Document text
January 14, 1939
Ed Currin (white)
North College Street
Oxford, N.C.
Retired farmer, landlord,
jack -of -all trades
Beth Cannady, writer
Edwin Massengill, reviser
OLD JOSH DOVER
Original Names
Granville County
Ed Currin
Dr. Thomas
Alice
Lily
Durham
Mary
Ruth
icranklin County
Tommy
Hutcherson
Cooper
Henderson
Asheville
Kittrel
Charlie
Changed Names
Duncan County
Josh Dover
Dr. Harrell
Mavis
Becky
Dawson
Josie
Hazel
Bullock County
Ed
Madison
Banner
Albriton
Asheville
manton
Louis
Charlie Williams
Oxford
Richmond
Henry Cooper
Dave
Ike
Willie
Minnie
Ella
Mrs. Tippet
Yairport
Charlie Hines
Stratford
Rickford
Levi Cassaway
Lon
Dave
Martin
Sally
Kate
Mrs. Tolar
Ashtown
OLD JOSH DOVIR
Nearly everybody in Duncan County knows Josh Dover,
and almost everyone can tell a story of his past kindness and
generosity. Unless one happens to be a newcomer in the
community, Josh can give the family history for several
generations back.
It is over a mile from Josh's house to the courthouse,
but, despite his eighty-two years, Josh walks to town
on business every day that the weather permits. That "business"
is talking. Wherever he is, he always has an audience that
listens to him with strict attention.
Josh is a staunch Democrat. His men usually win,
and the candidates want his support. He can't be bou3ht, and
he tells a man outright, if he is asked, his opinion of his
running for office. A young lawyer, hardly out of college,
was running for the legislature. He called on Josh to ask
his support.
"Bless my soul!" began the old man. "',That would
your old dad, who's dead and gone, think of me if I helped
send his baby boy off with a man's job? why, sonlyou have
to crawl before you can walk. You stay here and tot the
folks watch you grow into Oise lawyer and Josh s-rover'll
have you in the White Houses"
The young candidate smiled and thanked him for
his advice. itie lost the election.
Several days *go, Josh was walking down the street
with a brisk waddling stride. he was wearing a topcoat that
was broader than his thin, straight shoulders needed.
"Good evening," he greeted, peering over his
spectacles with searching blue eyes. "44, child, I didn't
know you. I ean't half see through these glasses anyhow,
ell, I get about right smart, but I've alwa.rs been an active,
hard worker. I'm about past doinr much work now. I've had
heart trouble about a year now, and 1 can't do what I used to.
I know mor..e about myself than anybody else. first
time my ankles swelled up they called Dr. Liarrell. I knew I
had a heart autterin" but I thought vly short breath cane
from a convested chest. Doctor said my heart was footed and
swelled up against my lunge, Be gave me a bottle of medicine
to take for this trouble and told me mot to overtax myself.
The first time I had that bottle refilled I asked the druggist
if that stuff won't mighty near all spirits. I went and got
some good ()Mime corn whiskey, and I've been feeling better
ever since.
"Dunoan County hs plenty corn liquor, and as long
as osh Dover's head is hot he can get it Theret fifty
.en today that'll get it for ma. AU I do is say I Geed same
corn sprits, and first thing you know I've got it I don't
ask 'how nucht, for these men are my friends and wouldn't
take rkey if I offered it.
"How well 1 remember Peppy's wine cellar aown home.
One lornin, dune the sar three or four Yankees ewe
ramblin' around the house and tried to break in that cellar
Opor. I was. about seven years old, but told the to rot
'away from there. Then they cusseil
"About tot time mamy lcyAed down and saw Lie
holdint a hot flatiron right over that Yankee's heed. She
nabbed it, but 1 spit on him just the same. I got a trailing
for that, beeause rw always said that s ttinl was 11. gger
dote. I never war sorry thpt I Spit on _ia4 thotwh.
Hold on a utinute and let me step in the store
end r!et some butter.
4e always had plenty of milk and butter for the
family end night wart buttermilk. Outside of that, Mavis
:1.y wife, sold from 3O to $50 worth of nilk and butter a
month. I reckon the finest thing she everspent the money
on wee to send rtlecky to art school. I didn't take to it
nuct, but my wife said she would pay for her lessons and
buy all hor outfits. The t Inge he painted was to be riq
wife's and eta:, at home ft6 lone as she 1:!.ved. Lhe 7einted
all norte of pictures. The stuff' cost right smart, but
tfaity finIshed over there r two years. Then she went off
and startee to teach.
She taufIA seoe1 tree or four yewArs and tr
married. her her husbnd ot hilled in an autoLnobile accident
ic 1934 the shock near about unbalanced 3erky, ho thiag,
there she was away from all her folks, Ath three little
he broueht him hone to bury him and then she
collapee. ;he wanted to take the insurance and buy a ear
to kill teni all the =may their daddy died. 3ut she rot over
that and stayed on here till the suer after my wife died.
The lecky took it into her head to move to namson.
daughter, Zosie, was here then with her little
F7irl. Becky had a mighty hard time of it over there in
iawson tryinl to make enouh out of her art lesons.
insura!_ce =trent like the wind, she never .id '<now hz to
save. ;17,he spent it all on :mine furniture and picture shays
and on her beck. .:J'te was sick a lot, too, and so war the
1.11.1dren. oo leaky came here and stated her class of art."
re Lover place, an eight-roon frwle house, is
alost surrounded by heavy porches nd re lines. he uladows
had all lost their blinds with the exception of an odd one
here and there,.
The house was in fair oond:Ition, ci
need
of nit. There was a loLg hallway in which a dark nahogany
settee, cheirs„ and a table frola tY.e old lAIrlor ,at forsa7Ker
The lolid vGlee or an announcer boomed from the radio. Josh
openee the door into iecky's living room. *no roaa had
alwa-,fe ben the parlor t1i becky moved baek froft Lawson.
The walls had been freshly pepei'ed, and liandsoz3e paintinost
in oil azpastels, were on the walls.
Hal, Jeckyts pretty ;lau Jiter
have you %,r1C. anyttlinv, tc, eat?"
"414-1,
ohlld, T athlt
downtown. Look 4..ut V.ere I the
la,
an oyauer stew
that butter.
aver And, 1rot to 4) out there. toreokly."
"(Iraudpa," aosel said. "goes W‘f dU :Aver know
who:: he is eoclimbeo to dinner. io.Eletties le sits ai.ound
out in the Ilac4arei qunds old tools o .;inkers with
skieltin out tere."
There was a f:tttle of skates an t: and
sudenly the room was alive with chatterin. little ,7=,Irls.
Joel: oponot. the door, and said, "Co,::ie on back Le.e where
efts talk."
Ele led the way thcuutch the iruit room beyond the
hall, which -,;as still a bedxoo with ti iiaorted walnut
bed and marble -topped dresser. Fro n this we went into the
room beyond where Josh sits and sleeps
"Sit down," he said, pointine to a eushioned rocker
and drawinr up a straight chair for hthself. "1 don't want
no rocker."
reached down, pulled off his shoes, and propped.
his feet, in their thick gray socks, on the wood box,
"-ell, I was born and raised on tLe farm," he began.
"2 -very day I live i regret leavie the fern. I've done a
little of everything, though, and mad, -.-31Ley at everything
I ever tried, if I'd had any education I guess "'d been
somewhere today. There lo4s (Ight of us children, and I was
one of the oldest, I had to work. was born in •-'uncan County
'bout fourteen mils south of here, 1 always will love the
old place. It was one of my q,reat-zrandpals plantations, but
elppy sold it for a good profit and moved to the plantation
down in pullock County where we crowed up.
“It weE the first year before the .;ar that we :Eloved
to ;411lock. I won't big enough to go to school. aw had
a teacher at howe for he and we younest boys.
"After te -:4tr we all had to work i,hen i was
twelve years old I ot up at four o'clock in the Liorning
arid plowed till fleven, cale tc the hcuse to eat dinner, then
said mr lesson and went back an, plowed till night. I was so
tired and broke down then I was ready to go rif=7.tt to bed as
soo a Iat my super. I did learn a little and always will
repret my lack of schooling, for I've seen the need of education
all my life. If I hadn't been naturally bright and had a
heedful of eommon sense, I never would have got along as
well as I did.
"When I was seventeen years old, kappy bought
Grandpa's ale mill on the river. H* took me down theme with
forty hands to put in a now shimmy and rebuild the dam. I
remember the day, the 22nd day of aggitembers 1374. Wa took
rash ins from home and two good nigger men to cook for the
hands and stetrted to work as the dam. It was finished soon
after Christmas and Peppy left me that* to look after it.
He said, 'Son, hare's a book. Put your dates and bushels graft*
on this side and the tolls on the other, but never take any
toll from a widow.'
HI lived up on the hill and had a millor to work
at the mill, and we charged one -eighth for the toll. I had
from fifty to seventy hogs and fe,4 tem on meal and water.
T had cow* and chickens, a good garden and plenty to eat.
There was about twenty-five acres of clear land back of the
house, where -4- planted a small crop, I was a miller and a
farmer, too.
01 had a sawmill dawn there, too, and a water m1114
I sawed and soli right smart timbeT down there. I had an ole
nag hors* and buggy, and on 6aturftr I went to town. Sundays
I'd go around to so* girls or my kinfolks. It was while I
-4.
was down there at the mill that I profess*d reU4ioa and
joined the Baptist Chureh. I went to preaebint every second
Sunday at my church, and went to another ohursh on ether
Sundays*
slhile I mar at the mill, my brother, Id was at
militPry school. Oen he left there in 1882 Peppy gave him
and me the Madison place together* Me and Ed stayed down
there at the mill together till we saved enough timber to
build a barn or two and some rough outhouses* Then we built
a twe.room house up there in the big grove and moved up there*
The first yearts crop was the finest tobacco I ever raised* I
Aid the sellinl, he warehouses stayed open the year 'round
then, and it vas the first day of Zuno, the year after we
raised the crop that T. sold the tobaceo at Benner Warehouse
at Albriton, I ot 5 000 for that erop borne of it brought
over a dollar a pound, end the whole crop averaged better
than forty cents*
*Ed never did try to get around like I did
just the other way* I didn't smoke, but 1 took my toddy
and chewed tobacco* I bought fine horses and buggies and
went a..eourtia" every Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes durin'
the week, if t! -are was any parties, I played this fiddle,
but never played for the dances. I always took a girl
and enjoyed every square dance for miles around* I was
flyine around mightily was bachie it with Ed. I
guess twenty girls thought I was going to marry "mu
"I alweys stare_ pretty close around Dunoan
coPt
for fairs and such, but in the summer of 1884 I went on a
pleasure trip with two men friends. Jewent to Asheville
and stayed in the mountains for about ten days.
"It was Christmas or that sans year that went
down home and stopped in antaa to take my brother, Louis,
on home. He was nierkin0 at Uncla Charlie nine store, aad
had to wait till near 'bout midnight for him to get off
r-ole on home that night I asked his whet Unala Charlie paid
him to work for him... Ea said he got 475 a year, board and a
suit of clothes. I told him :Id give him more than that to
stay down at ny place with Bre Ld the next year and work for
no. I wanted to go to Stratford to opeoulstim on tobacco and
trade soma. I offersd to pay all the expenses loth* and feed
and give his 200 a year. It didn't cost me nothie for
1 made that on one trade the week after that.
"In 188, stayed in Stratford. T drove all over
the county buy -In' up tobacco trot the farmers, and I bought
it from the warehouse floors and shipped it to wholesalers
in Amkford. It was that same year that I started tmdin.
T boue.t aules and horses twenty or thirty at a time when
went to Rickford and sold 'am for a profit bought land,
10
lots, machinery, furniture* and anything olec that mime my
way in a bargain. I mad+, anywhere from 50 to 500 per ant prom
fit oo moot everything I bought. Ques I bought a whole block
of lets in Stratford. I always had plenty of monoy in the
banks ant if Iever needed any extras Colonel Levi Casaway,
president of the banks said 1 could got itm-0,000 anytime I
wanted It.
*That year 1 went back to the farm with Bre Ed.
Bre Louis wanted to go off to schools and 1 give him enough
extra money to go. That year, toot I decided to get norriod.
Things boost', to look ilk. i oould mak* money, and I wanted a
home. It was the fall of 1386 when I asked ilavis to tarry
me. I'd been eourtin" her for a year. he was my osoond
cousin, but we never saw one another till we were grown. I
thought she WIMA the prettiest girl I ever saw. She had
sparkling brown eyes and black hair and the sweetest voice
I ever heard and a get
sails and manner. I couldn't maks
her kiss me to save my life till I Aorriod her.
remember I took her hot* in my buggy the
Christmas before we marriod in January. There was 'know on
the ground. Two or three miles before we got there, I said,
'Mavis, won't you kiss me before we get tore, just a goodm
bye kiss? I won't get no ohanee when I leave, and Iwon't
see you anymors until I come up hero to marry yon'
"Moo I won't she fired back, 1arc if you dore to
_top t Is horse or lay a Ilene. on e 'll jwap out of this
buery and walk hone in the snow.? I never -.Jill forget how
Lr brown eyes snapl2ed when she locked at :ie.
''rack in the fall oft861 soon asI knew I as
pA)int to :;arry, l.sde rly 1nc to have the finest
plantation in that sectJoil, so boucht lrot hdts
te
tT*was about 30C acres if that place, ood ol1, good creeks,
sprinp. wate, erte plenty u
started out rt then to Aake
T boucht a second-hand sawmill
o timber standint
bi>t of tLat plantations
started clearint land and .Art
tint up buildints. T. built four .iore roc n to the two we had.
7 us a the ele ones for the dinint room ane kitchen. They
pinstcxcd, juHt put on a front porch, and
a ?nlinF, fence around the front yard. I fenced in the whole
lot vtit a plank fence and painted the whole house and all
te outLouses white.
I dug a well rlrht nt the back door.
Tn the corner of the back yard built a ene-roor nir-er
house for the cook. kly aItcr A!ir stoats of l
r1Prriefl awl brourht vis home.
wfhat 1rnt year 1 ade a crops but 1 kept right
on bnildint and clearint land our mantha after 1 bouzht
the sawmill, I sold it for twice what I ai for it and
431,,J1t a bigr7er ie. I sawed the tiber for 4y her_A), a bic
seven -stall barn, two carriage houses, three corn cribs, a
wheat house, hen houses, a big woodhouse, a tool house, a
workshop, a big smokehouse, a potato house eight tobecoo
barns, a big pack house, and five tenant houses. Beside*
that, I had sold enougb wood and timber to pay for what
hardware, paint, and millwork I had to buy in btratford and
pay my labor for buildinl, alien I had dune all this, I was
ready to start farmin' right my bulldin's was all up, plenty
of cleared land and machinery, and five good tenants =Ted
in ready to start work.
"Lly tenants farmed on half...shares. I had two White
families and three nigger families* I always raised enough to
furnish them all they wanted. I never had no trouble with my
tenants*
"They all knowed I was squflre, and 1 expected than
to be. Iwvialdet stand no missies and was the boss of
my land. ziht they didn't know how to do, I showed rem.
had a big bell bangle in the back yard to ring for them, end
the whole neighborhood used to set its clocks by it. 1 always
had from six to eighteen hands to feed* There was a long
home-made table in the kitchen 7,11th benches for than to sit
on. We had Special pots for /em ard fed tem plenty meat and
breed, boiled Tittles, and buttermilk. I paid the hands from
#8 to 110 a month. Aost of them went home at night, but
some stayed on the place with the other nigger,*
.430,
WI never did have a taeasit to got mad with me, and
never did have ea* to leave no, leapt when he'd made enough
money to buy his own land and start to ferule for hisself„
or died.
04o was mighty happy, Mbvis and met down there on
the farm. The first year she was a little uneasy at night
when I was late coming hone from town,. It took her good
while to get used to ton. he always had plenty of house..
airier', but Lon was :Atithful like an old dog. I told her,
after she told me how seared she was of him, that I never
would leave her there without hint that I'd trust bin further
than I would one of my brothers.
fired up the house with curtains and rugs
and made sheets and such. flik crocheted bedcovers and table..
spreads. Our folks give us a lot of china and silverware and
thinrs for the house when we got x-aarried, but she always bad
some kind of fancy smile to do. She didn't tsociate with
many of the neighbors. ;Jhe was ):ind and good to everybody,
but ichty particular about the plecee she visited. '-jost of
my horses were fast and frisky, but els Bob was so gentle
that Mavis drove him around herself.
"It was the last of :43tober of the first year that
we 7Aarried that little Dave was born. I always was proud of
my children, but that first one aorta got next to me. Dave
was just seventeen months old when Martin was born.
Line day I came to the house with a handful of
potatoes. Dave came runnin/ out to me and wanted to play
with the potatoes. I put tem up on the shelf and went to
the other end of the porch to wash the dirt off my heads.
He was pushing his little gocart around., end 1 wee trying to
scrub the potato gum off my hands and won't wi-tehlag him4
Men I looked up he was etandint up in that goeart, reaehlnt
up towards the potatoes. Before I could get to him, the cart
throwee him forward on the side of the wall. It knocked him
unconscious. I hollered for Lon to go for the doctor, and
had to tote his little limp body to his ma. Men he came to,
he screamed and hollered. For eight days and nights we took
turns sittint by him and holdint his little hot hands, then...
God took his.
"Je had forgot about everythiag else," he eontineed,
"but then we realized that we had little Martin. From now on,
we had a new baby about every other year —all girls. There
were four of them, i;ally, Jost., 1Zate, and the last one,
Reeky, was the prettiest one of all..
"1e bed picnic dinners at all.iday !-,eetinvs, and
my wife used to take a wholesale, loose cracker box full of
fried chIcken, ham, pickles, mikes, pies, rolls, potato salad
chicken salad, and everything else good to eat. She was the
best cook I ever saw anyhow. be always had plenty to cook,
too, and never stinted on butter and eggs for nothinf There
*45.
Was always twenty to f city hams bona& in the Ilmokenenne
tree ton to twenty barrels of molasses in the barn; potatoes
and trash fruit in the cellar of the potato house; plenty of
eggs and chickens and fowl in the yard; and garden vegotables
the year 'round. 'hat won't growint was dried or Damara in
season. de had plenty of home-mado lard and flour by the
dozen barrels.
"I loved to hunt and kept a yard ftU of fine
hounds, setters, and pointers. I went bestial the yecr 'round
and was always bringin' game home. T always bought a whole
oboes., two bunches of bananas, fifty pounds of coffee, film
gallons of oysters, a wholesale box of loose °rockers, and
two or three pounds of hard candy for the ohildren. I sent
the wagon to get it -..ton or twelve barrels. Whom we wantad
fresh weet, I killed a JaAlb„ a kid, or a beef. what we didn't
eat or send to the neighbors, we swune down in the ice tons*.
I wee the only nau in that section of the country that had
ice house.
°I built two fi bponds about ha nils below the
house and stooksd 'em with eatfish, earp and perish* 'specially
for ml wig*. She was reined on a river and always loved to fish
better than anybody I over saw. Ghe used to lot the children
go barefooted the first day of May, and the first thing they
would want to do was to go down and wed* in the mossy branch
while she was fishinl.
11.
We always had a heap of cotpany, ten or twelve
extra for dinner every Sunday. e had two extra bedrooms,
and they was always full
*When martin got up a little size and the children
all come, the house just won't big enough. *e fixed up the
room over the ole dinint room for artin and used the dinie
room for a nursery for the girls. It opened right bee: of our
bedroom. *e had two bets in ti:e nursery, and a trundle -bed.
*See that bureau?" he asked, pointing to a solid wales
chest of drawers which had beautiful mirror and a *motion of
three short drawers. "That eve in the nursery for the girls'
clothes. I had to saw off the ten -inch legs, it was too high
for the children to reach. -Avis said I just ruint the thing
Well, I bought it at a sale like i did everything else. I paid
4.25 for it, and there ain't a soar on it. 'Ye boughtmany
a fine piece like that for nothin+ and sold It for a big profit.
bought this mahogany spool bed for -24, That wool home-made
spread was wove on *w s low by slaves durinq the 4ar.
"When we made a nursery out of the ole dialny roam I
built on two more room, a dinint room behind the parlor, with
built-in cabinets, it had a door to open on the back porch,
and a door that opened into the back hall. hers was a room
over that for the schoolroom. Mavis' sisters taugnt the
children their lessons and AUSiOp too. I paid tem 0.0 a month
-17
board and room and anything else they wanted. /4e had a piano
in the parlor, desk. in the sshoolr000k. There was a two.room
school across the road, but we never 414 send the children
across the road. de didn't want them Isociatin' with the no
'count trash that went there.
'I always carried ',a le to Stratford twice a year
to shop, and we'd drive a pair of fine black natehed horses.
I gave her a blank check for I never believed in goinc in debt
for nothinl. ,;he boutht cloth by the bolt and thread by the
box for all the family clothes and household needs. The bill
always ca-Ae to ;130 or $200 and the storekeepers were always
'mighty *4 to see her. hen she came home, l!rs. Toler, a
widow wto made her livin, sewing out, cas, to our house and
stayed three or four weeks helpint -,avis sew.'
Josh stood up and after much scrambling through a
stack of old photographs, he four the one he was hunting for.
Ihere were four girls in the picture. In a row they
reso.bled steps of stairs. They all wore gingham dresses, and
their serious faces shone with health.
"This is the way vts looked when I married her,
he sail, smiling with pride as he Anded u* a small cord from
an envelope
In the corner there was a ssll picture of a lovely
Or' with (irk, innocent eyes and soft, wavy hair.
at the picture of "Irvin above the iantel. 44, hair
and the eyes bore an expression of pain and trouble
was still beautiful.
I glensed
was gray,
but she
"I moved to Stretford the fall of 1907," 'loath went on.
"T'd bought this Lot and monay was scares. built this house
to sell. I never would haw, built it like this to live in. I
sawed the timber, but the arook of a eontractor buildin' it
didn't build it near as good as I 'Bloated, He used some of
my timber. hy, there ain't but on. flooriut in a room in the
house, and it ain't TAU underpinnod• 4. I say, I ieixt to
sell it.
been planninf a year or two on breakinv up and
movint to town as soon as I got enough to btild the sort of
home I wanted. I never would have :.oved if it hadn't been to
get the children in a good school, but I'm sorry many a time
that I come to Etratford. I'm sorry I live here tax, and if I
eculd get away I'd
"I used to like t.,ratford before ttey all died out.
"Sut this young crowd of upstarts tryin' to run the county in
the ground! Everything is so high. It looks liise sine. I
ain't raised my own meat and bread it takes no much to live.
I keep tellint "lecky to out out that phone and them lectric
lights. 4-er.pa VAS good enough for my pa and ma and they're
pond enough for us. .°Incto the well dried up we have to use
ta town woltor, but thtt costs all out of reason. -42., a
month.
ucht to stayed out in the country. I still had
right -,uch land out there et Ashtown when I sold my house and
moved to town. I still had my sawmills and 1 put tem on that
Ashtown land. ,4artin was a grown boy than and 1 took him in
with as in the lumber business*
"I built a four -room house on the pleoe, and had a
store on it and re and MMrtin slept upstairs. We stayed down
there durint the week and come home at the sad of the week.
I was doing nor* lumber business than anybody else in the
county. I had a big sawmill. I could out timber forty
feet low and I furnished timber for all the big buildints
in Stratford. Men I cut all the timber off that place down
there I sad the sawmill.
"I used to thrash wheat every sumner. I started
off out there in the country with a ole horsepower meatus,
then a separator and boiler engine. The last one I had was
the ole separator hooked up to the motor of a ole second-hand
smart
r. I made right/ioney thrashint wheat, besides all my flour
erd expenses. ',then we went *round wed always at wherever
we happened to be. I never would eat at a nigger Lcuse but
once. lite wife asked me not to leave before dinner. he
fixed up ror me with a white tablecloth end napkins. Thily
both stood by the table and waited on me. 'Twee enough for
twelve men.
"haw, child, wheat thrombin, was ,!uat one way they
'jot to :AD. I saw folks all over the couaty in the lumber
business, 'cotton ginnia wheat thrashing, and tradin I
was a justice of the peace six or seven years, and county
commissioner for four terms,
"Right after that, the county hired
superintendent of the county road buildin I made many
a friend by buildial road* whore there had never been no
roods and fixin' bad roads the day they sent ma word they
needed axle. They paid no $1,0 a months furnished as a
oar and paid all the travel expeoses. It was the only
job I ever had where I worked for a salary and had a boss.
The county donor away with that job in 192,, and I ain't had
muoh since.
0i made and saved a heap of money, had good
insurance and good property, but it's all gone now. After
my girls got through sehool I had to keep on helpinf tem
along. They all taught school but Bosky and she taught art
slfartin, pot boy, gave a° more trouble than all the rest
of them put together. Pretty soon after he married, he
lost his job, liveryone he got he lost. Then I lest him
to
money/go in business with a partner. The man with him, they
said, gambled and Nartin sold out to him. It was just that
way all along. I took oar* of him and his wife, but that
hussy was so demandint and ungrateful. '4anted better than
my own wife and ohildren. Her daddy won't nothing but s
Republican and a blacksmith at that.
"When they got all I had one way or another, she
went to live with her folks and wouldn't 'low him there.
7!artin went away, and the next thing I knowed he was in the
penitentiary for bigamy. At the trial, he didn't know his
wife's daddy, his wife, and three sons. mutt believe he
was in his right mind. Anyhow that woman got a divorce and
ain't bothered me eines. T don't know whether Martin is dead
or alive.
"That just about killed his na. Then when her
daughter, rate, died, and this thing happened, she was so
hurt she just oouldn't hold her heed up I don't know what
we would have done, but for what little she got when her se's
estate was sold.
sold off all I had to live on but this bows*,
but now I ain't even got that. New, I ain't got =thin'.
I've give everything to my children, and the house and lot,
too. If I didn't give it to them before I died it would
have to be sold.
"I don't oast 'ern nothinv. I get the old -age
pension. It ainit but $30 a month, but it's enough for me
and I buy a heap of food and wood and get the gardenin" done.
As long as I have something to eat, I'll get along.
ay