It ended in a compromise and, a fortnight later, the Reverend Clarence, keeping his countenance with difficulty, christened a red-faced and protesting infant "Jedidah Edgar Wilfred Winslow." Jedidah Edgar Wilfred grew up.

At first he was called "Edgar" by his father and "Wilfred" by his mother.

His teachers, day school and Sunday school, called him one or the other as suited their individual fancies.

But his schoolmates and playfellows, knowing that he hated the name above all else on earth, gleefully hailed him as "Jedidah." By the time he was ten he was "Jed" Winslow beyond hope of recovery.

Also it was settled locally that he was "queer"-- not "cracked" or "lacking," which would have implied that his brain was affected--but just "queer," which meant that his ways of thinking and acting were different from those of Orham in general.
His father, Captain Thaddeus, died when Jed was fifteen, just through the grammar school and ready to enter the high.