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1820's, Just Outside of Cooperstown, NY
Wilson Albert Jenkins was born on August 5th, 1822 on a small farm to the North of Cooperstown. He was a pudgy baby, weighing in at 8 pounds and 14 ounces. His first word was 'ball' at nine months old. He learned to walk at fifteen months, and was riding horses with his father three months later.
At age three, he befriended a boy named Abner Doubleday. He was three years older than Wilson, and was his role model. They played in the fields together until Wilson was five, which was when Wilson started to work in the fields, firstly riding with his father when he plowed, and eventually doing independent manual labor.
Wilson never enjoyed this life, but he never knew anything different. He worked and worked and worked from summer until fall, the only day off being his sixth birthday.
That was the day that he saw Abner again. They sang songs and chased each other, and had a blast in general.
Abner came knocking on the Jenkins' door the following April, and he and Wilson took a trip to the Doubleday cottage. Abner showed Wilson a solid stick and a rubber ball, and they had even more fun than on Wilson's sixth birthday. They hit and threw and chased under the pleasant April sun.
Since then, visits with Abner were few and far between, and were almost never as fun or exciting. Abner was enrolled in school, and Wilson was asked to do more and more work on the farm. They would never be the close friends that they used to be.
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