winter, the home that burned: all are described in a matter-of-fact yet moving way. Many of the locations, buildings, and people are represented in equally unromanticized photographs from the family’s collection. Some of the stories and photos recall the common disasters of the frontier: drought, flood, and the tornado of 1925. It is clear from these stories that each aspect of life exacted a price, but the Caraways paid that price without regret and rallied to go on their way. Charless and his family and friends fill this book with courage, strength, and an unshakable faith in the value of human endeavor. |