Amelia's Demise

Benson Adams was born on February 9, 1836, the child of a mother who was half Ojibwe/half white, and a white father. He grew up being accepted in Mackinaw City, Michigan as a white man and in the villages of the Ojibwe, which taught him to appreciate the values shared by the two people. He became convinced that the animosity between native Americans and white settlers could be significantly diminished if both cultures were apprised of these likenesses. He carried this message to the end of his life.

After serving in the Civil War, Benson finished his college training and became a professor at Hunster College in Nelsonville, Ohio. Here, he and a young student named Amelia Hamilton fall deeply in love; however he was 35 and she was 18, a situation fraught with obvious difficulties in the Victorian era. When, due to matters presented in the story, Amelia takes her own life, a whole array of life-altering situations begins to unfold, touching many people.

A perennial question asks why sadness and suffering apparently must enter the human experience. 'Amelia's Demise' will explore this question. In the final analysis, the story is a literary corroboration of Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."