A Bartlett grandfather and former resident will have an opportunity to shake hands with old friends and share his book this weekend.
John Babb will be signing his historical novel, “Orphan Hero,” at Bookstop Plus in Bartlett on Saturday, Jan. 16. The event will be 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
The book is based on his great-grandfather’s life. Babb said his ancestor ran away from his Indiana home at the age of eight in 1849, fleeing an abusive stepmother and trying to catch up to his father, who had departed for the California gold fields.
He paid his way on steamboats by convincing fellow travelers that he knew how to cut their hair. “He didn’t,” Babb said.
At Westport, Mo., he hitched a ride on a wagon train headed west. Along the way he was exposed to all of the challenges and dangers of such a journey.
Although the runaway child never found his father, he worked in California, first as a barber, then as a physician’s assistant for 11 years.
Then the young man traveled to the Gulf Coast, where he became a blockade runner during the Civil War, Babb said.
At war’s end, he tried to settle down in the Missouri Ozarks, but a gang of bushwhackers had other plans.
Babb said his grandmother and great-aunt spoke almost reverently about their father, and he heard about many of the man’s exploits.
The author also read his great-grandfather’s journal and visited all of the locations mentioned in the book, plus museums, libraries, cemeteries, and battlefields.
All the research yielded a book that is, from his perspective, nitpickingly accurate.
During Babb’s last duty assignment with the U.S. Public Health Service in Kansas City, he and his wife lived less than a half-mile from the beginnings of the California/Oregon/ Santa Fe Trail.
He explained why he chose now to write this book about a man who influenced so much of his childhood and adult years.
“So my wife said, ‘If you’re ever going to write that story, now’s the time.’ And I always do what my wife says.”
His book was named as a Historical Novel of the Month in August and has received strong reviews via Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Babb has local ties as a former resident. He lived in Bartlett from 1984 through 1993 and has two granddaughters in Bartlett schools.
For more information about the book and the author, see his website at johnbabbauthor.com.
