Document text
Accession no.
W1517/
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
hash. vffiee
Label
Amount
2p
WPA L. C. PROJECT Writers' UNIT
Form -3
F.0.1k/Qte...Collection (or Type)
nue. (Letter) E.Begihll I have tglked with
grandma_Landy.....a
Place of origin..C.11ity C OUt Woo Datc.12313/32
(r.D.C.)
Project worker
Project editor
Remarks
From:
Clay Ccunty.
:c,.rs. Pansy Powell,
Gower, iissouri.
i-)ear irs. Powell:
i have talked with urandma ilandy, and have gathered a little more
information, some of which you may be able to use. I will repeat it
in her words.
"In our family, the Dennis Parsons family, there were five negro
slaves, four men and one negro cook. We had owned them for a long
time.
"The men all had wives at other homes in the vicinity and on
;.-.>aturday nights they spruced up and visited their wives and some of
them had children also.
"eve gave out negroes a holiday of one weeklfrom Christmas Day
to ew Years. .dometimes they used that time making brooms to sell.
paid our negro woman '4;1.00 to get two meals a day during the hol-
iday, and the rest of the time was her own. It was our custom for
everyone to do a large amount of work on hew lears's Day.
"-laves in ,,linton County very often ran away, but they didn't
go far. The pad -a -rollers, men hired to hunt them in the woods at
niF'ret soon trouht them back. e had one man to run off. I was
much friLhtened :,lhen they tied him up to lash him, but they never
whipped him and he never ran away again.
"Je solo, one young negro boy, i remember, to Qxeorge Huffaker
for ,4700. And another, our cook's boy, a good boy, died of heart
trouble ano we buried him in our private cemetery.
"IJuring the war we sent the slves to the .3-buth, and then the
mancipation Proclamation gave therr.. their freedom and they all came
w 7517
-2
VI
back. -but they were not much account to work any more. Cut old cook
P
settled in an old house one fourth mile away and died there.
"Just after the Civil War flour was $5.00 for twenty-five
pounds and we ate cornbread nostly. -We bought a cook stove --One of
the first in the community. e set in the fireplace and let the pipe
extend up through the chimne. We used it only in Me sumer and set
it back in the winter to make it last longer.
"There were not Indians in Clinton County. In fact, I never in
my life saw but one Indian. i was six years old and saw him travel-
ing, riding a little pony, on the Lathrop road.
"I was at church on.: spring morning, and when we came outside,
the air was full of grasshoppers, in brown herds.They ate everything
bar, as the; went, the grass, gardens, leaves ftoni the trees, and all
the young corn. The; finally passed on but everything had to be
planted over."
I might add that ,.iradma ;Iandy will be 87 years old next luesday
and i am sending a little Ly of her life to the star which i hope
A
they can use --you can watch for it.
Hoping this little bit more may help you some,
JJela -andy.