Raintree County is the story of a single day in which are imbedded a series of flashbacks. The chronologies printed here may assist the reader in understanding the structure of the novel. At the back of the book may be found a chronology of historical events with bearing on the story.
Chronology
of
A GREAT DAY
for
RAINTREE COUNTY
July 4, I892
Morning
Dawn--MR. JOHN WICKLIFF SHAWNESSY awakens in the town of Waycross. (page 3)
6:00--The Shawnessy family leaves Waycross by surrey.
6:45--In the Court House Square of Freehaven, Mr. Shawnessy enters a Museum of Raintree County Antiquities.
7:45--Across the site of the vanished town of Danwebster, Mr. Shawnessy carries a sickle and a box of cut flowers.
8:30--Approaching the town of Moreland, EVA Alice Shawnessy reads the last page of Barriers Burned Away. (page 235)
8 :45--Re-entering THE GREAT ROAD OF THE REPUBLIC in Waycross, Mr. Shawnessy is engulfed in wheels and faces. (page 253)
9:30--Senator Garwood B. Jones arrives by special train in Waycross Station.
_______
I0:00--Three men tip their chairs back against the General Store for a talk.
I0:05--Esther Root Shawnessy enters the Revival Tent to hear THE OLDEST STORY IN THE WORLD, the Reverend Lloyd G. Jarvey officiating. (page 358)
I0:30--Mr. Shawnessy hands Professor Jerusalem Webster Stiles a copy of the News-Historian, containing the legend of a HOUSE DIVIDED. (page 42I)
II:I5 --A photographer, a preacher, a lady in a Victorian mansion, a chorus of men only, and A WHITE BULL prepare respectively to take pictures, glorify God, distribute pamphlets, see an Exhibition for Men Only, and affirm life. (page 553)
I2:30--In the intersection of Waycross, General Jacob J. Jackson presents Mr. Shawnessy with a copy of a manuscript entitled FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, and the G.A.R. parade forms to march on the school house for a banquet. (page 595)
2:30--The Grand Patriotic Program begins in the schoolhouse yard.
4:30--Eva Alice Shawnessy muses in WAYCROSS STATION, where Statesmen, Soldiers, Financiers, and Poets arrive and depart by train. (page 753)
4:35--As Senator Garwood B. Jones prepares to entrain for the City, Mr. Shawnessy recalls a SPHINX RECUMBENT in his gilded years. (page 765)
5:05--Financier Cassius P. Carney descends from the Eastbound Express in Waycross Station.
6:00--BETWEEN TWO WORLDS in contest for her soul, Esther Root Shawnessy passes the intersection in Waycross as a train bears Financier Cassius P. Carney from Waycross Station. (page 869)
7:30--On the porchswing at Mrs. Evelina Brown's mansion, an informal meeting of the Waycross Literary Society opens a discussion on THE GOLDEN BOUGH. (page 885)
9:30--Esther Root Shawnessy watches a cluster of torches approach the guarden east of Waycross.
9:35--From the tower of Mrs. Brown's mansion, Eva Alice Shawnessy beholds a celestial conflict.
I0:50--The last Fourth of July rocket explodes over Waycross.
Midnight--Professor Jerusalem Webster Stiles departs by train from Waycross Station.
| The Novel | Essays | Other Writings | RL Jr. Writer's Award | Complete Contents | Book Orders |
| The Biography | Photos / Postcards | RC Source & Facsimiles | Suicide & Prevention | Movie & Score |