Walnut Grove, Minn.-Recent reports indicate that Isaiah Edwards’ sober escapades have that time he injured Albert in a drunk wagon driving incident and then didn’t take him to the doctor looking tame compared to some of his sober antics.
“I think it was the monkey for me,” Nels Oleson, proprietor of Oleson’s Mercantile, indicates. “I love animals as much as the next person, but when he took in that monkey and left it unsupervised while he went to the post office, I knew he was off his rocker. I didn’t agree with how Harriet and Nancy handled it, granted, but you can’t deny that Mr. Edwards is a little out there. I just can’t figure out where this behavior is coming from since he gave up the bottle.”
Other residents of Walnut Grove confirmed that while Edwards had been given to some questionable behaviors in the past, it seemed in line with the amount of drinking that he did at the time. Residents are surprised to find, however, that when Edwards moved back to Walnut Grove and sobered up, his involvement in questionable situations persisted.
While the monkey incident showcases Edwards’ proclivity toward insane behavior even without alcohol in the equation, Reverend Alden notes it is not the only recent display of questionable sober behavior of late. It seems that Edwards became extremely involved in selling a house to a visiting Reverend only to then convince Reverend Alden that he meant to steal his job.
“Now, I know he meant well,” Aldens notes, “but you could say he was involved to a fault. It’s just about downright embarrassing that he had me believing that my job was threatened when actually the synod meant to give me a house. I’m not saying that it was right by any means for Isaiah to injure Albert driving drunk, but at least the alcohol provided an explanation. Now, if he’s completely sober and doing these things, how do you explain that?”
Reverend Hale remarks that he thought it was weird that Edwards just up and practically proclaimed himself a real estate agent to find a house only to cause so much trouble.
“I really thought I made my intentions plain, but I guess it was jumbled around in his brain,” Hale remarks. “I’m not sure what kind of world we are living in when a preacher can’t even read poetry to a married woman without it getting misconstrued. I mean, this is the nineteenth century, after all.”
At press time, Almanzo Wilder was leaving his toddler daughter unattended while he went to hunt down Isaiah Edwards in a saloon, commenting that “sober Isaiah in a saloon can’t be good news.”
