When Jesse Bentley’s father and brothers had come into their ownership of the place, much of the harder part of the work of clearing had been done, but they clung to old traditions and worked like driven animals.  They lived as practically all of the farming people of the time lived.  In the spring and through most of the winter the highways leading into the town of Winesburg were a sea of mud.  The four young men of the family worked hard all day in the fields, they ate heavily of coarse, greasy food, and at night slept like tired beasts on beds of straw.  Into their lives came little that was not coarse and brutal and outwardly they were themselves coarse and brutal.  On Saturday afternoons they hitched a team of horses to a three-seated wagon and went off to town.  In town they stood about the stoves in the stores talking to other farmers or to the store keepers.  They were dressed in overalls and in the winter wore heavy coats that were flecked with mud.  Their hands as they stretched them out to the heat of the stoves were cracked and red.  It was difficult for them to talk and so they for the most part kept silent.  When they had bought meat, flour, sugar, and salt, they went into one of the Winesburg saloons and drank beer.  Under the influence of drink the naturally strong lusts of their natures, kept suppressed by the heroic labor of breaking up new ground, were released.  A kind of crude and animal-like poetic fervor took possession of them.  On the road home they stood up on the wagon seats and shouted at the stars.  Sometimes they fought long and bitterly and at other times they broke forth into songs.  Once Enoch Bentley, the older one of the boys, struck his father, old Tom Bentley, with the butt of a teamster’s whip, and the old man seemed likely to die.  For days Enoch lay hid in the straw in the loft of the stable ready to flee if the result of his momentary passion turned out to be murder.  He was kept alive with food brought by his mother, who also kept him informed of the injured man’s condition.  When all turned out well he emerged from his hiding place and went back to the work of clearing land as though nothing had happened.

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The Civil War brought a sharp turn to the fortunes of the Bentleys and was responsible for the rise of the youngest son, Jesse.  Enoch, Edward, Harry, and Will Bentley all enlisted and before the long war ended they were all killed.  For a time after they went away to the South, old Tom tried to run the place, but he was not successful.  When the last of the four had been killed he sent word to Jesse that he would have to come home.

Then the mother, who had not been well for a year, died suddenly, and the father became altogether discouraged.  He talked of selling the farm and moving into town.  All day he went about shaking his head and muttering.  The work in the fields was neglected and weeds grew high in the corn.  Old Tim hired men but he did not use them intelligently.  When they had gone away to the fields in the morning he wandered into the woods and sat down on a log.  Sometimes he forgot to come home at night and one of the daughters had to go in search of him.