The Naturalists A Historical Novel of the Hayman Family

It all began with Abner Hayman, a man of the cloth. His intellect and drive started the Hayman legacy. But periods in Abner's life happened where he doubted his God, his wife, and his children. The man became torn in a land that demanded so much from him and his family.

His young son reached out to a calling, a spiritual feeling, that he must move on to land he could call his own. Along roads filled with pleasant and sad moments, John Hayman finally arrived at the land of tall grass and marshes teeming with life. An area was taken from the Indians and scorned by white men.

   For several years John questioned himself about settling on this open and, at times, the harsh prairie of the Nebraska territory. People were streaming past him on the Oregon Trail. Their dream was a land of beauty filled with trees, clear streams, and plentiful fish and game. But John remained in the ignored marsh country, and he would persevere.

   It was the meeting with an old Indian woman who taught John how to discover the bounties of the land. He settled into his first years—comfortable and undaunted—and learned to live with the land that would eventually yield to him a wife and children.

   John Hayman would toil on the south-central Nebraska prairie filled with marshes. Unknown challenges lay ahead that would test his resolve. The Hayman saga would continue.