The Boy Who Slept in the Pickle Barrel: An Erie Canal Tale

Willy Sours woke early. He did not even wait as he usually did for the old bantam rooster to crow at the sun. He slipped out of bed, lay his one clean shirt on top of the small rope bed he had been sleeping upon, and tied the four corners of the shabby sheet together. Today was his day of freedom. He glanced at the calendar on the shack wall as he went out the door. It was October 18, 1885. He was twelve years old.

Willy Sours would marry and have children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren. They would all hear the tale of how Willy came up the Erie Canal and slept in the pickle barrel when he was just 12 years old. And that is the story of the boy who slept in the pickle barrel.

The money raised from the book purchase is being donated to the Fort Plain Museum of History in Fort Plain, NY.