Document text
John R. Estes,
Epes, "labama
Yarch 21,1939
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A speckled hen and her chickens scratched cottentedly in the
small front yard of a four room cottageOwilimp blue Roman hyacinths
and yellow nquils441111010----
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An old man
d wash suit sat on the narrow porch and
rocked in a homemade'hickory chair.
"Come on in if you ain't afraid of
me an my old laOy'sfrt, an' mighty bad
out here in the sunshine trying to make
chickens for her, 'cause the cow kicked
can't gitAkbout to-dayAMnt tryin' ter hook her or nothing like that,
you see that old cow's blind in one eye,and my old lady wuz milkint
a cold because that what
onesat that I'm just settin'
up my mind to go put up them
her over yestidy and she
her and that little old dog there run betwee her less and the cow give
sucli9,11; ttrn an knocked the ol4 lady fla Her head sort of struck
the side of the -arn and thats wha is troubling her worse en any thing
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else. I took her in, t see Dr. Scales last night a he Ve her somer
ting to ease her painl hen stropped her u -R, said she might have broke
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04 rib er two'couldkrit te11q then agin, hit could be ea_floatin' kidney.
c_et-
t She's sick so much I tale hr if the cow h-dn't knocked her down Itwould
or been some -thin' else)but
telling her
ever one of
look jes as
she says that's sorry•comforjtI just been
while she's laid up I think if WA had &stork of corn.for
them little old johnn -jump-ups out there that hit 4a1114.,e4L
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pretty,and we' be a heap better off, but she'd have
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a fit if them chickens scratched p, k one of them little old flower.
bushes. Wipe rais n corn is my job; but. them flower bushes been
Ai n fT
there ever since she come here, and there they're gonna stay Come to
think of it theyfre been there a lot longer than that, 'cause this
here is Pals old place en Ma set them flowers out right after they
moved here from down on the 8igbee. I want noting but a little
shaver thenbi well I wctnt so little eithera 'bout twelve 1 reckon, ant
Al
i- H
I'm lipin' on 71 now. Been livin' right here ever since then. I was born
tho' on my grand. father's planta on 'bout four miles from here at what
tt
they called old Martin's ferry. deb my grandfather MarinsMartin. was
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French and that ferry was named fer hia, that's how come it sounds diff-
erent from the way you call it. Yes simbhe wuz French all right an him
and his brother come over here on a boat when they wuz Grand
Pa was sixteen7an his brother was 14. Grand -Pa said hit wuz 3 days 'fore
any body knowed they wuz on that boat. Theyorre jes tored away and
never had nothinl but a little ole hard tac, or sometinl like that to eat
that they Tought with theai. His brother died in hew York en never got to
alaoama but urand-Pa went on to f/irginia and finally married there a
woman name Mary Ann uathe they had one child an that was Ma,en her hame
Susan Matilda kartin'. a W11.3 k baby in arms or you night say jes
todlin 'bout cause I've heeredher say when they CILOMB toittlabama in the
0.1P-C't/
early days they come in a covered wagonlen that little chairAthere come
right with em. They were 'mong the first to cross the river,the white
settlers round round here7and they had to build a raft, tie poles tRlother
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so as to cross the Bigbee,VNI ma, c4,111.11.116,said she tried to play in
the water while they were polint em across7and she fell 1.19.0111M Al negro
boy they owned called Lewis biartin' pulled her out.iff7V1y grand-fEraler bought
up a lot of land right there on the Iggigbee where they crossed at,and later
built Martin's Ferry and lived there the rest of his life. 4t laast his
family did, but he wuz land speculator and went all over evey where
buyin' up land 'til he was one of the richest men in this part of the
countryc, awl if old tfewis Martin..., that same nigger what pulled Ma out
the river had lived I'd have as much as any -body the rest of my days. You
see the Yankees marched on Livingston and the confederates sent out
runners telling every body. Well there wqnt no banks here then so grand -pa
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here long enough an all of us hadd worke When my Grand a come here
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there wqnt no pes, this here ArUZ all Tones Pluff in them days, name fer
4teold half ;Dreed Indian Jim Jones. he owned'most all this land 'round here from
Warsaw to the ''hoctaw line. he tribes ha r9 given him a lot of it, and all the
early settlers like J.P. Hillman and be hillman, old man eillie Holloway
and Jim "Lee's father7they wanted to buy it from him. He lived up 'bout the
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fort on theBigberV you can see where the fort used to be from over here,
(ell one night uhristmas eve I believe it was7back in 1833 these early
e"--)
wL_ite settlers got t*ether an' went up there they said to make Jim 40.......-
good offer fer his land, cose I dunno ahut it wuz they offered him,but
Jim refused to sell and they killed him and burit-d him right there on the
river.,and in 1915 when the Colonial:Vames of hraerica wuz having that piece
or luarble put there to mark the old Fort2 I if they didn't dig up
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old Jim Jones bones. Cose they burned eniergin right 4U.ong close by in
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tha unch of cedar trees? but seemAsort of sad to me, to think about old
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Jim. Then Ji*(s son in—law I& i'rench man name La Bruce what married Jims
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Indian daughter, claimed the land>en so they had to trade with lim. Ma
said he wuz 46 nice gentleman to be married to that indian, ':)ut he left
her+n went d vn i
tecome of him. Yes sir right up there where old Jim Jones lived stood the old
?ort Tombecbe/ as she was called built by the order of the Liovernor of
Louisiana3ienville and it says on the monument whut is true)i mow
Here
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L'ivilization and savagery beheld the Glory op France es sir I wuz right
there the day they unveiled.hex0 fact is I barbecued every bit of the meat
fer the dinner7en bit wuz dfbout ez good li/arbecue ez I ever et)if I do say
so myself. Heflin wuz the sneaker en he's 6L.good en but aihIt never
voted fer him yitten never will fur ez that goes. Yes that old tort has seen
with the rest of 'em and Inever heqred whut
kjheap uv blood shed. The French „British and bpaniards. Ined to be called
C,
?ort onfederation. Close by there the whites treated with the chectaw
indians old Mushulatubbe Pucks
owned daab of the rombigbee.
ubbee and Pushmataha. for the land they
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I can remember the indians around here,
many as 75 or a hundred when they'd come in the spring with blow -guns.)
arrows and baskets. The squaws would sit dowr flat on the ifound with
the papooses strapped on their backs and wail -for the indian men to do
the tradinl. There were
saloons here in them days but it was against
the law( sedll 4fire water they called it, to the indians, but when
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the Indians were rEady to start tome they'd let em have a few drinks and
can hear ,rellin whoop peed rigl)now as they rode off toward
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the botto:Is. ve hekred Ma tell so much can't honestly tell dhat i did
see en what I didn't, but she knoded this country when they had so many
little black bears here my Gran_fa h -d %tke the niggensinifrshifs en
let some sleep day so at night theyqtrtake tvrches and beat on tikbuckets
in the corn field to deep the bears from eatint up all the roseuneers,
and they said they had high palin's to try to keep the bears from catch-
ing the chillun. Pose this was all cleared uc when .t come erlong)but I
recollect filst electric lights, hereeateJones 131uff. 'she Atlanta uonst-
itution come out saying the Yattie B. Moore would come up the river next
run with electticlights, my oodness you never saw Es Aany folks in all
your life as was on the river banks all up and down the niver,men women
en chillun7waitin fer that beat. Pretty soon here she come puffin' en
blowinl en hit wuz er i,ht to behold. Looked like the whole shebwig was
on fire. See there wuz. 3 boan,s fun up and down the river here to Mobile.
The Hard Gash, he theWilttie 2='. Moore. l'he *ain-Deer run here
too but she sunk. All t em boats run 'til June, they stopped in June, had
landins like Gainesville, Jones Bluff,.Tiuls landing 'bout four miles
down the river from here, and Dirdens landing where.galzell and all his
family was raised at, and the Brassfield landing come in there at
forkland. Them Demopolis and so on down to Mobile. Boats want allowed to
come out on Sunday t'all, had to come out on .ddy and dock atovt the
tidewater or else wait 'til a Monday Mornint.
Pa used to load cotton fer ivir :A.11man,( Aabert's Pa up thereOhere at
Jones Bluff and I'd be erlong with him. Seen him put on as manyas 5 or 6
thousand bales at a tf-Ae. The mate would come out on top of one them
bluffs with 4,'ax handle in his hand and holler at dem niggers, cuss em,
and some time I've seed him knock one of em off them lime rock cliffs. My
me he was cruel. Liee the ni gers had to load en unload every thing. They't
tote to the stores the sugar and flour and coffee in big sacks brought up
from de merchants in Mobile, en some time a nigger would git pretty careless
en drop er sack en bust it, Lordy but he'd be sorry 'fore dat mate got
thru wid him. See the mate always come out on land2hut the Llaptain he stayed
on the boat. As I remember they had 12 deck hands, 2 enJeers, en 8 pilots
day en night shit. Had 2 what they called rouster—bouts one for day ant
oneright to split up .lighlood for the torch pans. Had 2 little baskets
or eac. side held kerosine lamps for the:head-lights, and If they'd land
here at night they'd run ha l out a couple of them little tol,ch pens on a
tree so aS to see ho m to git up de bluff with L,,11 the stuff they had. That
was before the _Hattie B. got electric lights. an she was a pretty sight
as I ever seen. Now you take the people that used to go backwards en ford-
-lards to obile on them boats. they had a great 14(ig hotel for em in them
1.a 1 right up t'rere'on the ti,bee, back of :There Doc Henegan used ter live,
0
en they d all come down en stay at that hotel waitint Per the boat and if
you were a planter and had any cotton to sell those commission merchants
didnt think nothinito pay all your expenses on the boat to Mobiletind all
yyu had to do wuz jes sell 'em your cotton. They'd make you have a good
time all right.
the show fed good on the boats too. Dec hands et on 1st deck and
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white folks up in de cabins. they'd stop en git er cow or er pig)and cut
it up and dress it nice. and they 1-h-Ld might/good cooks too en every body
could aat all they mind to. "ant no body to stop you. ManyA4 the time I've
rid on them steam boats. I'likapLiobile so much thouht after rowned
up I'd like to settle there en i did fer er little whIle, then I come back
to be with La and Pa, en here I been ever since. I run the Ppes Cotton
oileompany5mill at night fer 'bout twentythree jears, them twas the toll
keeper yonder on that bridge 'sore they freed hit, there 'bout six years lacking
Poom 6eptember 'til March. Right there's wherG I kilt Red itkndham. You
remember hearin' bout that i reckon don't you- Well Red was a liakable sort
of fellow when he want drinking )but trouble was he was always drinking, he
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didnt want to pay no toll en I didnt want to have no troubl3 'tout that
little money7but seemed like he was just looking for tuouble7en it come
to ire queglIon of me er him, en I seed one or the other of us wuz gonna
die sure en certtlinSO I lowed hit wuzn't no need of it being me, so
long as was in the right cordin' to law any way, so I had to kill him:.
Pretty trad en I ain't got over it ret looks like on dark ni,htsup there by
the fort I can hear old Ped holler for helf but Itwant noting' else I could
do reckon.yut i.dcn't care 'bout talkint 'tout that so much lets get
back to old times.
Look out there on that fence at then 2 old quilts. 3et you aint never
seen none no prettier. lye been offered -cy Moreland Nixon fifty dollars-'
piece foe'em. zut I'll have to be poorer than tam now to take it. the dye
for them quilts was made right down ar,'Nlartin'S ferry at Grand—Pa'splantatioh,
ce*.
out of velimovet* and bark and suck like, the thread was spun there ,and the
cloth woven every speck of it by the negroes on the place. One's the tulip
pattern and M ferget the other name ,but to my way of thinking they dont
make quilts pretty as them two hanging out there. Ten er old china hen
dish is all I4 got left of hials old things)th&-t ben belonged to my little
sister, ma give it to her and she died when she limnt more en seven years old,
so lye kept it as er rememberance of her.
Ivo got 6/and_Pals befither beeket book I forgot that, lined
with red silk and his name blariuSiOartin cut in it. Pa cut it there
I'm pretty sure. Lots of folks wants to buy them quilts- but I aint
hungry yet. "ell I better feed the old larl;fs chickens and put7enAup for
her or she 111 be hopping out here herself !fore long. Miss
ffead2t-The lady what sees airout the niggers, to come out any time after
to day en I'll go with her down on the bend 'cause don t no body
hardly know this country and the folks down in de bottoms like I do,
just been here so long. reckon, but some times think it wont be
so long now. The old lady's trying nersuade me not to farm none this
year, didn't really farm none to 'mount to no-ting last year, jes er
little corn on this here six acresibut I hates to yiequp2hates to git
old en doan want to be dependent. I aninit yet Ive got a little saved
up, mine en the old lay's nest egg I calls it and that reminds me I
better be putting' up them chickens 'fore I hears somethin' aint
after hearin'. °he's mightypeaceful tho the old ladyrhen she's right
[reef+
well2but she's ailing heap looks like lately.
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