Spoon River Anthology: who's who, timeline and places

Everyone in Spoon River Anthology, what happens when, and where, without spoilers: tell us how far you have read and we show only what you already know.

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Judge SomersA judge who recalls his legal knowledge, celebrated speech, and praised brief.First seen in chapter 12
Emily SparksA teacher whose lasting faith and teaching move Reuben Pantier to tears.First seen in chapter 16
Reuben PantierA man who credits Emily Sparks with lasting faith in him.First seen in chapter 16
Daisy FraserA woman who questions whether respected local men contribute to public needs.First seen in chapter 19
Thomas RhodesA speaker who challenges liberals and imaginative thinkers about their claims to wisdom.First seen in chapter 104

Chapter 1
An unnamed speaker gathers men and women into a shared picture of death, suffering, violence, and family losses.
Chapter 12
Judge Somers asks why his legal achievements leave him without a marked grave or remembrance.
Chapter 16
Reuben Pantier recalls weeping over memories of Emily Sparks’s teaching while drinking with a woman.
Chapter 19
Daisy Fraser questions whether an editor, a judge, and two ministers contribute to public needs.
Chapter 24
Doctor Meyers describes how his comfortable family life collapses after Minerva dies despite his attempt to help.
Chapter 42
Jack McGuire describes shooting a marshal after being struck and avoiding hanging through his lawyer’s bargain with a judge.
Chapter 60
Fiddler Jones explains how music and invitations to play interrupt his farming.
Chapter 77
Barry Holden attends Dr. Duval’s murder trial while facing family burdens and a mortgaged farm.
Chapter 98
Yee Bow describes pressure to abandon Confucius for Jesus and being struck without warning at Sunday school.
Chapter 109
Elsa Wertman recalls accepting Mrs. Greene’s plan to adopt her baby and pretend to be its mother.
Chapter 125
Carl Hamblin describes the destruction of his newspaper’s press and his own tarring and feathering.
Chapter 131
Ralph Rhodes admits that his wheat speculation ruins his father’s bank while George Reece serves a sentence.
Chapter 149
Searcy Foote describes killing Aunt Persis with chloroform because of financial frustration and his desire to marry.
Chapter 167
Silas Dement describes secretly setting the courthouse roof on fire and escaping before the alarm.
Chapter 183
Elmer Karr thanks Spoon River for accepting him after fourteen years in prison for murdering Thomas Merritt.
Chapter 207
Lucinda Matlock recalls seventy years of marriage, raising twelve children, and finding pleasure amid work and loss.
Chapter 216
Imanuel Ehrenhardt studies thinkers in search of existence’s deepest secret but finds little change in what he sees.
Chapter 232
Lydia Humphrey describes finding family and belonging through churchgoing despite solitude and others’ mockery.
Chapter 244
Webster Ford recalls hiding his vision of Apollo because he fears the banker’s son’s mockery.
Chapter 245
Hostility toward Flossie drives John Cabanis into opposition against Thomas Rhodes and A. D. Blood as a bank collapse deepens divisions.
Chapter 246
A symbolic checker game gives way to Beelzebub’s creation of human figures and explanation of a murderous marriage.
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