The Private Journals of Isaiah Watts

By: Nicholas Hall
(© 2020 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

nhall@tickiestories.us

Overview and Disclaimer

“Offering dragons quarter is no good,
They regrow all their parts and
Come on again.
They have to be killed!”

(John Berryman) 

The discovery of the private journals of Isaiah Watts, found in a dust covered wooden chest tucked away in a corner of the attic of an old, but well kept, farm home or manor, if one were to describe it as such, might at first appear, to the casual reader, little more than the very imaginative wanderings of a perverted mind interested in either shocking or intending to evoke sexual fantasy in the readers mind. Perhaps they are since the journals, describing and making note of Isaiah’s life from an early age until he ceased writing in them, as he viewed it and how events affected his life and the lives of others. There are, however, distinct indications this isn’t the case, reflecting instead a work of creative non-fiction, an attempt to reveal himself and his fellows in a more descriptive literary manner, leading to a more active imagination on the part of any reader perusing the documents, trying to “paint” a picture of words giving rise to a clearer and most arousing portrayal of events, places, and human attributes, successes, and failings.

The journals are replete with acts of mayhem, destruction, murder, descriptions of sexual acts performed on females and males, younger and older, depravity and perversions along with acts of extreme love and pleasure, thievery, war, torture, and assorted criminal behavior. The journals certainly wouldn’t be for the consumption, via reading, of those under the age of eighteen considering the local laws of today, although one would suspect such readers would still find access to the material and probably thoroughly and utterly enjoy them. Mr. Watts, in his journals, makes note in one part, he doesn’t condone, encourage, or seek to minimize the illegal acts committed by others on their fellow humans, either adult or child. Nor does he try to deny the very same acts he and his partner committed, profited from, or enjoyed. He merely presents those acts as something that were committed, no more or no less, along with, in many cases, justice dispensed on the spot to someone Watts or his lover and associates saw as a miscreant, acknowledging each person has his or her personal dragons to deal with.

However strange it may seem, once much of the dialog is sorted out, paying less attention to the most salacious parts, the journals are actually a love story; a love story beginning between two boys, one slightly older than the other, growing up in tough times, facing many obstacles and hardships, yet so dedicated to each other many of their own personal transgressions and abnormalities, including sexual acts with others either singularly or shared, wouldn’t diminish their love until they both were gone from the earth. A shared purpose in life extended to beyond their own lives to include the lives of others who were unfortunate, poor, lonely, utilizing whatever means at hand to support themselves and exist.

The journals certainly shouldn’t be considered as scholarly works well researched and vetted, but perhaps as creative-nonfiction, as noted earlier, on the part of Mr. Watts, much embellished one would conclude from the evocative and intense prose used. There are instances and events of historical correctness in the documents, but there are others a scholarly research team would hold in extreme doubt. Whether Mr. Watts or his lover ever visited places mentioned or actually participated in the activities described cannot be verified. Thus, one should be quite circumspect (cautious or judicious) in utilizing the Journals as historical documents.

The Journals themselves are written in a fine cursive script indicating, although descriptions in the beginning of the life of young Watts probably were written some years later as the boy grew into manhood, collectively are based on distant memories and stories told to him by his family members and others. As mentioned previously, Mr. Watts describes and acknowledges the many dragons, albeit euphemistically, members of his family and others faced in their lives and how, in most cases, those dragons were confronted and either slain or driven away by any means possible, legally or illegally. He also describes symbiotic feats of passion and slow, bone-deep gratification of sexual natures reminiscent of the Middle Ages and even modern time where conquerors, aggressors, or those frustrated by war relieved themselves through sexual acts and gratification. 

“A habitation of dragons and a court for owls.”

(Isaiah 34:13) 

The human animal gathers, as does many other creatures and living things, in groups which can be described as communities.  The human structure is probably more complex and not entirely based on environment such as one would find in other community structures such as plants or some animals, but is still basically the same in its inception. Within large human communities, there are many times smaller communities, as noted by sociologists and anthropologists, as interacting populations of various types of individuals in a common location.

If the reader of the “Journals” read them in their entirety, as one should to understand the full content and parameters, to acquire any knowledge contained therein, and receive the full impact of some of the incidents of slow-bone deep sexual gratification relating to the adventures, delights, and sudden cataclysmic effects of some of those events, the reader will find some are global in nature, yet have their beginnings and much of their focus on three main locations, Logansport, Decker’s Corner, and Ravenwood. A perusal of maps or historical references of town, cities, villages, and unincorporated municipalities produced no geographical or political locations of the two communities mentioned or the actual existence of Ravenwood Farm.

That they even existed should be taken with a “grain of salt” yet it is entirely possible they did since Mr. Watts was so descriptive of them and adamantly convinced of the accuracy of his memories of his experiences and the related experiences of others. There is no doubt Mr. Watts believed they existed, lived in them, and interacted with others while there.

Logansport, the larger of the two communities he mentions, located along the Mississippi River, consisted of approximately three hundred individuals, maintained a grade one through high school, sported a couple of stores (one grocery and one hardware), a small bank, post office, an auto repair shop with a gas pump, a blacksmith shop as well with a livery (for a time), and a number of homes. This small town was settled well back into the previous century and formed by farm folks and settlers from the south after the Civil War. The people seemed like minded, yet different.

Decker’s Corner, also located along the River but in a less desirable area of poorer soil, timbered and swampy bottom land no one else seemed too anxious to either purchase or settle, and somewhat inaccessible, was a small gathering of individuals, garnering its name from Decker’s Grocery and Hardware Store (so named after the owner), a corner tavern, and a blacksmith shop where a gas pump also was located. Scattered throughout the area were small farms and farmsteads occupied by an eclectic population of people; a gathering of misfits, escapists preferring to remain outside the norms of accepted society and the law. There were some individuals and families with rather shady backgrounds, lacked a trust in organized government, trusted those outside their little community even less, were reluctant to betray their fellows, quick to come to the assistance of each other, and just as quick to help themselves to the possessions of others outside their community whom they thought were wealthier and probably not miss it. They were rough, coarse, and generally educated to the eighth-grade level at most, but dangerous in many ways.

Decker’s Corner was generally avoided by the people of Logansport and the surrounding area. It was, as noted at one place in the “Journal” “not a safe place” for those unfamiliar with it. It was a “den of thieves and thugs,” inhabited by “robbers, rapists, and murderers,” whose residents were often referred to as “river rats.” To the residents, however, it was home, a safe place to be, secure from the outside world and its laws, and where each person was respected for their specific talents and readiness to help those in need. Those who broke the unwritten rules were tolerated, but not admitted to the society of Decker’s Corner. If a Decker’s Corner child desired to continue high school after graduating from the eighth grade at the little one room school house located near there, they were admitted without tuition to Logansport High School. Those individuals came with their community reputation and were held at arm’s length, more from fear than anything else. It wasn’t wise to piss off someone from Decker’s Corner!

Isaiah Watts began his “Journals” his last year of high school, encouraged by his Literature/English teacher to “commit my experiences, my understandings, my views of events and family stories to a written form in a journal so in later years those journals would serve as a record of my life and of those around me for my children. Little did she realize my boyfriend nor I were capable of becoming pregnant no matter how often we copulated.”

Using Isaiah Watt’s entries, the journals become a narrative chronology of his life and times. For those readers who find the narrative offensive or object to vivid and descriptive portrayals of male-to-male sex, man/boy sex, acts of pedophilia involving young girls or boys, or extreme violence and criminal acts, it is suggested they set the narrative and journals aside and continue reading no more.

They are presented here in several installments, each installment comprising information from one or more journals. Hopefully, presented in this manner, with selected and appropriate quotes to emphasize the anecdotal information contained therein, the reader will be able to synthesize the information and better comprehend the life of Isaiah Watts as he presents it. It should be noted, however, there appears to be some “gaps” in the narrative, suggesting there are journals yet undiscovered or deliberately or accidentally not included in this initial repository.

***

To be continued...

Posted: 12/03/2021