Jacob a Boy of the 1800s is another story about Jacob Pindell Prickett that I am retelling. I retold Jacob's story of his trip to the California Gold Rush when he joined a wagon train going west in my book In Quest of Gold. Jacob was my great-grandfather, and his wagon-train experience had been handed down in the family, from his daughter Elsie, my grandmother; to her daughter Grace, my mother; to my eldest sibling, my brother Kenneth; and to me. After the story was published, I received this story, "Childhood Days," about Jacob's boyhood days, from a distant cousin who had acquired the story the same way in her branch of the family tree. When she discovered In Quest of Gold, she contacted me and sent me this story of Jacob's boyhood. I found it very interesting and thought others would like it as well, especially those living in Northern Indiana, where the story takes place so very long ago. Jacob was born in 1836, and Indiana had only been a state for twenty years, having achieved statehood in 1816. It is amazing to read how hard they had to work to survive, and yet they found enjoyment in everyday living. This story truly makes you understand where the saying "Necessity is the mother of invention" came from.