A Visit With Ms. Minnie 29385f

A Visit with Ms. Minnie

Alice W. Martin

Copyright © 2011 by Alice W. Martin.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011910467

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4628-9391-1

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4628-9390-4

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4628-9392-8

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the memory of Ma and Pa and to all their descendants —past, present and future.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5—Other Relatives

Chapter 6

Epilogue

Prologue

ON JANUARY 4, 1890, Minifred Mae Johnson was the last child borne to Moses and Susie Johnson. Raised in a 6-room white-washed house located off of Route 26 in Beaver County down in the south, she later became known simply as Ms. Minnie.

As was the norm in her times, public schools in the neighborhood ran from 1st grade through 6th grade. Ms. Minnie, a student at Mt. Calvary Cross School located next door to her church, completed them all. She was an excellent student. As a child, Ms. Minnie enjoyed sewing doll clothes and making handkerchiefs. Her childhood chores consisted of chopping corn, weeding tobacco, binding wheat, planting crops, working in the garden, cleaning the house, ironing, cooking, sewing—you name it and Ms. Minnie did it. In her own words, “my momma was a lousy housekeeper and very lazy.”

Outside of doing her household chores and other duties, Ms. Minnie served as Sunday school secretary during her youthful years, and as an adult, she worked hard cleaning house for the white folks in exchange for food. On the side, she sold blackberries, strawberries and sumac to earn money—anything to make a living.

Her first “long distance” trip was to Stonehenge, North Carolina by horse and wagon. It took from sun up to sun down to get there. Her Brother Clinton’s wife was in the hospital and they needed her to baby sit.

When asked what she considered her “missed opportunity in life”, she would say

that it was when her uncle Theodore wanted to take her to Macon, Georgia to further her education. She had always regretted her decision not to go.

When asked about something unique in her life, she would say that she had three sons serving in World War II at the same time—a sergeant, a corporal and a military policeman. A fourth son was a soldier during the Korean Conflict.

Ms. Minnie had 6 main philosophies in life that she lived by and spread to those who knew and loved her.

Her philosophy on God: “God always knows what to do, when and how.”

Her philosophy on revenge: “Tit for tat, tit for tat. You kill my dog; I’ll kill your cat.”

Her philosophy on sin: “You always get a portion of your punishment here on earth where man can see it. The rest you’ll get after you die.”

Her philosophy on achievements: “If it ain’t hard to get, it ain’t worth having.”

Her philosophy on dependence: “I don’t ever want to be a burden on nobody.”

And the one philosophy on relationships and dating that she ed down to all her female grandchildren: “It’s always good to keep two on the hill so if one don’t come, the other one will.”

This is a visit with Ms. Minnie.

Chapter 1

WHEN I WAS a little girl growing up in the rural south, I was introduced to an elderly lady whom I came to greatly ire. Everybody called her Ms. Minnie. Now Ms. Minnie was nobody’s fool. No one dared mess with her because she took no mess off anyone . Now I loved this lady very much and wished that someday I’d grow up to be just like her.

Ms. Minnie was very wise and as I got older, I would visit her just to sit and hear her talk. I had hoped that her wisdom would somehow rub off on me. Over the years I watched her age and before I realized it, Ms. Minnie was almost a hundred years old. This great lady, I often thought, has a story to tell, and she must not leave this earth without telling it.

So one summer day in the year 1986, I paid Ms. Minnie a visit in Stonehenge for just that purpose. With pen and paper in hand and tape recorder nearby, I began to record her story as she sat beside her bed. Ms. Minnie’s oldest daughter, Nellie, and my 14-year old son sat nearby listening attentively as she spoke. Every now and then, Nellie would jump in with her of the past events. Being one of the eldest children, she ed a great deal about the family’s history.

Mother Susie

Reaching down and pushing the record button on the tape player that was in my lap, I began the conversation by asking Ms. Minnie about her mother. Before she could speak, her daughter Nellie excitedly gave this of her grandmother

Susie, “Way back yonder when grandma used to come in the church . . . we never had but 2 ushers . . . and here come somebody with grandma, and grandma would start to moaning when she come in at the door and moan all the way down the aisle. Carried grandma down and set her in the corner, called it the amen corner. Grandma would sit up in there and moan the whole time she’s in the church. Everybody would say, ‘Lord, here comes Aunt Susie!’ She’d get halfway the aisle. She’d start back moaning and things. I’d say, ‘Lord, Lord.’ Yeah, it was meeting back in them days, child. What you talking ’bout ! And people would say, ‘If Aunt Susie don’t die and go to heaven . . .’”

At that point, I could tell that I would get a lot of information today because Nellie would be able to fill me in with anything Ms. Minnie may have forgotten. I interrupted Nellie to ask Ms. Minnie if she had any recollection of her mother’s family . Ms. Minnie thought for a moment, and then she said to me:

I don’t nothing about my momma’s mother. No, I don’t her. She might have told me something about her, but it ain’t much that I can . She was an Edwards. I think her first name was Hildred. I can’t tell you what her father’s name was. Seems like he must have died . . . I don’t much, didn’t ask much about my momma’s parents for some reason. I don’t know why I didn’t do it. I didn’t know all of my mother’s and father’s brothers and sisters. I knew who some of them were. But I reckon all them’s dead now.

Mom had a brother named Wilmo. He was very much like momma. And momma used to tell me about “my brother Wilmo”. I’d never seen him. “My brother Wilmo, my brother Wilmo. Where in the world is my brother Wilmo? I wish I knew where he was. I got a brother named Theodore. I wish I could find them and see where they is!”

My Uncle Wilmo had one child and that child died about 12 months old. They used to call that child “gold child”. Thought so much of it, used to call it “gold

child.”

The Neighborhood

The recorder that I had now placed on the bed beside Ms. Minnie kept on rolling. I looked at the outline I had scribbled on my notepad before leaving home that day. I already had my list of questions I wanted to ask. I asked her what the neighborhood was like when she was growing up.

She spoke about it like it was only yesterday:

One of the post offices was Blossom Creek. That was up there where Mack’s store is. Lord, child, I look at that old store when I go along there now! The times I’ve walked to that store! The times I walked to that store a child! Lord, have mercy! Mamie Hatcher kept it then. The nearest one was . . . it’ll tickle you to death, tickle you to death. The nearest one, when momma sent us to quick, if she needed something right quick, was Sally Vine’s. And I’ll tell you, you know where that one is, you know where Elroy Dempsey’s is? Well, you wouldn’t think that place was nothing to what it was when they used to go there. She had one little bit old house instead of that great big place you see out there now. One little bit old house. And I think she had a little old hen house out there and she kept store. And when momma want something right quick, “Run through the bushes up there and run to Sally Vine’s.” And we’d run through the bushes and come out down there . . . you know where the woods are down there? That was Sally Vine’s. She used to go to the other store when she had lots of time, you know. When momma wanted something right quick, something for supper, need some sugar, some salt or something, so and so, “Run up Ms. Sally Vine’s right quick!”

The School System

Over the years, I had listened to Ms. Minnie talk about her childhood and of how she had to walk to school in rain, sleet, snow or hail. I glanced down at my paper and my eyes came to rest on the question regarding her schooling. I asked her to tell me about her school days, her teachers and her friends.

Ms. Minnie smiled at me and said:

I attended a one-room school. Mount Calvary Cross School located at the church. The school was made from weatherboard plank and had 2 little windows. Mrs. Chloe Dermitt, white, was the teacher. She taught through the 6th grade. That’s as far as she went—from primer to 6th grade. I had the same teacher all the way through school. Schools started in October and ended in March. Teacher lived near the school. She had a chair that could lie back into a bed. She lay back most of the time. (Ms. Minnie laughed a little as she reminisced about the teacher). Wore a bonnet and kept it pulled over her face. Talked to herself, laughed to herself. She would say, “Study your lesson”, when caught. The children sneaked outside because the teacher kept bonnet over her eyes. There were 25 to 30 kids in the whole school. Mrs. Dermitt taught all six grades. Old maid, never married. ‘Good teacher’, though. Humph, wasn’t interested in the students. Didn’t pay attention to kids, especially to their reading. You could hear the kids laughing from as far away as my house. I could walk to school in 5 minutes. Everybody walked to school back then. I had perfect attendance. All black kids were in our class. The white kids went to school further up the road. They walked to school, too. School started at 9:00 and ended at 3:00. We went to school, rain or shine, sleet or snow.

We used cloth ABC books. The primer reader book had Tom, Kate, Will and Nell, the little red wagon and Spot, the dog. We learned reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling. All the children wrote on slates. Everybody had their own slates.

We would rub the writing off with our fingers. Didn’t have no paper back then. Everything was written on slates. We had blackboards, but didn’t use it much. All through school, I used slates. We took the slates back and forth to school. The slates had wooden frames around them and sometimes the wood would come loose and the slate would slip out. (I laughed along with Ms. Minnie). We used black pencils with white chalk for writing. I was a very good student—at the head of the class. Other kids were jealous.

Playtime or recess was from 12:00 to 1:00. We played and ate lunch. We ate lunch outside or inside—no particular place. Some of the bigger girls ate on the church steps.

The Friends

Ms. Minnie had told me some years back that all her friends were now dead and she didn’t know why the Lord was keeping her here. When I asked her today about them, she could relate specific information about each and every one of them. I listened quietly as she spoke. My son and Nellie also sat taking everything in.

I was the youngest of my friends. My friend Lacy Hampton always had a solemn look. She was nice, but didn’t look it. We’d visit each other on Sundays. I’d take care of the cows. Then I’d go see Lacy. The two of us went to school together. Minnie Cosby was another of my friends. She was a good singer, a great singer. She had this special song that she sung called Glory, Glory, Glory to the Father. Used to sing with her brother Jesse Coleman and Nettie Coleman. Jacob’s cousin, Posey Lee Shelby was one of my girlfriends, too. She died young, around 25 or 30. She was good, but would steal things. Posey was very unreliable. Took after her father. Her real father left before she was born. Her stepfather wasn’t reliable. I was scared of him. He was untrustworthy.

Ms. Minnie continued to speak about her childhood and her friendships during her younger years:

Maudie Carter was a good person, but she was scared of her husband. He was a drunkard. She did everything her husband said. Would stand on her head if he’d tell her to. (Ms. Minnie chuckled. I laughed, too. She had always had a great sense of humor). When we were children, we played together at school—on the see saw, ate lunch together. Her sister Claudie was a very good person, but she always had trouble with her legs. When she died, she didn’t have any legs.

Mattie Kay was a very, very good person. She was the best in the bunch (family). Mattie was one of my bridesmaids when I married Jacob.

Father Moses

I listened in awe without interrupting as Ms. Minnie talked about her father. I could clearly picture the events that she described.

Ms. Minnie recounted this story:

Momma always said, “Moses would have lived longer, but he was one of them handymen. Every time anybody wanted anything done, they would call Moses and have two or three more, but Moses had to come.” “Moses, won’t you come help us, won’t you come help us.”

You’ve seen these log houses? Well, they’d go in the woods and cut down trees and bark them and shape them up, you know. And people would haul them in a pile where they go build their house at and when they got ready to put the house up, they all look at the logs that been piled up there and they used to call it “having a house raising”. And get all the men around in the community to come one certain day and they’d raise . . . put that house up. And so that’s what my daddy used to do. Used to go around and help people raise . . . Momma used to say, “raise a great hand, call Moses. Come help me. We’re going to have a house raising today. Come on help us. Come on help us.” Say Moses always went and everything that happened, somebody would call on Moses. “Come on help us, Moses. Come help us. Come do this.” And kill hogs, said he killed hogs. Lord, she say, “He killed hogs so that I didn’t have to touch my meat until March.” He’d get so much, you know, scraps and meats from killing somebody’s hog. I’ve seen momma tell it more times than one. Said, “I didn’t have to touch my meat ’til March.”

My daddy was sick, had taken sick. I’ll tell you what momma always said happened to him. People don’t do that now. I when I was a good size child. I , if you buried somebody like they did now this month, about 2 years from now or maybe more or less, somebody would take a notion in the family to wanna take that body up. People used to do a lot of that, so, what little I can . I was too young to understand too much, but momma used to tell me. I could hear her talk. They’d take that body up and carry that body and put it over yonder at another place with some of the rest of them. Momma said now they called Moses for that so much and he went. Had four or five more men to help, you know, to dig the grave open and go down in there where the body was and say one would dig this far, pull the dirt out, another one would take the spade and dig. And about four or five of them dug. And momma say Moses’ time, when his time come back to dig in the grave, said they’d near got down to the casket, to the coffin and say he got so close to the coffin, and say the top popped off. Air got in it. And momma said that she always hear him tell that thing. He said he never did get over it. Momma said he said, “When I was down there when that top popped off that coffin,” he said, “I declare!” Momma said way afterwards, when he lived, he said he could naturally taste it. And he said sometimes, he could naturally taste it way after it happened. And they said they had to grab him up and get him out of there. Had to pull him out, give him a hand. They had to take their hands and pull him out. Just as quick as they could

get him out there. And he fell out. Said he laid out, just laid out. Talked like he didn’t do no more after that. So he happened to be down there right at the coffin when it was his time to dig. And say when the air got into it, the top popped off. Momma said he didn’t live much longer after that. Said he was always sick after that. Never was well. He always said, “I’ll never believe nothing else. I ain’t been well since I helped them open that grave.” He used to tell it himself.

Ms. Minnie continued: When my daddy died, I was so small. I don’t nothing about him. Momma said, “I don’t know why you don’t your daddy. Looks like he thought more of you than any child that he had.” And said, “Just carried you around all the time. Whenever he got a chance, he’d take you up and carry you around in his arms.” And I said, “I never seeing him.” Momma said I was about 2 years, from about 2 years to 18 months old, something like that. I was too young to . Ain’t like children is now, you know. I said, “I ain’t never seen my . . .” Momma would say, “I don’t know why in the world you keep saying that ’cause your daddy took you and tote you around and made more of you look like than he made over any child in this house.” But I don’t it.

Stepfather Nat

Over the years, I had heard Ms. Minnie and others speak about the bad-tempered Nat Simpkins and some of his descendants. Today, I asked her to give me more details. I was anxious to learn more about him.

Ms. Minnie gladly obliged: My momma’s second husband was Nat. Nat Simpkins! Oh, he was mean! Always called me a “thin lipped winch.” All the boys slept upstairs. And you know how children are. You have to call them 2 or 3 times before they get up, you know. So, we’d try not to bother him. Other nights we’d get through supper in the wintertime, we’d keep behind the cooking stove. We’d stay in the kitchen. He’d be in the other part of the house. And when

we’d see him go back in the other part of the house to go to bed, go upstairs. He was in the bed sleep, I reckon. We wouldn’t stay where he was, wouldn’t stay where he was because he was so mean. After you about something all the time! Never did nothing that pleased him. If you were just sitting in the room laughing and talking, “Shut that fuss up here! Shut that fuss up here!”

And they’d get up other mornings. I it just as good. My brother Arnold had to get up and do the work, you know. They (the boys) were slow getting up. I had heard Arnold say it more times than one, but I didn’t dare to tell him (Nat). “Let him keep coming up these stairs every morning, see if he don’t come back down there fast as he come up there!” I knew all about it, but I didn’t say a word. That one particular morning, he called Arnold from downstairs and Arnold just stayed in the bed, just because he could, you know. He’d come up them steps, “If I come up them stairs after you all tomorrow morning when I call you so many times, and you don’t come down, I’m coming up there after you!” Arnold done said, “Just let him come up there! Just let him come up there!” So, he come up there that morning. I it just as good. And when he come up there, Arnold rolled out his bed. Arnold had a knife, a pocketknife. I reckon t’was a pocketknife. Arnold run and grabbed his clothes and got that knife out! He (Nat) was halfway up the steps and child, that man came down them steps making two at a time!

We all laughed hilariously along with Ms. Minnie as she continued, “Maw, (speaking to my momma), you know what? That boy got that knife after me! That boy got that knife after me!” Never did come up there no more.

Ms. Minnie added, “Momma had 2 children by Nat: Cynthia and Edna. I never knew him to treat them like that. But they were so small when he died.”

Stepfather Simon Huntley

Ms. Minnie’s mother, she informed me, had been married three times. I asked her to tell me a little about her last stepfather. She said there wasn’t too much to tell about him.

“Momma’s third husband,” she told me, “was named Simon Huntley. He was much younger than momma. He was nothing like Nat. He was a real sweet old fellow. He was my stepfather at the time of my marriage.”

Chapter 2

AS I ASKED Ms. Minnie to tell me everything she knew about her many brothers and sisters, I glanced across the room at my son. I had never seen my14-year old sit at attention for this long. He was taking it all in. Nellie also listened attentively as her mother spoke. Ms. Minnie talked about her siblings very vividly.

Brothers Earley and Arnold

My brother Earley was 18 months old when he died. Momma said he was about 18 months old. He died with something like the children have . . . this here virus. He had some type of virus. People in them days didn’t do nothing for children like they do now, you know. Children just died from every little thing they had. Grown folks died from more things, too. People these days can drop that thing in a hurry.

Ms. Minnie didn’t have a whole lot to say concerning her Brother Arnold, either, other than the incident with stepfather Nat. The main thing that she didn’t like about this brother was his weakness for alcohol: My brother Arnold was good, but my brother Arnold drank a lot. He would drink anything in sight. He was good even when he was drinky. When my brother Arnold drank, he was the nicest thing. Some people get mean, but my brother Arnold didn’t.

Unfortunately she had named one of her sons after him later on in life. Her son Arnold inherited that same trait. She somehow saw this as a curse. Her advice: Watch who you name your children after!

Brother Gilbert

Next, Ms. Minnie told us the tragic story of her brother, Gilbert, whom she had never known: I didn’t know my brother Gilbert, but Momma said that back in them days, people would borrow each other’s guns. The older people did. Well one of the boys took the gun out to see if they could play around. It was a boy named Scottie Spencer and Gilbert. They met in the field out in the woods. The gun belonged to Scottie’s daddy. Well, they both saw a rabbit and an argument and scuffle began about who should shoot the rabbit. Each of them wanted that same gun. That’s crazy about children. Well, the gun went off and the bullet went through Gilbert. My brother Fred then won’t no bigger than Avery and used to have to drive the cows and mind the cows. (Ms. Minnie occasionally would make reference to someone she presently knew such as her great grandson, Avery). Well, he was there at the time. Fred got in the path and headed toward home with a line of cows following behind him. And Momma said she heard Uncle Samuel say, “Lord, where in the world is Gilbert at?” Momma said it was a mile from her at least. She showed me the very place where he was. A rock. A big rock laid in the edge of the field and she sat on that rock and held his head in her lap until he died. She showed me that rock don’t know how many times. I can see that rock now. A great big old rock. That was Gilbert. She said he was so near dead when she got there. She don’t think he knew anything. He was about fourteen or fifteen. That was before I was born.

Sister Amelia

I had a sister named Amelia. I never did tell you about her. She died as a real young child. We used to call her Millie, Millie all the time. She was older than I, but she wasn’t much. I think I was next to her. I her well. She got to about like . . . she had to be the size of, ah, bigger than Lena’s girl. Not Lena’s girl, Ann’s. I didn’t tell you about her because I said, “Maybe . . .” I’ll tell you

what. Momma always said this. Now she could have been right. I was just a child, younger than she was. Every Saturday night, we’d get our bath. That’s when you got a bath in them days. And this was right at Christmas. Santa Claus night I think it was. We’d call it Santa Claus night. So momma let everybody get their bath. Everybody got their bath in the same tub of water in them days, you know. And, ah, she was the last one. It was right at Christmas, you know. And so momma said that she said the water had gotten cold when she got . . . when it come to her. Ah, I had done got mine, the others had got theirs. And momma said she complained about the water being so cold after she got, when she had to get in it. And momma always said she had pneumonia from that. She didn’t live 2 weeks. Didn’t live 2 weeks. Santa Claus come that same night, I think. You know how Santa Claus was in them days. And, ah, she never did eat her things Santa Claus brought her. Momma always said that she buried her things, put her things in the casket with her. She taken sick that night. Right at Christmas. By New Years, she was hardly doing. She was little as she could be. Momma said she had pneumonia. Said that’s how she caught that pneumonia. She was the last one to get in the tub. And she said, “Lord, this water is so cold! So cold!” Momma said she had pneumonia. Said she caught pneumonia from washing in that bath of cold water. Momma would always say, “I’ll never think nothing else. I’ll never think nothing else. I’ll never forget it. Amelia said, ‘this water is cold,’ when she got in. ‘This water is so cold’.” I think momma said, “You all make haste and get out of it! Don’t stay in that water long! Don’t stay in that water long! Make haste and get out of it!”

See, it was 4 or 5 of us getting a bath and everybody bathed in the same tub. You know in the wintertime the water had to begin to get cool.

Yes, she was older than I. She was a good size girl. I was younger, smaller than she was. I her just as well, but I don’t Gilbert. Amelia was my daddy’s child. All of us sisters. Sisters and brothers. She was a Johnson, just like I was. Momma said she died from pneumonia. That’s what she had. I knew when she was sick. I when she was sick. I looking at her lying in the bed.

Brothers Clinton and Herman

Ms. Minnie informed me that she had a brother named Clinton and one named Herman. I asked her if she ed anything about them and if so, to tell me something about their personalities.

She thought for a moment: My brother Clinton had gold teeth. Yeah, he had gold teeth, child. The best-looking man in Beaver County! He was good looking for what I can think of him. He was a good-looking man! All his teeth up here won’t nothing but gold. Great big brown skin person. Almost the color of McDonald. He was married. His wife’s name was Missy. And they had 3 children, Rena, Edmonia and Josiah. Her maiden name was Dade. They lived at 729 Mickey Street in Stonehenge. (It was amazing just how much this lady could ). Didn’t come home to visit often. He went to New York City for a while. He died mysteriously and was buried before we knew he was dead.

Ms. Minnie pointed out to me that it was a common practice back then before travel became a convenience that many family that left town stayed away a long time. Some of them never returned.

My brother Herman was married to Audrey Barton. She was a very nice person. My brother Herman was grand. I thought won’t nothing like my brother Herman. Nothing like Herman. Look like to me you oughta my brother Herman dying up at Sis Martha’s. You were too young to pay it any attention. I know you were in the world. (I advised Ms. Minnie that I didn’t him. It was highly possible that I hadn’t been born at the time).

You know all these old houses here in Stonehenge? He was a contractor and he built all these old houses. All them were new houses round that time and he was contractor. He had men working for him. And he was the boss. My brother

Clinton did the same kind of work. He worked for Brother Herman towards the last. And after Brother Herman got that job, he had to hire a lot of men and he hired my brother Clinton along with them.

Brother Fred

I’d often heard Ms. Minnie, my mother and others talk about Fred over the years. I sat amazed as I listened to her speak so colorfully about a particular incident with him:

Fred never did go from the country. I and Fred couldn’t get along. He was that devilish one. He always liked to beat you for every little thing. I don’t know much about when he was a small child, but after he got to be a big boy and a grown man. And he was big enough to work, you know, used horses and things like that. And Lord, have mercy, he’d plant a piece of corn and when that corn got about this high, something like that, you know, and we used to have to mind the cows. The cows, two bulls and two cows, Benny and Blacky and Will and Nill.

Yeah, and we used to have to mind them cows and then we had to take hoes and chop corn and mind the cows all the same time. And you know how, you don’t know how old cows were, but they would generally say that if you get a piece of corn, take an old piece of corn out there in the field, you’d have them grazing back over here, every time you look, they’d be biting off that corn. And we had to chop the corn and mind the cows to keep them from coming there biting the corn. And when we’d get way down at the other end of the cornfield, the cows would be up this end. Would get there while you were chopping at the other end. And Fred dared us to let them cows come into that corn. If that cow come into that corn and bite another shuck of that corn, what he was go do! So he had the horse running over it. You know, working horse, and we had the hoes chopping and minding the cows all at the same time. And so all the cows were loose so we were way down at the other end, the cows in this end up there, and they had run

down there biting off the corn. We way down at the other end working. “You let that cow get in that corn field again, I dare what I ain’t go do to you! You let them come and bite another shuck of that corn!” And I used to try hard not to let the cows get there. I would do that. I would try hard to do the right thing. I try hard to do the right thing. I do that now. That’s in me. I’m go try hard to do the right thing cause I’m go try to do the right thing. Don’t crown me then! (Laughter) I’m go try hard. I used to try hard not to let them cows get to that corn. Not that I was scared of Fred, but I just wanted to do the right thing.

I looked and the old cow had come up there biting the corn. “Let her come up there again, see if I don’t give you all a beating!” So the cows . . . look, the old cows up there in that cornfield again! Used to go up there and roam way back down yonder. The corn this-a-way. So soon as you got chopping way down that end yonder, the old cow done come back that end, biting off the corn. And so the cows up there biting off the corn and Fred he run, done stopped the horses working. He was working with the bull. And say, “Jack!” He was go jump at me, too, but he won’t go jump at me so quick ’cause he know me! (Laughter) So he got Jack down and he was beating Jack, beating Jack. And, child, I . . . Jack was older than me and was a boy, too. So, child, I . . . Jack just let him beat him. I tried to run to Fred. I couldn’t find in the cornfield a stick, so I couldn’t find nothing to hit him with. I couldn’t find nothing to hit him with! I grabbed dirt! I just throwed dirt on him! (Laughter) When that thing was over, Fred was full of dirt!

Yeah, Fred was the mean one!

Brothers Sonny and Jack

Ms. Minnie informed me that she had two more brothers named Sonny and Jack. I asked her to tell me something about them:

Oh, Brother Sonny was real good. He was just the same as my daddy. He was good. He was married. Well, you know where old man Larry lived? Well, momma had a six-room house where we were born and raised in. So Brother Sonny had 3 of them and we had three. After my daddy died, Brother Sonny was married and had his wife and children there in the house, but he was just like my daddy. Oh, he was just as good to me as he could be.

I can’t think of what Brother Sonny died from, but I he just taken sick. When he died I don’t think he was no older than your father.

My brother Jack was a good old boy. Lord have mercy! And when Jack died, we don’t know what become of him. They always said that they gave him to his students. He swoll up so bad before he died.

Brother Jack was living in Stonehenge. Jacob’s sister Annie Lou ran off with him. Each of them was married and had children. Jack’s wife was named Vivian. Jacob had two sisters, Annie Lou and Emma. They’d been here in Stonehenge a good little while, but I think Annie Lou was like this: She was kind of a bad girl in her ways. What we called a “rang tang”. I think Annie Lou had more than Jack. He was just one of them. And then gradually somebody did something to him, so they say. I tell you, Jack was just about the color of Reverend Whitman and just about the size of him. Just a little small fellow like that.

Sisters Martha, Edna and Cynthia

My sister Martha was eight years older than I. I stayed with Martha a while after we had gotten much older. She and I had our differences, but we still loved

each other a lot.

Edna was Nat’s child. One thing Nat told the truth about. I was the biggest fool about Edna. See, I was a lot older than Edna. Much older. And that’s why I was called “Big Sis”. Edna always called me “Big Sis”. Edna named me “Big Sis”. And so, he said, “You know one thing, if anything was to catch that girl there, she would not leave that child there not one minute.” Everywhere I went, Edna went until she got big enough to stand around. We’d play. The children would come play with me. Lacy Hampton. You Lacy Hampton before she died? Ray Hampton’s wife? Well, she used to be my friend. Didn’t live nowhere from us. All of us get to playing sometimes and all of us children, we’d be right here playing sometimes, then we’d go way over yonder somewhere. I’d grab Edna up, though. He used to tell it, “She’d never leave that child! Never leave that child!” I don’t know what I was doing so crazy about Edna. Crazy about Edna and she was crazy about “Big Sis” until the day she died.

Nat’s other daughter, Cynthia, was a very loving sister to me, but she died during childbirth at the age of 35. She had 8 children, which included 2 sets of twins.

Chapter 3

I had heard Ms. Minnie talk about her husband Jacob over the years. I Jacob ing away when I was a young girl. Ms. Minnie had never married again nor had she dated anyone. She didn’t give it a second thought.

I asked her today to tell me about him and how she had met him. I wanted to know everything about him and his family. Ms. Minnie didn’t mind talking about him at all.

The White Horse

We’d go to church other Sundays. Jacob would come to Sunday school other Sundays, him and the Taylor boys. Annie Lou and Emma, both of them liked the Taylor boys . . . Tim Taylor, Detroit Taylor, Winston Taylor. Them were the Taylor boys. Jacob used to come along with them and they used to ride horses. And every Sunday, the girls used to get so foolish. I won’t like that. I tell you like this, I used to say, “Now, Jacob, why do them girls . . . ?”Every girl at church was crazy about Jacob. Jacob, Jacob Burruss. Mildred Whitmore used to say, “Everybody in the community is crazy about Jacob Burruss, Jacob Burruss. Even the babies in the cribs when they cry, they cry Jacob Burruss, Jacob Burruss!”

He was a good-looking man. Jacob was a good-looking child. Good-looking. Now, I didn’t make myself no crazy about him whatsoever. When he’d come on Sunday to Sunday school, he’d get off the horse. Jacob riding on Will. Jacob’s horse was white. And the gals were running and mopping against one another.

Folks would be whooping and hollering and laughing. Whoa! They’d be prissing and crying. I ain’t said nothing. I ain’t said nothing.

As Ms. Minnie talked, I began to formulate this story in my mind:

It was Sunday and like any other day of the week, there were chores to be done —cows to milk, hogs to feed, water to fetch. Jacob dragged himself from the bed around 5:30 that morning just as it was getting light outside. He walked across the small room, stood in front of a tall mirror that was propped up against the wall and flexed his muscles. A dark-skinned lad of 17, he was well built and rather tall in stature. Watching his reflection, he grinned to himself, “Not bad for a 17-year old fellow, and not hard to look at. Every gal in Beaver County can see that—except Minnie”. As a feeling of frustration came over him, Jacob walked away from the mirror and began picking up bits and pieces of the clothing he had scattered on the floor the night before. With shoes, socks, pants and shirt in hand he sat on side of the bed and with one piece at a time began to dress. He could hear his momma in the kitchen already fixing Sunday dinner for the family. Hmmm, fried chicken!! Jacob’s momma always got up early on Sunday morning to get dinner started before cooking breakfast. Jacob dressed and found his way to the spacious kitchen where Mrs. Burruss was standing over a hot cast iron stove. They exchanged greetings and Jacob bent and playfully pecked her on the cheek. She had just turned over a well browned chicken leg, and with a gesture of the fork she quickly fanned him away.

The sun was just showing its face above the horizon when Jacob got outside. He hurried about the business of milking the awaiting cows, feeding the hungry hogs and performing the other daily tasks involved with farming. By the time he finished his chores, the sun was shining brightly and it was beginning to get hot. Jacob, pretty exhausted by now, started the long trek toward the house. As he headed back he ed the stable and heard old Will neighing as he stood at the entrance. He stopped in his tracks. “How could I forget about you, Will?” He sat the bucket of fresh cow’s milk down on the ground. Jacob picked up a bale of hay that was lying nearby and with little effort, threw it across his shoulder.

Jacob took the hay into the stable and laid it in front of the stately white horse. “Eat hearty, fellow. You and me’s going to church this morning. We’s gonna see Minnie today.” He patted old Will on the back. “Hurry and eat and I’ll be back later to saddle you up.”

As Jacob turned to leave the stable, he almost tripped on a shovel that someone had carelessly left lying on the dirt floor of the stable. He bent down, picked it up and sat it in a corner where it belonged. As he exited the structure, he picked up the large bucket of milk that he had left on the ground and continued to make his way towards the little wooden whitewashed house.

Breakfast was on the table when Jacob walked through the kitchen door. Lying on the table before him to his surprise were scrambled eggs, thick slabs of fried bacon, golden fried potatoes, buttered hot cakes and molasses—just the way he liked them. His mother took the heavy bucket of fresh milk from him and with a shiny metal dipper, filled each drinking glass to the brim. Seated around the table were his two sisters, Annie Lou and Emma, and his poppa, Jonah. Jacob pulled up his favorite kitchen chair and ed the family. Mrs. Burruss put the dipper down on the wooden sideboard and sat down with the others. A quick family prayer of thanks and everyone began to dig in. A hearty breakfast like this was rare at the Burruss house, but every now and then Mrs. Burruss felt that her family deserved and needed a meal like this.

As it so happened, Jacob had made plans earlier in the week to ride to church alongside the three Taylor boys. He had run into them at the neighborhood grocery store on Wednesday evening and the four of them had collaborated about riding to Sunday school on their horses. They concurred that it was something about a well-dressed man riding on horseback that impressed the young girls. Jacob, of course, hoped to impress Minnie. So here he stood, in the stable again beside old Will, saddle in hand, ready to ride.

The Courtship

My mind snapped back to attention as I heard Ms. Minnie go into more details about her relationship with Jacob:

I can’t tell you how I met Jacob, but we used to go to picnics. Folks used to have picnics a lot. Don’t have them no more. Always used to be picnics. You know it used to be boys and girls there, boys and girls there. And I finally met up with Jacob somehow. Child, I didn’t know nothing about Jacob when I was growing up. I didn’t know ’twas such a person.

I was about 15 or 13 when I started seeing Jacob. After we got straight going together, he didn’t miss a week. And kissing, he did his part of that! He’d have his way of saying, “Hit me as hard as you love me.” And I would just touch him with my finger. I’d say, “Hit me as hard as you love me.” He’d say, “You couldn’t stand the lick!” That was something, won’t it?

I used to feel right sorry for Jacob, though. I know you don’t Gerty Hardy. You don’t know about that kind of thing. That was a haunted old place, near the Brookfield Post Office. And Pinky Harper’s place, those tall white tombstones. You done see them? Well, Jacob had to walk past by that graveyard. Walked through Hardy’s and that was a graveyard he had to by. I used to feel sorry for him. Some nights when I used to see him and he’d get ready to go, I used to feel sorry for him. And some nights he’d go by the church and walk down the road.

Ms. Minnie paused for a while. She got up from where she was seated to go into the kitchen for some water. While she was gone from the room, I again formulated a storyline in my mind so that later I could write it all down. This is how the story would go:

It was one fine Saturday morning in May when Jacob awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside his bedroom window. He hopped out of bed almost tripping over the brown shoes he’d left on the floor the night before. Today was the day of the big spring picnic and Minnie would be there! He went about the daily task of gathering his wrinkled clothes from the floor and hurriedly putting them on. This morning he had a determination like never before. There was no doubt in his mind that today he would bring Minnie Mae Johnson to the realization that yes he did exist and that he was not just another fly on the wall. Jacob walked over to the tall mirror against the wall and with a big wide grin said to himself, “You’re a good-looking man, Jacob Burruss. Watch out, Minnie. Gal, your running days are over!”

Annie Lou and Emma were out in the kitchen helping their momma fix a big meal to take to the picnic. Their poppa, Jonah, was outside in the barn working and waiting for Jacob to come help him with the farm chores. The girls were just as excited as their brother Jacob about today because the two of them were wild about the Taylor boys. Lately Annie Lou had been sneaking out the bedroom window at night to meet up with Tim Taylor. As she stood at the table kneading the dough for the biscuits she was making to take to the picnic, her mind wandered back to two nights ago. She’d gone to bed rather early that evening, complaining of a bad headache, but knowing full well that it was to rest up for the night that lie ahead. Around 10 o’clock that night when she was sure everyone else was asleep, she quietly slithered her way out of the straw bed that she shared with her sister Emma, hoping not to alarm her. Tipping across the cool wooden floor, she went over to the dresser and picked up a lantern from the top. Annie Lou felt around until she found some matches and carefully lit the lantern. She didn’t bother to change her gown, just gathered the glowing lantern in her right hand and sneaked her way out the window to meet Tim, who was already outside in the stable. Tim paced around anxiously as he looked in the dark shadows hoping to get a glimpse of his gal. All around him he could smell the pungent odor of the animals as they slept quietly for the night. Now and then he would hear a snort from old Will, as if he knew what was about to occur. Tim was thankful for the moonlight that night, for it made it easy to see Annie Lou as she made her way down the path to the stable. As she got closer her footsteps quickened when she saw Tim standing near the doorway. Several times she

tripped on the hem of the long light blue cotton gown that she wore. The closer she got to him, the faster her heart raced. Tim was feeling the same way, for Annie Lou was a hot ionate young girl. It seemed like an eternity before she finally reached the stable and when she did, she sat the lantern down and flung herself wildly into his awaiting arms. Tim gently lifted Annie Lou up from the ground and carried her a few feet inside the stable where there awaited in the far corner a heap of hay. Entwined, the two young lovers fell into the hay and everything around them went still. The only sounds coming from the stable were those of Tim and Annie Lou.

It was way past midnight when an exhausted Annie Lou had finally left the stable. The satisfied couple said goodnight to one another and went their separate ways. Tim’s horse had been standing out near the tobacco fields prancing back and forth until he returned. Annie Lou watched as Tim made his way through the fields and off into the woods, riding his horse, Blacky. Brushing the hay from her gown, she picked up the lantern that was now burning low and started back towards the house. What a night this has been, she glowed. She could scarcely wait until her next rendezvous with Tim.

When Annie Lou returned to her bedroom that night, Emma was still sound asleep. She blew out the lantern, sat it back on the dresser and crawled into bed beside her sister. The excitement of the evening made for a sleepless but satisfied night. With thoughts of Tim in her mind, Annie Lou finally drifted off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Annie Lou’s mind snapped back to the present when she heard her momma loudly calling her name. She had no idea how long she had been kneading the biscuit dough, but apparently she had gotten lost in memories of the other night. Hurriedly she rolled out the dough with a wooden rolling pin, grabbed a small glass from the cupboard and cut out shapes of biscuits. She snatched two tin baking pans from the kitchen counter and spaced the biscuits evenly apart in the pans before shoving them into the hot oven.

Meanwhile, a jovial Jacob was out in the field helping Jonah with the plowing. Today at the picnic he would surely approach Minnie and let her know just how he felt about her. Jacob had been in love with Minnie since the first time he’d seen her. She was so different from the rest of the young girls he’d encountered. Minnie was special. From what he’d learned from talking to others, she was three or four years younger than he, but that didn’t matter to Jacob. What difference did it make? He was bound and determined to make her his wife one day. Today would surely be the beginning for them. He hoped that he wouldn’t lose his confidence.

Up and down the fields he walked behind the plow and the two mules, plotting and thinking, plotting and thinking. The Taylor boys thought he was foolish to be so hung up over one girl when all the others around the countryside were literally fighting to get into his arms. At times Jacob thought they might be right, but then again, he was not that kind of a fellow. He was basically a one-woman man. Of course, he had flirted around a few times with some of them, but his heart and mind had always been on Minnie Johnson.

Back at the house Annie Lou and Emma were finishing up in the kitchen with their momma. The biscuits were already done, the fried chicken had been packed in the picnic basket and the potato salad was just about ready. Mrs. Burruss had just taken a cooling chocolate cake from the windowsill and was beginning to put white icing on it when she heard the sound of horses approaching. Emma put down the wooden spoon she was holding and went to the door. It was two of the Taylor boys—Detroit and Tim. They had come to ride to the picnic with Jacob and old Will. Emma blushed as she watched Detroit descend from his horse. She was very fond of him, but she was not as outgoing as Annie Lou. She had always quietly hoped that he felt the same way about her. She watched him as he came closer to the kitchen door. Detroit was a handsome boy and very well mannered —a good catch—as the older women would say. Tim, on the other hand, had a certain rowdiness about him, a bit like Annie Lou. They both needed to be tamed.

Nervously, Emma opened the screen door and Detroit removed his black cowboy hat and stepped inside. Tim, still seated on Blacky, stayed outside, much to Annie Lou’s dismay. Maybe it’s for the best, she thought, because the excitement of the other night was beginning to get her all stirred up inside again.

Mrs. Burruss explained to Detroit that Jacob could be found somewhere outside with Jonah, perhaps in the barn with the animals or in the field plowing. Emma wanted so much to ask Detroit about being with her at the picnic today before he left the house, but the words just wouldn’t come out. The bolder Annie Lou, however, made her way to the door and hollered outside to Tim that she would see him at the picnic. He grinned and with a wink of the eye, turned the horse around and headed towards the fields in search of Jacob.

Jacob had just finished up in the fields when he spied the two Taylor boys heading his way. He put up the tired mules and the plow and walked back to the house while the boys waited outside for him to get cleaned up and dressed.

The neighborhood picnic site was a relatively long way from the Burruss farm, but Jacob and the Taylor boys made good time on the horses. A huge crowd had already gathered by the time they got there. Anxiously Jacob looked around for Minnie. Maybe she had not arrived yet, so he rode old Will over to the hitching post and tied him down. The Taylor boys, now ed by their brother Winston, did the same.

For nearly an hour Jacob walked the picnic grounds, going from table to table and greeting friends and relatives, mainly in search of Minnie. Just when he’d given up and his confidence had weakened, he spied her over by a big oak tree, laughing and talking with her girlfriends. She was wearing a pretty yellow dress and her dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. He was on his own now; the three Taylor boys were somewhere else, perhaps flirting with some of the young girls who’d made their way to the picnic today. Jacob checked his clothing and smelled the air around him to make sure he had rid himself of the scent of the

barnyard back home. The nervous walk over to the old oak tree seemed the longest he’d ever taken. He ed by his sister Annie Lou who was locked arm in arm with Tim. With a gesture of the head, Tim winked and pointed toward Minnie. Jacob shook his head knowingly. All kinds of thoughts were going through his mind as he approached Minnie, but this time he was not going to back down. By the time Jacob reached the big oak tree, the other girls had gone off somewhere in search of food. Minnie was standing there all by herself. He knew that God was working in the plan. Minnie stood still, unable to move as Jacob reached out his hand toward her. “Miss Minnie Mae Johnson, in case you have not noticed, my name is Mr. Jacob Burruss, and I have had my eyes on you, girl, for a mighty long time. And before you say anything, I would be ever so grateful if I could have the pleasure of your company at this here picnic today.”

Minnie was taken off guard. Why in the world would a good looking man like Jacob Burruss want to be with her when all the other girls were throwing themselves at his feet? She thought it was a joke. She had always made it her business to avoid him and quietly stand by shaking her head while the other girls made themselves such fools. Even if she herself had been interested in Jacob, she had been taught to always keep a man guessing. Never let them know how you feel about them, in no way, shape, nor form.

“I’m waiting on an answer, Minnie Johnson.” Jacob came closer to her and took her by the hand, a rather brave move for him. “Will you spend the day with me? Please, Minnie.”

Minnie looked into Jacob’s pleading eyes. Her mother had always told her that you can read a man’s heart through his eyes. Jacob had such kindness in his eyes that it was hard for her to turn him down. “Yeah, Jacob Burruss, I guess I will spend some time with you today.”

After that encounter, everyone in the countryside knew that Jacob and Minnie was a hot item. Their personalities, though quite different, complemented each

other. While Jacob was a quiet sort of fellow, Minnie was feisty and boisterous.

Jacob could scarcely wait to start courting Minnie. Now that he had broken the ice at the picnic, Jacob and Minnie had decided to continue the relationship. A week didn’t go by that Jacob didn’t call on Minnie. They would sit for hours at a time, usually in the parlor, just talking and doing what young folks do when they’re in love.

One Friday morning at the crack of dawn, Jacob arose and got dressed as usual. He thought that maybe this weekend he would do something different with Minnie. Maybe go on a double date. He would try to catch up with the Taylor boys sometime that day to see if they were game. Jacob went out to the stable and fed and saddled his horse. His new job with the postal service was going pretty well. It seemed easy enough. He’d ride old Will back and forth, up and down the countryside from sun up to sun down some days, picking up the mail at one station and carrying it to the next. Not much involved except for the ride. Getting this job forced Jacob to feel the sting of racism—it was clear to him that between blacks and whites there was a line drawn. Being a young lad, he could not understand the unfairness of it all, but his momma and poppa sat him down one night and explained to him as best they could about the evils of segregation and about how blacks were considered the inferior race. They reassured Jacob that someday things would get better and that all whites did not feel the same way and that there would be some of them that would treat him as a man and not as a colored man.

Before making his daily runs, Jacob returned to the little whitewashed house to eat the breakfast his momma had prepared. He pulled up his favorite chair and sat down at the table. Emma and Annie Lou were apparently still in bed. He’d seen his daddy out by the vegetable garden on the way from feeding and saddling old Will. His momma sat a bowl of oatmeal in front of him. There were hot biscuits and fresh churned butter on the table along with slabs of bacon and scrambled eggs. Jacob ate heartily, for he had a long day ahead of him. Before leaving he lightly pecked Mrs. Burruss on the cheek and with a brown paper bag

of lunch in his hand, made his way out the door and across the backyard. He hollered to his poppa and went into the stable where his horse stood patiently waiting for his daily run. Jacob mounted old Will and guided him out of the stable. Then across the field he galloped, with young Jacob on board feeling the cool morning breeze against his dark face.

First stop, Blossom Creek Post Office. Old Will was familiar with the stops by now. Without guidance from Jacob he walked over to the hitching post as if it was all too familiar to him. Jacob tied the horse down and made his way up to the big old house that doubled as a post office. The 3-story structure resembled a big old slavery time house. It was spread throughout the neighborhood that the old building was haunted. Jacob looked around at the big bushes that surrounded the brick house. Alvin Hardwick was the postmaster there. This was the main post office for Beaver County. Jacob entered the house cautiously. He noticed the big old wooden desk as he came in the front room. He ed it by and proceeded to go up the 7 or 8 old fashioned steps that led upstairs to the postmaster. It seemed like a long way up for the young lad. Finally he walked onto a porch and into the room called the post office. In the room with Mr. Hardwick was his newly acquired mail order bride, Beatrice. Jacob had heard his mother talking about how Mr. Hardwick’s first wife had died and how, as was common practice in the area, he had d for his second wife. He had met her at the train station, brought her home and married her. Entering the room, he saw that the mailbag was there on the counter waiting for him. Jacob exchanged good morning greetings with the postmaster as he reached to pick up the long black bag. Mr. Hardwick made a gesture for him not to touch the bag until he was through examining it to make sure all the locks were in place. The young black lad stood patiently by while the old white clerk checked the bag thoroughly, going over each lock twice to assure its security. He nodded to Jacob that it was okay for him to touch the bag. As he picked the bag up from its resting place, he couldn’t help but notice again the long iron locks on that black leather mailbag, designed to keep him out. I guess I shouldn’t complain, Jacob thought, this just makes my job easier. He slung the bag across his back and made his way back down the steps and out the front door toward old Will who stood neighing outside. He untied the white horse before mounting him. Then turning to go, he pulled the horse’s rein and headed out toward the next mail station.

Luckily for Jacob he was able to run into Winston and Tim later that morning at his next stop. Tim was outside on Blacky surrounded by several of the neighborhood love-struck lassies. Winston was looking on. Jacob rode up and dismounted Will. He threw his hand up at Tim and Winston. Grabbing the mailbag that had been strapped to the horse, Jacob walked towards the two boys. He told them not to leave until he came back outside. From experience, he knew not to linger outside with the mail. A black man couldn’t be trusted to tarry with the US mail. Jacob went inside the little brown frame building and laid the bag on the counter. An old white woman anxiously took the black bag away from Jacob and carried it in the back room. She quickly shut the door behind her. The young boy heard a loud click as she locked the door from the other side. He knew it would take a few minutes for her husband, the postmaster, to unveil the contents of the bag and refill it for him to take on his journey, so he went back outside to his buddies. Some of the females that had surrounded Tim suddenly turned their attention to Jacob. Jacob shooed them away. The two Taylor boys got down from their horses and came over to Jacob.

“Now Minnie and I have been seeing each other for a few months,” Jacob began as he looked at both the boys, “but sitting in the parlor night after night ain’t too sporty. I thought that maybe we all could get together for a group outing or something. Do something different for a change. What y’all doing Saturday evening?”

The two of them looked at each other and hunched their shoulders indicating to Jacob that they both would be free. “Good,” Jacob grinned. “I was thinking about a hayride. Y’all two and Detroit need to grab some gals and we can all go out and have a good time. We can use poppa’s two mules to hitch up to. How does that sound?”

Winston and Tim thought it was a good idea. The young girls had been standing in the background listening. They knew that Jacob was spoken for, but they were overcome with excitement knowing that the three Taylor boys were still testing

the waters. Suddenly there was a chorus of “I’ll go, I’ll go” as the foolish young lassies tugged and pulled on Tim and Winston.

“Whoa!! We only need two of you,” Tim scolded at the four females. “Detroit will have to speak for himself.” So Margaret Holder and Bertie Thomas won out. They would be the lucky ones to go on the hayride with Winston and Tim. They all stood around making plans for Saturday evening until Jacob heard the sound of his name being called by the postmaster inside the little building. He bade them goodbye and swiftly made his way back inside to pick up the long black locked up leather mailbag that was waiting for him on the counter.

The sun was going down as Jacob returned to the stable to put old Will up for the evening. It had been a long day and he was tired of riding. He was sure that the horse was worn out, too. He gathered a large bale of hay from the stable and laid it down in front of Will. Then he slowly made his way towards the house. His father, Jonah, was back out in the garden where he had left him that morning. He could hear his mother calling him in to supper as he got closer to the house. Jonah looked up and Jacob made a gesture with his hand bidding his father to come in to eat.

Emma and Annie Lou had just finished setting the table when Jacob entered the kitchen. His momma had filled a basin with warm soapy water for him to wash up before supper. Jacob washed his hands, dried them on a nearby rag and sat down to eat. The country ham smelled delicious. The whole meal made his mouth water. He could hardly wait for his poppa to get in the house so that he could dig in.

Annie Lou was furious the next day when she found out about the hayride, especially when she learned that Tim would not be taking her. She thought of the many nights she had met him out in the stable for wild ionate lovemaking while the rest of the family lay sleeping. And here he was, not even stopping to consider that she might be interested in ing them. It seemed that lately she

had become just another “roll in the hay” to him. Well, she’d fix him. Somehow she’d find a way to them that evening.

Emma was still crazy about Detroit Taylor, but she had never gotten the courage to let him know, so he’d always looked upon her as just one of Jacob’s sisters. It bothered her sometimes when she would see him with another girl, but she didn’t get furious like Annie Lou. She knew exactly how Annie Lou must feel. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out what her sister was up to. Many nights she had awakened to find an empty spot next to her in bed. Then she would see Annie Lou’s small frame making its way back into the room through the window. She would pretend to be asleep. There was no mistaking the manly smell that she would bring back into the room each time. Lately she had watched the interaction between her sister and Tim Taylor and had gathered from the look that ed between them that it was he whom she had been sneaking around with until all hours of the night.

Emma studied her sister closely during that day. Somehow she could tell that Annie Lou was plotting something. Maybe it was in the way that she stuck around Jacob most of the day, even going so far as to help him with the farm chores. Normally, Annie Lou would be inside the house on a Saturday, doing odd jobs that didn’t get done during the week because she and Emma would be helping the white women in the area with their offspring or with their housework. But today was different—Annie Lou was definitely up to something.

Meanwhile, at the Huntley house, Minnie had awakened earlier than usual to begin her chores for the day. The sun was just beginning to peak through the upstairs windows. Word had gotten to her that Jacob would be by later that evening to take her on a hayride. Minnie sprang from the bed that she shared with her younger sisters, Edna and Cynthia. She walked across the large room to the dusty old bureau that sat in the corner. The wooden floor squeaked as she moved about the room. When she reached the bureau, Minnie fumbled through the top drawer to look for some work clothes to put on. Pulling out a pair of old faded blue overalls, she quietly slipped them on. Then she pulled her gown,

damp from her youngest sister’s bedwetting, over her head and tossed it on the floor. An old green shirt was in the drawer beside the overalls. Minnie quickly put it on, fastening the four buttons that hung loosely on the front. She found her work shoes on the floor next to the foot of the bed and put them on. Hoping not to wake her siblings, she tiptoed out of the room and down the steps to the kitchen. Everyone except Mr. Huntley and Sonny, who were already busy outside, was still asleep in the house. Upon arriving in the kitchen, Minnie made her way to the cupboard and began rattling the pots and pans to start making breakfast for the family. She was happy to see that her stepfather had already heated up the old iron stove. It was just right for cooking. It wasn’t too long before the flapjacks and sausage were fixed and ready for eating. The scent of breakfast cooking spread throughout the household. And just like clockwork Momma Susie was the first to come stumping into the kitchen. Minnie looked up and saw the large woman standing in the doorway. At times like this she couldn’t help but feel resentment toward her momma. She studied her mother’s physique —the huge legs, the rotund figure—and tried to reason that perhaps this was the cause of her laziness. Morning after morning she’d lie in bed and, just as Minnie had finished slaving away in the kitchen, appear suddenly in the doorway with the same old excuse—“I overslept”.

Mrs. Huntley found her usual place around the kitchen table and plopped down in the large wooden chair while Minnie went to the door and called Mr. Huntley and her brother Sonny inside to eat. In a short while, Cynthia, Edna and the rest of the household were seated around the table enjoying the meal that had been prepared.

After breakfast, Sonny’s wife cleared the table and took over the rest of the kitchen and household duties while Minnie went outside to help Mr. Huntley and Sonny. During the week Momma Susie cleaned house for the white folks in the neighborhood, so on Saturdays, if she could help it, she didn’t touch anything, except for occasionally washing clothes with her homemade lye soap, washtub and scrub board. Some days while she was over at the garden fence hanging a load of clothes to dry, the family dog, Dasher, would grab the cake of soap from its resting place and eat it all up before the washing was completely done. Momma Susie would fuss, then just shrug her shoulders and put the washing off

until another day. Some Saturdays she would go from one neighbor’s house to the next to find out the latest neighborhood gossip while Minnie stayed home and worked hard. Today, however, she surprised Minnie by actually going outside and chopping a while in the garden.

There was a whole lot to do today—planting corn, working tobacco, milking the cows, feeding the hogs and chickens, ironing—and Minnie had a hand in it all. Sometimes she just worked too hard, but she was used to it. She couldn’t a time that she hadn’t worked hard. As she would say to Jacob some times when he came by, “I have come up in the hard way, worked hard. Wonder I can walk!” He would laugh and tell her that he would try to make life easier for her one day. Then Minnie would reply that she was so used to it that she didn’t know how not to work hard.

It was around 3 o’clock when she was finally able to sit down and catch her breath. She looked at the clock on the kitchen shelf as she entered the house. There was just enough time to start getting ready for Jacob. Minnie had just dropped down in a chair at the kitchen table when her momma came downstairs from a nap. As was customary, whenever Mrs. Huntley wanted a letter written she would rely on Minnie to write it for her. Today of all days, she wanted letters written to 2 of her sons who had moved away to the big city. She bit her tongue, but due to respect for her mother and the fact that she had never gone to school, she obediently went to the sideboard and found a writing pad. Her mother had somehow learned to read and write, but was a bit too lazy to perform the task of letter writing. This was one of the things Minnie hated doing for her mother. There were always complaints about the way it was written, about something being left out, or about it not being worded just right. But being an obedient daughter, Minnie found a pen in the kitchen cupboard and began to take dictation. By the time the letters were completed it was after 4 o’clock—barely enough time to prepare for her date!

Around that same time, the Taylor boys came riding up to the Burruss house— all three of them. On the horse with Winston sat Bertie Thomas and following

close behind was Tim Taylor with Margaret Holder’s arms wrapped around his waist. Annie Lou heard the horses approaching and ran eagerly to the door. Immediately, her eyes fastened on Margaret as she sat proudly behind Tim. Annie Lou could see that she was gloating. Her instinct told her to go over and snatch Margaret down, but she didn’t want to make a complete fool of herself. There had to be a better way.

Emma stepped to the door and stood behind her sister. She looked around for Detroit and spied his horse trotting along the path toward the house. To her delight, he was riding alone! Emma’s heart began to beat rapidly. Did this mean that she would be able to them on the hayride? She watched as Detroit came closer to the house, his horse ing the others. He dismounted the horse and walked toward the two sisters who now stood silently at the open door. The others still sat on the two horses. It didn’t take him long to reach the house. Smiling, Detroit began to speak, “I just ed Jacob out in the stable feeding old Will. He said that maybe I should ask one of you to go on the hayride tonight, being that I came by myself.”

Before Emma could say anything, Annie Lou spoke up. She was surprised at the words that came from her sister’s lips. “I’ll be glad to go,” she said. “Emma hates that kind of thing.” Annie Lou didn’t dare look around at her sister. She could feel the pain Emma was feeling without looking at her. She knew exactly how Emma felt about Detroit, but Annie Lou was the type of person who believed in “every girl for herself”. All she cared about was going on this hayride, by any means necessary.

The evening was still young by the time Jacob and the others reached Minnie’s house. The Taylor boys had left their horses behind. Jacob had hitched the two family mules to the hay wagon and everyone had positioned him or herself on the bales of hay. By the time Minnie climbed aboard, a cunning Annie Lou had managed to outwit Margaret Holder and wormed her way next to Tim Taylor on the ride. A disinterested Detroit Taylor was seated beside Margaret who was just as disinterested in him. Winston and Bertie Thomas seemed to be hitting it off

quite nicely. They had been locked in an embrace from the time they first left the Burruss farm. Minnie sat up front with Jacob who occasionally would bring the mules to a halt so that he could get a few smooches from her. On the last stop they made, Annie Lou and Tim dismounted the wagon and set off into the woods. It was close to an hour before the disheveled couple returned. No one on the wagon was oblivious as to what they had been up to. The sheepish look on their faces revealed everything.

The Proposal

Ms. Minnie had now returned to the room and had taken her rightful place in the chair beside her bed. I reminded her of where she had left off. She continued with her autobiography. I kept the recorder rolling, and with each subject she covered, I would formulate my own storyline:

I was about 17 or so when I married Jacob. I never will forget. He had wrote Momma a note. Back then you wrote notes if you wanted to. If you had the nerve, you could go and ask, you know. Some of them were too ‘shamed you know. Mr. Huntley was my stepfather at the time. Jacob asked Mr. Huntley.

I’ll never forget. Mattie Jones and I . . . she was Mattie Dennis. Married a Jones. I and her were just like that. (Holding up two fingers) I had other girlfriends, too . . . Minnie Cosby, Sally Johnson, Lacy Hampton and all them were girlfriends. Margaret Holder, Judith Holder, Bertie Thomas, Maudie and Claudie Carter. You know them. We were all friends. And Jacob used to sometimes say he used to see Minnie Cosby a little while. Margaret Holder liked him so much, but he never did go see Margaret, but she was crazy about him. And I used to say to Jacob after we’d gotten married. I’d say, “Jacob, what made you prefer me after all them other girls were so crazy about you? Why did you prefer me?” He’d say, “Because you didn’t make yourself a fool over me.”

Yeah, I’d play hard to get. He’d say, “The other girls, when I’d get to church sometimes on Sunday, ‘Jacob, such and such a girl and such and such a girl got to fighting ’bout you this week. Tore one another’s clothes off.’ Then he’d say he’d go to the mailbox, to the post office, to the store. They’d meet up sometimes, “Such and such a girl and such and such a girl got to fighting ’bout you this week. Almost tore one another’s clothes off.” He’d say, “I never did hear nothing like that about you.” I’d say, “Noooo, I ain’t fit about you nowhere!”

Days soon turned into weeks and weeks to months. Soon nearly two years had ed since the courtship between Jacob and Minnie had begun. Annie Lou was still slipping around with Tim Taylor and Emma was still longing for Detroit. Jacob was forced to give up his job delivering the mailbags throughout the countryside due to the death of his horse old Will. With no means of traveling now, he was spending his days on the farm with his father, Jonah.

One evening as he was out in the fields chopping potatoes, his thoughts flashed back to the white horse. He could tell for a few days that the horse was not feeling well. Old Will just wasn’t eating much at all. The morning before he died, he had gone to the stable as usual to saddle the horse for his daily postal run. Jacob could see that the horse wasn’t quite himself from the look in his old brown eyes that morning. But being inexperienced regarding the health of horses, he’d hoped the poor condition would soon . With Old Will being particularly slow that day, it had taken Jacob much longer to make his mail deliveries. The white clerks who had been very irritated at his lateness made several racial comments to him about it. Jacob had endured them with much restraint. It had been way past dark before he came back to the farm riding Will that evening. He dismounted the tired horse and grabbed a bale of hay and laid it in front of him hoping to perk him up. Instead, old Will folded his knees beneath him and lay down. Jacob patted the horse on his head. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel better, Will.” He walked over to the wall of the stable and pulled down a brown army blanket to cover the sick horse. Jacob slowly put the blanket across the horse and left the stable headed towards the little whitewashed house. By morning the white horse was dead.

Jacob’s mind snapped back to the present as he felt something tugging at his pants leg. It was his new companion, his brown dog Driver. He wasn’t sure how he came to own the dog. All he knew was that Driver seemed to come from out of the blue the day after Old Will had died. There was an immediate bond between the two of them. With the horse now gone, his long travel to see Minnie was mainly by foot. Each time old Driver would walk faithfully alongside him, making sure no harm would come to Jacob.

Jacob had worked particularly hard today so that by suppertime, he came dragging slowly into the house. He washed his hands and face in the basin that sat on the old worn kitchen counter and sat down to eat with the rest of the family. He’d been so busy that he’d scarcely had time to think of Minnie while he was out in the fields that day. She probably would be expecting to see him tonight, but he was so exhausted that after supper, he went into his room and quickly fell asleep on his little straw bed.

Saturday morning Jacob awoke feeling much better. He sprung out of bed with a new vigor and a big wide grin on his dark face. For a long time now he had considered proposing to Minnie. After nearly two long years of courtship, he figured it was about time. Tonight he would take that giant step. Minnie was approaching her 17th birthday, old enough to become his wife. Jacob was sure her parents would approve. They seemed to think very highly of him and had never seemed to mind when he called on Minnie every week. Minnie’s real father had died when she was a young child and her mother had remarried twice. According to Minnie, she didn’t her father, but she told Jacob often about the antics of her mother’s second husband, her stepfather Nat Simpkins. Minnie couldn’t stand him. He was a cruel man who didn’t care for children, especially stepchildren. Jacob chuckled as he started dressing for his morning chores. He picked his pants up from the floor and started to put them on. Thoughts of Nat came to his mind as he ed some of the things Minnie had told him about him. He could imagine her stepfather flying back down the steps that morning as her brother Arnold wielded the knife at him. That had tickled Minnie. It seemed like they didn’t have too much trouble from him after

that.

Her mother’s third husband, Simon Huntley, was entirely different. He was a rather soft spoken man and kind hearted according to Minnie. Jacob had observed the same thing. He was sure that he would get Mr. Huntley’s approval right away. After pulling his shirt over his head and tucking it neatly inside his overall pants, Jacob searched the room for a piece of paper to write on. He found an old tablet in a bureau drawer along with a pencil. Sitting on side of the bed, he began to write a simple note to Minnie’s momma.

“Mrs. Susie: I, Jacob Burruss, would like Minnie’s hand in marriage if I can get your approval. I promise to be a good husband and take care of her forever.”

Jacob read the note over and nodded approvingly. Seems good enough, he thought. He would give the note to Mrs. Susie this evening. Mr. Huntley, having such a mild mannerism, would be approachable, Jacob thought. He would get his verbal approval.

Jacob opened the bureau drawer and laid the message inside. He then put on his shoes and went into the kitchen to eat before he went out into the fields. When he stepped outside, his dog Driver was sitting nearby, waiting to accompany his master for the day.

Saturday chores went along swiftly. Jacob was through by 3 o’clock. He walked alongside his father Jonah as they took the familiar path back to the little whitewashed house. Driver followed close behind. Jacob let his father know about his plans to marry Minnie. Jonah nodded his approval. “Minnie’s got spunk” he said. “Strong Christian woman. Will make a good wife and good mother for your youngsters.” He patted Jacob on the back. “It’s about time, my boy!”

Once they’d reached the house, they told Mrs. Burruss the good news. Like her husband, she thought that Minnie would be well suited as Jacob’s wife. Being a strong woman herself, she could see a resemblance in Minnie. She also knew that her kindhearted son Jacob would make a good husband and father.

It was dusk that evening when Jacob knocked on the door of Minnie’s house. Minnie’s momma opened the door to a smiling Jacob. She bade him to come in. Jacob removed his wide-brimmed brown hat in politeness before entering the house. “Minnie will be down in a minute. Have a seat, Jacob.” Ms. Susie took the hat and placed it carefully on the hat rack beside the door.

Jacob walked across the room to an old wooden chair and sat down on the maroon velvet cushion that covered its seat. He nervously fumbled around in his pants pocket, first the left, then the right, until he felt the folded piece of paper on which he had written the note to Ms. Susie. Yes, he had ed to bring it. He wanted to wait a few minutes before giving it to her. Jacob looked around for Mr. Huntley. He spied the small-framed man in the kitchen seated at the table. Jacob got up from the chair and made his way into the next room. Mr. Huntley looked up and smiled at the sight of Jacob. He put down the pipe he had been smoking and the two of them exchanged greetings. Jacob stood pondering whether to ask Minnie’s stepfather for her hand now or to give Ms. Susie the note first. Before he could decide, he heard Minnie’s footsteps descending the stairs. Jacob turned on his heels and gazed upon a neatly dressed Minnie. She was wearing a light blue blouse and long black skirt. Her shoulder-length hair spread gently across the shoulders of the blouse. Jacob smiled iringly at Minnie as she crossed over into the kitchen. The two of them said hello, then Minnie proceeded to lead him outside and onto the front porch. Jacob stopped her before they stepped outside. “Minnie, I’ll be back to you in a few minutes,” he grinned. “I need to talk to your folks.”

She went outside and sat down on the porch swing that was gently swaying from the evening breeze. Jacob went into the parlor and gave Ms. Susie the

handwritten note on which was scribbled his proposal. Before she had time to read it, he returned to the kitchen to find Mr. Huntley still seated at the table smoking his pipe. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he stepped right up to him and nervously uttered, “Mr. Huntley, sir, if it’s okay with you, I’d like your permission to marry Minnie. I’d like Minnie’s hand in marriage.”

Minnie’s stepfather leaned back against the squeaky old chair and gazed at Jacob for a moment. Putting the pipe down on an ashtray, he slowly got up from the chair. Mr. Huntley extended his hand toward Jacob in a handshake. “Of course, of course, my boy. We’d be glad to have you in the family!”

By this time, Ms. Susie had read the note from Jacob and came walking into the room as fast as her huge legs could carry her. “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Minnie’s go get married!! Minnie’s go get married! Where is she?”

Feeling very much relieved, Jacob made a gesture toward the door with his hand.

Ms. Susie made her way over to the door, “Minnie! Minnie, gal! Gal, get in here! Get in here! Jacob’s done proposed! Jacob’s done proposed and we accepted!”

The three of them expected an overjoyed Minnie to come running into the house. They looked up. No Minnie. Ms. Susie hurried outside and onto the porch to find her daughter sitting on the swing with a frown on her face and tightened lips. “Gal, come on inside. We’ve got wedding plans to make!” Ms. Susie didn’t pay attention to the look on Minnie’s face. She was too busy sounding the alarm. She went back into the house and hollered up the stairs. “Sonny, Sonny, you and Mary get down here. Get down here. Glory be! Jacob’s done proposed to Minnie!” Down the stairs ran Sonny, Mary and the children to see what all the excitement was about. Everybody gathered around Jacob. Everybody liked Jacob. He was a fine young man.

The smile that was on Jacob’s face was beginning to turn into a frown. Where was Minnie sure ‘nuff? He shook himself loose from the well-wishers and walked out onto the porch and over toward Minnie. He sat down beside her on the swing. “What’s wrong, girl?”

Minnie looked Jacob in the eye. “I’m not sure if I want to get married right now. Come back tomorrow and I’ll let you know.” She loved Jacob and would surely marry him, but Minnie was strong willed and not the type of girl who would let others choose her destiny.

Jacob hung his head. Humiliated, he didn’t dare go back inside the house. Instead, he managed to whistle for his brown dog Driver who came running from around the house and up onto the porch. Driver could sense that his master was downhearted, and he licked the back of his hand hoping to cheer him up.

Jacob said goodbye to Minnie as he stepped away from the porch. He could still hear the others rejoicing inside.

Minnie watched Jacob’s tall dark frame slowly disappear into the evening shadows with Driver his dog following close behind. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for Jacob, though. He was such a good man. She had hurt him, but tomorrow would be different. Tomorrow she would say yes.

Tonight the walk through Pinky Harper’s old place was extra scary to Jacob. The tall white tombstones looked more ominous than ever. They seemed to cry out to him as if they could read his mind. He hastened his pace to get past them. Driver was right on his heels. Jacob didn’t slow down until he was far past the graveyard and close to home. He made his way swiftly through the woods,

knocking tree branch after tree branch out of his path. He could hear Driver panting close behind. When Jacob could see his house from a distance, he slowed his pace. Minnie had really disappointed him this evening. He was so sure that she would say yes that the thought never occurred to him to ask her first. It was customary to ask the parents; then, usually the girl was in full agreement. One thing he had forgotten, though—he was dealing with the boisterous Minnie Mae Johnson.

Meanwhile, back at the Huntley house, everyone was in an uproar. No one could believe that Minnie had turned down a proposal from one of the handsomest and most eligible young men of Beaver County. Ms. Susie almost lost her religion! Mr. Huntley just shook his head. “Nobody asked me! Nobody asked me!” Minnie yelled trying to calm everybody down. “Nobody’s gonna decide my fate but me and the good Lord!” And with those words, she slammed the door and went back out on the porch. Jacob’s abandoned hat that Ms. Susie had hung so neatly on the hat rack fell to the floor.

Minnie went back over to the porch swing. She had a lot of soul searching to do. There were a lot of questions going through her clouded mind. Could she be true to Jacob? Minnie’s motto had always been about “keeping two on the hill”. Those nights when Jacob hadn’t come, she would sometimes hook up with a friend of the Taylor boys or one of the other boys in the neighborhood. She didn’t believe a girl should throw herself at a man’s feet or make herself too available. “Keep them guessing,” she’d always say. “They will appreciate you more. And for Christ’s sake, don’t fight over them. They won’t appreciate you at all!”

By the time Jacob stepped into the doorway of the little whitewashed house he called home, he was exhausted. He went quietly into his bedroom, pulled off his clothes and got into bed. The idea of Minnie turning down his proposal almost made him chuckle. What in the world could he have been thinking? He’d been seeing her long enough to know that she couldn’t be second-guessed. By now he could almost read her mind. He knew in his heart that Minnie loved him, but was

not the type to it it. He also knew that as long as he was there for her, no one else could take her away from him. The Taylor boys were not as convinced as he, but he knew Minnie’s heart and he knew that once they were married, she was Christian enough to stay true to him.

So after lying there in bed thinking for a while, Jacob didn’t feel as heavy hearted as before. He had finally figured it out. He had done the right thing—just gone about it in the wrong way!

It was late that night before everyone settled down at the Huntley house. Once Minnie confessed that she would accept Jacob’s proposal the next day, things got calmer. Ms. Susie and Mr. Huntley regained their composure. Sonny, Mary and the others soon scurried off to bed. And religion was returned to the Huntley household.

Sure enough, Jacob came back the next evening after church service. This time he got down on one knee and proposed to Minnie. And she accepted.

The Wedding

Well, we got married August 4, 1908. It was at the old Mt. Calvary Cross Church. You don’t . Rev. William Hunt married us. Mattie Jones and Sally Johnson were my bride maids. You Mattie, Mattie Kay, one of my best girlfriends? I used to tell her . . . we didn’t keep nothing from each other. And Sally Johnson would say, “I hope Minnie gets Jacob.” Right now, if her mind ain’t too bad, she’d say, “I carried Jacob in the church.” That’s all she did. “I walked Jacob in the church.” Mattie walked with Frank Hendricks and Benny Wilson, the boys, you know. Mattie Jones and Sally Johnson was my girls.

And Lord, Lord! I’m telling you! If it hadn’t been for my brother Sonny’s wife, I don’t know what I would have did! I didn’t know nothing about getting ready. She labored. She labored so hard. She was so good. She was just so good. I had a beautiful white dress. She could sew nice. Sewed so nice. Sewed something like you all. She made my dress. Made my white dress. Made a pretty white dress for me and she made my second baby’s dress.

The nuptial of Minnie Johnson and Jacob Burruss was the talk of Beaver County. Everyone was busy planning for this wonderful event. The bridal gown had to be made. Bride maids had to be selected. The girls of Beaver County were fussing over who would have the honor. Some of them still secretly longed for Jacob. They envied Minnie, but she was so wrapped up in making plans that she hardly noticed their foolishness.

The wedding gown was entrusted in the hands of Sonny’s wife, Mary. Minnie and her momma had gone down to the neighborhood goods store and found a piece of white fabric to make the dress with. The morning of the wedding, the dress was completed—just in the nick of time!

A smiling Jacob arose early the morning of August 4th. He looked across the room at the old “tick tock” clock standing upright on top of the worn bureau that leaned against the wall, propped up in front by 2 small blocks of wood. The time was 6:30 am. He had a few chores to do before the wedding ceremony. By 2 o’clock today, he thought, Minnie would be his wife. Jacob grabbed his working clothes from the dilapidated wooden chair that sat beside his bed. He hurriedly dressed. Before leaving the room, he glanced around and spied his black wedding suit hanging on a nail in the wall. “Sharp as a tack,” he said out loud. “I’ll be the envy of Beaver County today!”

Jacob left the room and went into the kitchen. Mrs. Burruss was hard at work

preparing food to take to the wedding feast. Annie Lou and Emma were up early, too, fixing breakfast for the family. This would be Jacob’s last meal at home. After the wedding, he would be ing the Huntley household with Minnie.

The Home

After the wedding, we just went back home to Momma’s. Most people got married and went right on home from church. People used to gather over there. A crowd. Would ice cream and cake and things. Everybody would be laughing. The house was crowded. We stayed at Momma’s for 11 months after we were married. We were married in August and moved from home in July, the next year.

The wedding went off without a hitch. Jacob finally got his Minnie, but she had kept him gues until their wedding day with her on again off again attitude. After all the well wishes at the church, the wedding party and almost the entire neighborhood gathered at the large Huntley home. Annie Lou and Emma were there helping out in the kitchen serving the tasty wedding cake and homemade vanilla ice cream to the guests on hand. Mints and peanuts and fruit punch were also available for the gathering. Sonny’s wife was pitching in while Mrs. Huntley sat outside among the folks who had come to the house. The ritual of viewing the display of wedding gifts was going on inside. Sounds of “oohs” and “aahs” and “those are nice” were coming from the parlor.

Around 7 o’clock, the crowd started to thin out, everyone tired from the events of the day. Just a few of Minnie and Jacob’s close friends and relatives remained. The blissful couple was eager for the day to end so they could start their life together as husband and wife.

Annie Lou and Emma had served the very last piece of cake and had scraped the ice cream bucket down to the bottom, so they were just as tired as the others. Annie Lou untied the red and white plaid apron she was wearing and tossed it in a corner on an old wooden chair. “I’ll see you later,” she said to her sister, and disappeared into the front yard to Minnie in girlish conversation.

Emma stayed to help Sonny’s wife, Mary, put things away and clean up the kitchen. Mary, who had slaved since the time Minnie first started planning the wedding, was pooped. So after getting things cleaned up, she went straight upstairs to bed. Emma put the last dish away in the cupboard and reached behind herself to untie the worn out green apron that was tied around her waist. Unfortunately, she had tied it into a tight knot and was having trouble untying it. As she tugged at the apron string trying frantically to get the knot out, she felt a helping hand over hers and realized that she was not alone. “Let me help you with that,” the voice said. Startled, she looked around and saw the smiling face of Detroit Taylor.

Meanwhile, outside Annie Lou was busy giving Minnie advice about what to do on her honeymoon night. The new bride sat and listened attentively to the younger girl, not so much at the advice she was giving her, but in awe at the way she spoke with so much experience and authority. Jacob had long ago let on to Minnie his suspicions about his little sister and her sexual antics. Minnie was certain that the young man involved was Tim Taylor although Jacob had never come right out and said it. Jacob was generally one of those people who tried not to get involved in the affairs of others. He preferred to take a ive role, even when dealing with his sisters, Emma and Annie Lou.

“And I’ll tell you what will drive him wild,” Annie Lou continued. She leaned over and whispered something naughty into Minnie’s ear. With mouth wide open in disbelief, Minnie gasped for breath. She couldn’t believe the things that were coming from her new sister-in-law’s mouth. “If that doesn’t please him, then . . .”

Minnie didn’t want to hear anymore. She would deal with Jacob in her own way tonight. Not that she was that innocent herself, but to do the things that Annie Lou was suggesting was down right disgusting. Minnie got up from the wooden folding chair and went to look for Jacob. She spied him standing under the maple tree talking with some of the fellows who were still hanging around. Some of them had become intoxicated from too much wine this evening. As a matter of fact, there were a couple of them who had actually ed out on the ground. Minnie went over and scolded them all. She grabbed Jacob by the arm and led him towards the house. “Jacob, I sure hope you ain’t been drinking with them! You know I’m not gonna tolerate that!”

“Now, Minnie, I was just celebrating our wedding day. After today, I’ll never take another drink. I promise.” He stopped, bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Come on, girl. Let’s get our honeymoon started.”

About that time, the rest of the folks started leaving the Huntley house—some on foot, some by horse and buggy. Jonah Burruss had gone to get his mules and brand new wagon from in front of Mr. Huntley’s stable while Mrs. Burruss waited sleepily on the porch swing. She arose as soon as she heard her husband riding up from around the back of the house. Walking across the yard she beckoned for Annie Lou who was standing under one of the big oak trees in the front yard chatting with Minnie’s brother, Jack. “Come on! It’s time to leave now! Go in the house and get your sister!”

Hating to leave the discussion she was having with Jack, she obediently left him standing and went into the house to seek Emma.

Emma shuddered from the touch of Detroit’s hands against hers as he skillfully untied the green apron that clung to her tiny waist. Unlike her younger sister, she had never felt the touch of a male before. She could almost see why Annie Lou had continued her rendezvous to the stable night after night. Detroit gently reached around front and removed the apron from her waist. “Thank you,” she

managed to utter from her lips. “I guess my tying ain’t so good.”

He folded the apron and handed it to her. “Glad to help out.”

Emma took the apron and hung it neatly on a nail in the wall near the kitchen cupboard. She turned around and Detroit was still standing there, with that big wide grin on his face.

“Don’t be nervous,” he said. “You’ve known me ever since you were a little girl. Let’s go over to the parlor to see the wedding gifts.”

Emma nodded, puzzled by the fact that he wanted to hang around her. He took her by the hand and they both walked into the next room. She felt like she was 10 years old again, back when she’d first realized she had this huge crush on Detroit. If only he knew what was going on in her head. She’d ired him ever since he first started hanging around with her brother, Jacob. Now she was 16 and he was around 18 or 19. Her young heart was pounding wildly. Except for the time she had pushed him down for teasing her when she was younger, this was as close as she had ever been to him. She tried to calm down as they looked at first one gift, then another. Emma was seeing and not seeing.

“These are some mighty nice things that Minnie and Jacob got today,” he said.

“Huh?” she answered, surprised that a young man would even notice such things.

“I said that the happy couple got some nice wedding gifts today.”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, they did.”

“I hope to be married myself someday. How about you, Emma?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I might if the right fellow comes along.”

“Well, you should be thinking about it, Emma. You and Minnie are close in age.” He picked up one of the gifts and examined it closely. “I have no idea what this is. Some kind of kitchen gadget, I reckon.”

Emma wasn’t sure what it was either, but she’d seen one in the kitchen of the white women in the area when she’d been there cleaning or minding the children.

Looking around the room, Detroit spotted a faded old velvet sofa by the window. He motioned for Emma to come sit down with him. She did.

“You know what, Emma? You’re a lot different from Annie Lou.”

“How’s that?” she answered, seated on the opposite end of the sofa, not wanting to hear anything particularly terrible about her sister. She herself already knew the bad. She didn’t want to hear the worst.

Detroit detected that Emma would be on the defensive concerning Annie Lou, so he didn’t say anything unpleasant about her. “You’re just different, that’s all.” And he left it at that.

For lack of anything better to say, Emma blurted out, “You’re a lot different from Tim, too.”

“Yeah, I guess I am at that,” he chuckled. “At least I try to be.”

To people who knew the Taylor boys, Detroit always seemed the most polished and most refined of the three. Old folks around the countryside would call him “a good catch”. Most of them said that he would go far in life and make something of himself.

Changing the subject, he turned the conversation to Emma and her plans for the future, hoping that she would loosen up around him. He had never noticed her discomfort around him before. He guessed that he had taken her by surprise this evening when he had approached her from behind in the kitchen.

“I don’t know what I would like to do when I get older,” she said, getting the courage to look him in the eye. “I ain’t never gave it too much thought. I always just figured I’d stay around the country, doing housework for the white folks and babysitting their young ones. That’s about all that we can do around here to

make a living. There ain’t nothing else for our race of people, especially the women.”

“That’s defeat, girl. Not me. I don’t plan to stay around here for long. One of these days I’m going to the big city and make something of myself. I ain’t going to stay around here. No siree, not me.”

Emma could tell by the look on his face and the sound of his voice that he meant exactly what he was saying. She just hoped he wouldn’t be leaving any time soon.

“You know what, Emma?” he said changing the subject abruptly. “I think you’re kinda’ cute. You look especially nice this evening. That dress becomes you. Makes you look real lady-like.”

She looked down at the light blue dress she had on and blushed. Detroit thought she was all grown up looking. That made her feel sorta’ good and warm inside. If he never said anything kind to her again, that was enough for her. She felt like she had aged two or three years tonight.

For the next few moments the room became silent and Emma would have sworn that he was about to move closer and kiss her had it not been for the sound of Annie Lou’s voice calling out her name. She jumped up from the sofa as if she had been guilty of doing something terrible. “I’m in here!” she quickly yelled back to her sister. Emma hastily left the parlor to greet her sister. Detroit remained on the sofa.

Annie Lou appeared in the doorway from outside. “Where have you been? We’re

about to leave right now.” She peeped around and saw Detroit seated in the parlor. “Hi, Detroit,” she waved. “Tell that no good brother of yours that he didn’t have to ignore me today. Tell him it’s tit for tat. He’ll know what I mean.” She turned to her sister again. “Come on, Emma. Let’s go.”

The older girl followed obediently, never looking back.

By 10 o’clock things had completely quieted down and Jacob and Minnie went upstairs to their room. The room was very large and decorated with dark blue draperies, a large wooden bed, 2 dressers, a wardrobe, a nightstand and a few odds and ends. The honeymoon night was spent in wedded bliss. The new bride thought about some of the techniques that Annie Lou had told her about at the reception, but decided not to try them on her brand new husband—at least not tonight!

The sound of the mules and wagon on the way home was drowned out by thoughts of Detroit in Emma’s mind. She smiled. He thinks I’m cute. He thought I looked nice today. She kept playing the events of the evening over and over in her mind. He touched me. It felt nice. I’m crazy about him. I think I’m in love with him. I think he was going to kiss me. I think I would have let him. He looked nice today. I think he’s cute. He’s so smart. He’s so polite. I wish we could have talked longer. I’m being foolish. He doesn’t want me. I’m too inexperienced. I wouldn’t know what to do. I can’t be like Annie Lou. I’d have to be married first. He’s not going to be around here that long. I’m glad he’s not like Tim or Winston. I sure would like to go out with him, though. Maybe I can talk to Jacob about it. No, he wouldn’t understand. Minnie would. I don’t dare tell Annie Lou about this evening. She might take him for herself. She’s just so devilish. On the other hand, maybe I should tell her. She might be able to tell me how to hook him. No, better not tell her. Can’t guess her. I can’t believe he thinks I’m cute. He probably was just saying that to make me feel good. No, I think he meant it. He’d never said it before. Poppa would be mad if he knew what I was thinking. Momma would, too. What would my friends think? They’d be happy for me. I just don’t know what to do now. He thinks I’m cute. He

wanted to kiss me. Me? Doggone you, Annie Lou, for interrupting!

Over and over in her mind, Emma relived the events of the entire day and evening until she felt the wooden wagon come to a halt. They had arrived at home. The mother, worn out from the day’s activities, slowly descended the wagon, followed by the two daughters. After the three had cleared the wagon, Mr. Burruss jerked the reins on the mules in an effort to get them to continue the journey down the path and into the stable. Stubbornly they began to move on past the house and on to their final destination.

The Husband

Jacob was a good man. He knew not to mistreat me ’cause I made him promise me all that ’fore we was married. And he come near it, too. He come near it. I fussed ’til it won’t no sense in it. ‘Lil Bess used to say, “Yes, Lord, I used to call Momma Hank Crab and Min!” Jacob wouldn’t fuss. He used to go on in that old tobacco house down there. Had those tare poles up off the ground. Take tobacco sticks and make a thing and he’d lay up on them. He wouldn’t fuss or fight. That’s one thing he didn’t do. He promised me that. And he didn’t do it either. Yeah, he promised me that. I made him promise me all kinds of things. We got along very good. He was very good.

One fall evening about a year or so after their marriage, as Jacob lay outside by the old tobacco house trying to stay clear of Minnie’s fussing, he heard the sound of horses approaching. He swiftly got up and looked down the path to see Tim Taylor in his horse and buggy. Jacob and Minnie had left the Huntley house by now and were living on their own in a big old 2-story log house. Their first child, Simon, was inside the house with his mother, Minnie.

“Whoa!” he heard Tim yell to the horses. About once or twice a week, Tim would stop by to talk with Jacob and check on how his marriage was coming along. He himself was still single, but had been seeing a gal named Jane for several months. Annie Lou had ditched him soon after Jacob’s marriage and had refused to meet him for their weekly rendezvous. At first he was angry, but had later decided that it just wasn’t worth it.

Tim got out of the buggy and ed Jacob beside the tobacco house. He stood as he spoke with Jacob. He asked Jacob about the family, especially Annie Lou. He didn’t dare tell Jacob, but he’d heard that she was still up to her usual sexual antics; only he wasn’t sure with whom. There were so many rumors flying around the countryside about her that most folks couldn’t keep up with whether it was Tom, Dick or Harry. Deep down in his heart, Tim had actually cared about her at first, but then he’d found out that Annie Lou was sneaking around at night with other young men in the neighborhood. That’s when he decided that it was not a good idea to make any future plans with her, that she was a “marked” woman, or as the older women would say, “a rang tang”.

He sat with Jacob for a while, talking man to man about lots of things, until they heard the sound of Minnie’s voice yelling out Jacob’s name.

The Expectant Father

All of my children were born at home. I had 2 by myself. Won’t nobody there. Robert and Thaddius were born before the midwife got there.

It used to worry Jacob so when I was looking. He would always say, “Minnie, how you feel today? You feel alright now?” And Mr. Waller them were very nice. All those big fields used to be at the old place, but Mr. Waller used to say,

“Jacob, I’m gonna let you do work around where you can be near your home, so if Minnie needs you, you’ll be where she can get to you.” He was right good about that. He looked out for me just the same as Jacob, but Lord, I didn’t have no car or nothing. Jacob would get up one night, I’ll never forget it, got to cleaning the lantern and globe just as clean like it had never been used. Filled the lantern full of oil and said, “Don’t touch this lantern now ’cause I don’t know what time I’m gonna need this lantern.” Would put the oil in the lantern because he had to walk you know. Had to walk way up to Helen Simms, the midwife. Sometimes by the time the midwife got there, the baby would be born.

Jacob used to tell me, “Don’t you wait too long before you let me know now. Don’t you wait too long. You be here by yourself. And don’t trouble this lantern now. Let this lantern . . . let this oil stay in this lantern ’cause when I want it, I might have to go out here at night because I have to put oil in it and all like that and could have been gone.” So he put the oil in it and let it sit there.

Emma Burruss

The evening of Jacob’s and Minnie’s wedding was now but a faint memory in Emma’s mind because just as Detroit had told her that day, the country offered him nothing and seeking better opportunities, he had soon left Beaver County headed up north.

It was now 1911, almost 2 years later, and Emma was nearly 18 years old. She was still living at home with her father and mother. Annie Lou had gotten married right after her 16th birthday and had left home. Her sister, it seemed, had finally settled down to one man.

Emma had long ago finished schooling and since she had remained in the

country, there was nothing for her to do but continue to clean house for the white women in the area. When she wasn’t cleaning, she would be babysitting. If she wasn’t babysitting, she would be working around the house, helping her momma and poppa. Sometimes on the weekend, Annie Lou would bring her youngster over and she would keep the child while her sister went into town. Occasionally, just to get away from her mundane life, she would go to the stable, get one of her poppa’s horses and take off down the road to visit Minnie and Jacob.

It was a warm September evening in that same year that Emma was making one of her rounds to Jacob’s house by horseback. It was a particularly boring day. She had tried courting awhile, but that didn’t work out because none of the fellows in the community interested her. Minnie had said that any time she was ready, she’d fix her up with one of her “cousin’s brother’s friend’s nephews”. Sounded too risky for Emma, but boredom had overtaken her better judgment and she had changed her mind. So today, she would tell Minnie that she was ready to meet someone, anyone who could take her away from all of this.

Rounding the bend in the dusty road, she could see the large log house in full view. She looked down the path to the house and saw Jacob outside with their oldest child Simon. He was carrying him in his arms. Little Thaddius was inside the house with his momma, Minnie.

When Emma got close enough to the house, she rode the horse over to the stable and tied him down. She waved to Jacob, and then made her way into the house to see Minnie, who was in the kitchen washing dishes. The two women chatted for a while about first one thing then another until the subject got around to courting.

“So you finally decided to come to your senses and take my advice?” Minnie asked. “You know there are some decent men here in Beaver County. I think it’s about time for you to settle down with one of ’em. I know that once you had a girlish thing for one of them Taylor boys, but he’s in the big city now. He’s been

gone a long time. He ain’t got time for no country gal. You need to get on with your life, Emma.”

“You’re right, Minnie. But I ain’t thought about Detroit Taylor for a long time. I used to think about how he left here without even saying goodbye to us.”

“I’m sure glad to hear you say that, child. So you just leave it to me, I’ll find you the perfect suitor. There’s a new fellow at church I want you to meet. I’ll get Jacob to introduce you to him tomorrow.”

The next morning Emma got up really early. She fixed breakfast for the family and after she had finished washing the dishes, she went into her bedroom to get ready for church. She wasn’t particularly interested in meeting whoever it was that Minnie had picked out for her. After all, she figured she knew just about everyone at the church and couldn’t think of anyone who would suit her.

That morning church service went as usual with everyone’s attention focused on the amen corner and Ms. Susie who stole the show as always. Emma scanned the crowd of male worshippers. She didn’t see anyone that she didn’t already know. Just as well, because by now she had changed her mind.

After church was over Minnie found Emma in the crowd outside. Her two children were with her. It seemed that the fellow hadn’t shown up today. Emma was relieved. “Maybe next time,” Minnie said. “If we don’t get you married off soon, you’ll become an old maid before you know it.” Having said that, Minnie left her to go look for Jacob, the older child tagging along, the baby Thaddius in her arms.

Emma looked around the churchyard for her parents because she was ready to go home. Mrs. Burruss, with her hands on her hips, was standing way across the yard engaged in the weekly gossip. She started out toward her mother but her attention, just as everyone else’s, was drawn toward the fancy black carriage that had just pulled up in front of the church. All eyes were on the two men who emerged from the vehicle. What made it all the more exciting to everyone, especially Emma, was that they recognized one of the men as Detroit Taylor. She looked at him and realized that she still loved him. His eyes searched among the gathering of church folks until they came to rest on Emma. Detroit was wearing a dark blue suit and a Stetson hat to match. He looked good to her. She froze in her tracks as she watched him come towards her. She wasn’t sure just what to do —run to him or run away from him.

“Well, if it ain’t Emma Burruss!” he exclaimed upon reaching her. “How in the world have you been?” He extended his arms and gave her a great big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You look just like you did when I left here. Only prettier.”

Emma blushed. She felt good for two reasons—one because she liked the feel of his strong arms around her and the other because without looking around, she knew that all the other young females were watching in envy. Heck, if truth be told, so were the old females. She was actually speechless. She didn’t know what to say to him because she had tried so hard to forget him and the evening of Jacob’s wedding.

He kept on talking. “I came down from Washington to visit for a week or two. We just got here today.” He pointed towards the horse-driven carriage. “Another fellow rode down with me on the train. He has some kin folks down in Stonehenge that he’s going to visit.” He paused. “You know what, Emma? I would like to see you before I go back. That is, if you haven’t gotten married or something like that.”

Detroit wanted to see her! Of course he could! “No, no, I’ve never married,” she

managed to blurt out. “I’d like to see you again, too.”

“Then I’ll be by your house one evening, Emma. I’m going to Stonehenge today, but I’ll be back Tuesday. See you then.” He turned to go. “Now let me find Jacob and Minnie before they leave.”

Sure enough just as Detroit had said he would, on Tuesday Emma looked out the front window of her house and saw a big black carriage coming down the dusty road. She had been on pins and needles all day long waiting for the chance to see him again. Was she being foolish in thinking that the two of them could still get together after all this time? Surely he must have found him one of those fast city gals by now. There was nothing that she could offer him that he hadn’t already had.

When the long awaited knock sounded at the front door, instead of rushing to open it, Emma waited patiently in her bedroom. She could hear her mother speaking to Detroit at the door. She was bombarding him with all sorts of questions. In a few minutes, Mrs. Burruss called out Emma’s name. Emma tried to appear graceful as she entered the front room and saw Detroit standing in the doorway. Her mother’s intuition sensed the feelings that her daughter still had for this man so she soon left the room and returned to the kitchen.

Emma invited him in and they both sat down—Detroit sat on the green velvet sofa while Emma sat quietly facing him in a nearby armchair. She waited for him to start talking and explaining why nearly two years ago he had left without a word and why for two years she had not seen nor heard from him. But this was her heart speaking. Her head said that he didn’t owe her anything.

Sensing what was going through her mind, Detroit spoke calmly. “I guess you’re wondering why I just up and left here. Well, an opportunity came my way that I

couldn’t turn down. Like I told you that evening of Jacob and Minnie’s wedding, Emma, there is nothing around these parts for a colored man who wants to get ahead. I’ve never been one to settle. My daddy’s uncle knew of a fellow up in DC who was looking for someone to work as an apprentice in his upholstery shop. He knew that I had a lot of potential so he sent for me to come to DC so I could meet with this fellow. So I went. I got me a good education up North and learned a lot just working under Mr. Brown. I’m still learning, Emma, and one day I will open my own shop. I don’t expect you to understand what I’m talking about, but I’ve always wanted more out of life than most of the folks here.”

“Are you going back to stay and never coming back here to live again?” Emma found herself asking. She knew she would miss him, but she wanted him to be the best that he could be. If that meant losing him again, then so be it.

“I guess so, Emma. I have a good life up North. It’s like a whole new world. You can learn so much up there. There’s nothing here for me.” After saying that, he saw a sad look come over her face. “I didn’t mean anything personal by that, Emma. You’re a great gal. You’re quiet. You’re good and decent. I like that.”

“Tell me a little about what it’s like up there in Washington,” she inquired with excitement in her voice. “Is it true that there are some rich colored folks up North?”

“Well, Emma, up North, there are some Negroes who can afford to have a lot of nice things, even automobiles. They just pay for them the best way they can. Mr. Brown has one of them. I’m a hard worker, Emma, and if I work hard enough, I’ll be able to get one for myself someday.”

“I think you deserve one, too. You’ve always had a lot of ambition. I guess that’s why I’ve always ired you, Detroit. I guess that’s why I’ve always ired

you,” she repeated opening her heart to him.

Detroit got up from the sofa and went to the window to look out. Turning back toward Emma, he asked if she wanted to go for a ride in the carriage with him. He would fill her in on his life up North as they rode around Beaver County. Emma accepted the offer and in a few minutes, they were riding away from the Burruss house.

Emma listened to Detroit talk excitedly about life up North while they rode around that evening. He spoke mainly about his job, his boss and the many friends he’d met over the last two years. He talked about taking a train to New York and Philadelphia with Mr. Brown. He couldn’t get over the bright lights of New York City and all the excitement there. And though he never mentioned it, she was sure that there had been numerous women in his life while he’d been away. But it hadn’t occurred to her that perhaps he could be married by now. She put the thought right out of her mind because as long as she didn’t know it, she still had hopes of being with him.

It was 9 o’clock that night by the time they arrived back at the Burruss house. Emma hastily said goodnight to Detroit and went directly inside the house. It just wasn’t ladylike to be coming home at such a late hour as this. Once inside, she heard the carriage leaving the yard. She peeped out the window and watched until Detroit was out of sight. Then Emma went into her lonely bedroom and got undressed for bed. Hours later she was still awake going over the events of the evening. She kept wondering if she was being foolish and setting herself up for heartbreak. In his presence, though, she felt so special. He was always so polite, sometimes too polite, she pouted. Maybe if she were a little more like Annie Lou, he would make some type of move on her. But they’d gone through the entire evening with not so much as a kiss. This made her think even more so that perhaps there was a Mrs. Taylor somewhere up north. She just had to find out for herself.

The next morning, Emma arose early. Wednesday was the day for working at Mrs. Matilda’s house and minding her spoiled youngsters. Of all the white folks in the neighborhood, she hated working for Mrs. Matilda most. Not so much that she was hard to work for, it was just those four bad boys that she had. And being a colored woman, she had to hold her tongue and let the boys have their way. Sometimes she would swear that they dirtied up the house on purpose. The older ones were 9 and 10 years old and just at the age when they’d learn the difference between black and white. They’d called her “nigger” more times than she’d care to . Even the youngest ones were beginning to repeat what the older ones were saying. Mrs. Matilda and her husband pretended not to hear them or they just didn’t care. If Emma could’ve had her way, she would have slapped the living daylights out of them. But today, she tried not to let it get the best of her. She had new hopes. She envisioned the bright lights of New York City and the streets of Washington, DC that Detroit had been so excited about. Maybe it was time for her, too, to leave the dull and mundane country life and go up north to better opportunities.

She worked hard that day and at the end of the day, she received twenty-five cents for her labor, a dozen of eggs and a block of cheese. And as she walked home that evening, she looked at the earnings in her hands and said to herself, “Now I know what Detroit is talking about. I can do better than this.”

The Good Father

I had been sitting there with Ms. Minnie for quite some time now. I had heard from my mother that Ms. Minnie’s husband Jacob had been a good father to his children. I asked her to tell me something about how he treated the children. She obliged.

Lord, don’t talk about the children. He was fool about the last one of them. Simon was as big as that child there. He’d catch him and pull him down in his

lap. And Nellie and Little Bess and Baby June. He was crazy about the girls as well as he was the boys look like to me. But he wasn’t as near crazy about the boys, though. Oh, he was fool about the children. Nellie was “Porky”. Little Bess was “Moola”. Connie was “Queenie”. He’d give them all nicknames. The girls.

Jacob was a good man. I’ll tell you now. Jacob was a good man. And these here children . . . that gal right there (pointing to Nellie), when they’d see Poppa coming . . . Lord . . . I don’t know who it was come one day and ’twas a man sitting in the house talking and Nellie was a little thing like this you know. And they were sitting down talking and I’ll never forget it. I don’t know who it was— somebody selling or something. She went on around there where they was and crawled up in Jacob’s lap and stretched out and went to sleep. Jacob ain’t never stopped laughing and talking. I’ll never forget it if ’twas today. Whoever it was said, “Jacob, you must be right good to these children.” Jacob said, “Yeah, I’m good to these old boogers” or something he called them. He said, “I’ll tell you why I said that. Because that child come around there and moved your hand back and got up in your lap and gone to sleep. Plenty of children are afraid to come anywhere near their daddy.” And it certainly is true.

Jacob came up on the mules going to work. “Lord, here comes Poppa, here comes Poppa.” All the mules took and hooked up on the thing . . . and run and meet him and then he’d reach down and pull them up on the mule with him. Nellie done that thing more than once. Jacob had two mules, Billy and Blacky. He’d put Nellie up on one mule and Little Bess behind her and they’d be sitting up there scared to death. They’d be just shaking. Lord, when they’d see their poppa coming . . . Lord, here comes Poppa, here comes Poppa. Run to meet him, run to meet him and he’d stop and pull them up on there with him, up on top the horses.

Yes, he loved children, children, children. He certainly did. He certainly did.

Emma and Detroit

A few days had ed by and Emma had not seen nor heard from Detroit. It was soon Sunday again and as usual, on Sundays when there was no regular church service Emma would take her father’s mules and wagon and head to Sunday school. This morning, though, when she stepped out of the house, she was startled to see a grinning Detroit and his horse-driven carriage parked outside waiting for her. He hollered to her, “Come, on, Emma, you’re riding with me today!”

Her heart skipped a beat as she walked towards the black carriage. She couldn’t believe he’d come for her. She was glad he hadn’t gone back to Washington yet. There was still time for her to ask him a few questions—the big question about a wife, but she’d wait until later. No need spoiling her perfect day.

After Sunday school was over, all the foolish young girls flirted with Detroit, asking him first one question, then another. They completely ignored Emma. She thought they sounded and acted ridiculous. He, however, seemed to enjoy the attention—but what man wouldn’t? This was something new to them all. No one in Beaver County had ever lived up in DC before. So this was a special thrill, a time for them all to ask questions, even the young men. Emma felt that they (the men) were actually interested in learning about the big city, but the females for the most part were merely flirting.

This scene went on for a long time until Detroit told them he had to leave. In a few minutes they were able to pull away from the church grounds headed to the Taylor house which was located quite a distance from the Burrusses. Detroit’s momma was preparing a special dinner for him since this was to be his last week before heading back up north. She knew it would be a long time before her son would be back for another visit. He invited Emma to him.

Mrs. Taylor met them at the kitchen door. She spoke cheerfully as she hugged Emma at the entrance. “Hello, Emma, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you. The last time I saw you it was when your brother Jacob got married. Come on in and have a seat. Dinner’s almost ready.”

Emma stepped inside and followed Mrs. Taylor into the parlor. Winston and Tim were already there with their wives and children. They greeted her as she entered the room. After introductions were made and everyone had quieted down, the grownups were called into the large kitchen to eat. Emma could smell the aroma of ham and homemade rolls. There were a big pot of greens on the stove and sweet potatoes and corn from the Taylor’s garden. Everyone sat down at the big wooden table to eat. After a brief prayer of thanksgiving, the feasting began. Emma felt very relaxed around the table with the Taylor clan and they seemed comfortable around her. Even the wives seemed to take a liking to her.

Later after the kitchen had been cleaned and everyone had retired to the parlor, Emma learned more about Tim and Winston’s wives. It seemed they were both from Stonehenge and had met Tim and Winston during a visit to Beaver County a year or so earlier. The two Taylor boys were so taken by the women that they had instantly proposed and had been happily married ever since. In search of a better and more convenient life, both of them had moved to Stonehenge with their wives. It wasn’t long before their children were born. Tim was the father of a boy and Winston and his wife had been blessed with a set of twin girls. Emma was happy for them all, especially for Tim, because it had finally put to rest any fears and suspicions she may have had of her sister Annie Lou ruining her marriage by running around with him.

It was around 8 o’clock that evening when Emma finally left the Taylor house. Detroit didn’t have much to say on the ride back to her house. She wondered what was on his mind—probably dreading the long trip back to Washington the next morning. Or on the other hand, looking forward to it so he could reunite with “the wife” he had left behind. In a few minutes they were pulling into the

driveway of the Burruss house. Detroit brought the carriage to a halt, then, in a surprising move, he reached across the seat and pulled Emma toward him hungrily kissing her on the mouth as he did so. She responded just as ionately and wrapped her arms about him getting as close to him as their bodies would allow. It was a long warm kiss. When it ended, Emma hated to let go. Just as surprising to her were his words that followed. “I love you, Emma. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I left Beaver County. Marry me and let’s start a family.” He kissed her again. “I want to live my life with you.”

Then going against Minnie Mae Burruss’ philosophy, Emma replied with tears of joy, “I love you, too, Detroit. I’ve always loved you. And I can’t bear the thoughts of you going back and leaving me again. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

So, Detroit delayed his trip back to Washington for a few days and by the end of the week, he had married Emma and they were on the road to a new life together.

The Great Depression

Over the years, I had heard Ms. Minnie speak of the Great Depression and how she and her family had lived through it. Today I asked her to go into more detail about the Depression. I was anxious to know.

I done forgot what year it was, but I know it. That year we had to have stamps for everything. If you get yourself a pair of shoes, you had to go . . . I had to go from my house down to Bethel Church to the school. Walked down there. I reckon I walked down there. I know I got Ms. Lucy Jenson to bring me back as far as Mrs. Sally Waller’s. They had the thing so that everybody had to go down and what you had to do was get them books. Get the little books. And them books were full of stamps to get your shoes, get your sugar, get your lard, get your

meat. To get everything you had to buy to eat you had to have stamps for and they’d tear them little stamps out and carry them to the store. So often I had to send to the store. Send the children to the store right there at Freddie McDemchek’s. And I used to say, “Don’t go and forget that book! Don’t go and forget that stamp book!” They’d say, “Oh, we’ll get it when we get ready to go!” And I’d say, “Lord, have mercy, them children are out there at that store and here’s the book lying here on the table again!”

The stamps had on there “5 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of sugar and so on” . . . if you get 2 pounds of sugar, you’d tear that stamp off. I don’t know what they did with them.

Everybody had a book like that, everybody, even to a baby six months old. I can’t tell of getting but one book, I reckon. It was a good size book of stamps. There were right many stamps in it. And you had to pay for that stuff. You had to pay for that stuff. They wouldn’t let you have but 2 pounds of sugar, didn’t matter how much money you had or how much you needed it. Jacob used to work it this way. Jacob used to go to the store. Carried me. He used to say to me, “Give me that book, Minnie.” I’d give him the book and he’d say when he was getting stuff, “Now, get 2 pounds of sugar.” That’s all he could get. He’d go round the store, go round the store, go back in there again, tear off another stamp and say, “Give me 2 pounds of sugar.” I had more sugar when you couldn’t get sugar. Jacob used to laugh and say, “Minnie had more sugar here when she couldn’t get sugar than she had when she could get sugar!”

Everybody in the family had a book. Every child had their name on a book. A baby drinking a bottle had to have a stamp. If you were a small family and your stamps ran out, then there! You were just lost. You even had to get stamps to get you a pair of shoes.

The Depression lasted a right good little while. I reckon it lasted a year, no more than a year. Roosevelt was the President during the Depression. At least I think

so. But, yes, Lord, child. That was a time! I can George Whitmore. He had all them girls out yonder, you know. And won’t nobody home but Mildred and George, you know. And Mildred had a book and George had a book. And Zion meeting was coming off. And they wanted sugar, a lot more sugar, you know, to carry dinner to church. The children and all them were coming. So, George Whitmore told Jacob. I’ll never forget it. Jacob said he was out there at the store. Said, “Jacob, Mildred and I were sitting down talking the other day.” Said, “I wonder who could we buy some stamps from to get some sugar from.” They needed right much sugar when the Zion meeting come off. Said, “We thought about you all.” So one of them said, “I know where you could get some stamps from: Jacob and Minnie, because they’ve got a lot of children. They’ve got a lot of stamps, I know.” So I asked Jacob and Jacob carried them some stamps. They were the proudest things. Said, “Jacob, we want you to come to the table and eat dinner with us Sunday.”

It paid then to have a lot of children. When you had a lot of children, you got a lot of stamps, you know.

If you just had 2 or 3 in your family, that’s all you were getting. Now if you use all those stamps, you have to do without stamps or get some from somebody. I’ll never forget Bobby Lacy. He was a white boy who lived back on the other side of Eddie Martin them. He come to the house about two different times. We had to let him have stamps. And he needed a pair shoes, needed a pair shoes. Asked us to let him have stamps. We’d give them to him. Knew the boy well. Nice little fellow. I think we give him the stamps out the book. Give him the stamps to get a pair shoes.

Annie Lou

Marriage had been quite a bore for Annie Lou, but somehow she had managed to stay in the relationship with her husband, Phillip, until the children had grown

up. She looked at the small black and white wedding photograph of the two of them that had fallen from an old album. Her mind slipped back to the past as she held the photo in her right hand. Today would have been their 25th wedding anniversary and as she sat on the side of her bed reminiscing she could not believe that the marriage had lasted for nearly twenty years. She studied the photo. He was not a bad looking man. And to this day she was still a beautiful fair skinned woman, she boasted. There had been times when she’d wanted to send him on his way sooner so she could openly experience the excitement her body longed for in other men. She reasoned that she must have stayed there for the sake of their 5 children.

Phillip was a fairly decent man, a bit harsh at times, but she had never loved him the way he had expected her to. She had not been true in her marriage to Phillip. There had been men on the side for several years. Annie Lou was sure that her husband had suspected that something was going on because sometimes he would snap at her and get mad at the simplest of things. But, oddly enough, he had loved her and he had been willing to put up with her meanderings just to keep her there.

There had been many times over the years that she had thought about Tim Taylor and their youthful lust filled history. She had occasionally run into him in her earlier years of marriage, whenever he’d visited Beaver County, but his wife was always there at his side, clinging like a vine. A knowing glance his way was all she could get away with. Besides that, she had heard through the grapevine that Tim was actually in love with his wife and in all the years of marriage had never cheated on her. Annie Lou, no matter what people thought or said about her, had enough respect for their relationship not to interfere.

She had left Beaver County some years ago and was now living in Stonehenge. Her mind went back to how she had ended up in Stonehenge. Phillip had come home beaming one Friday evening. It was around 1925. “I’ve got a surprise for you, for all of y’all,” Phillip said. He had gathered Annie Lou and the children in the parlor. “We’re leaving Beaver County and moving to Stonehenge! There I

can find a better job and we can have a little more. We can get a better house. All y’all can get the feel for being in the city. Things are a lot more convenient there.” He looked at his wife. “What do you think?”

Annie Lou had been beside herself. She was happy that she would finally be leaving Beaver County and all the memories behind. Now she could unleash the pent up frustrations of living in the country. She could now spread her wings, be free to roam. She couldn’t wait to get a taste of freedom. Annie Lou was so happy that she grabbed her husband and kissed him. “When can we leave?” She could vividly how she had laughed and danced around the room.

Phillip hadn’t exactly expected this reaction from his wife, but he was glad she was happy, and actually he was relieved. He’d thought he had more persuading to do since she’d lived in Beaver County all her life. He’d planned to remind her of how Stonehenge was only 40 miles away and that she could come back to visit Beaver County any time. But she was so pleased with his decision to move, that he didn’t have to convince her to go. “Well, as soon as I can get my connections straight,” he finally answered. “You and the children can start packing next week. We’ll be out of here in a few weeks.”

So three weeks later, they had packed up and left Beaver County. Phillip had found a two-story house over in the East End of the city, close to the railroad tracks. The building belonged to an elderly white couple that was in the business of renting to Negro newcomers to town. They themselves lived in the prestigious North side. Annie Lou and Phillip leased the upstairs unit for $14.00 a month.

It didn’t take long for Annie Lou to become accustomed to her new surroundings. Once she’d gotten the children settled in a nearby school, she had her days free to do whatever she could get away with. Phillip had always managed to earn enough money to them, sometimes barely getting by, but in the 15 years of marriage, she had never worked outside the home.

About a month or so had ed before Annie Lou started venturing out and about the community. On one such day she had gone to a nearby grocery store trying to find something to buy for supper. Across the aisle near the vegetable stand, she had spotted a very attractive man. He looked familiar to her. She walked over to get a better look at the small-framed tan skinned man. He looked to be 35 or 40 years old at least. Boldly, she tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me, sir, but don’t I know you from somewhere? You sure do look familiar.”

The man turned around and stared at Annie Lou. He looked her up and down and then he grinned. The longer he looked at her the more familiar her face became. “Didn’t you used to live up in the country?” he asked.

“I sure did,” she answered. “In Beaver County as a matter of fact.”

“I’ll be doggone!” he had exclaimed. “Ain’t you Jacob’s sister Annie Lou?”

“Yeah! And now I know who you are! You’re Minnie’s brother, Jack! I ain’t seen you since my brother married your sister!” The two of them grabbed each other affectionately. It seemed to Annie Lou that the embrace had lasted rather long.

Finally letting go, he had asked her a few questions about the family. She gave him a briefing on things that had happened during the past 15 years or so. It seemed that Jack himself had left Beaver County shortly after Jacob and Minnie’s wedding and had seldom gone back for visits. He was also married now and to a quiet shy city girl he’d met as soon as he’d moved to Stonehenge. He, too, had children, and just like Annie Lou, was in a loveless marriage. The two of them had exchanged addresses before departing the store and promised to visit each other sometime in the future.

By the time Annie Lou had walked the 4 blocks back home, the children had arrived from school and they were waiting for her. She looked at her wristwatch and it was 5 o’clock. She had no idea she had been talking to Jack that long— over 2 hours. She’d almost forgotten what she went to the store for. She hurried into the kitchen, sat down her bag of groceries and began rattling pots and pans. In a few minutes she had calmed down. No need to rush, she reasoned. Phillip wouldn’t be home until 7 o’clock. She heated up a heavy cast iron frying pan and put in a spoonful of lard. Tonight they’d have slabs of bacon and fried potatoes. She’d also picked up some cans of snap beans to go along with the meal.

After supper had started cooking, Annie Lou reached into her dress pocket and pulled out the address that Jack had given her. She wondered where 1st Street was located—probably not too far away. She would ask her husband when he got home. He would know. Phillip had learned his way around Stonehenge pretty well and he was good with directions. She’d give him the address and urge him to take the family for a visit to Jack Johnson’s house. Just the thought of Jack made Annie Lou’s body get a familiar twinge. The more she thought about him, it began to dawn on her that she’d had a pretty steamy conversation going on with him the evening of Jacob’s wedding—out by the fence. In fact, she ed that her mother had interrupted them. It was all coming back to her now. No wonder Jack’s embrace had been so long today. She had felt his hand wander as he hugged her. At the time, she thought she had imagined it. Apparently, he had not forgotten that evening, either. So no matter how much her head tried to persuade her not to think about him, her body said otherwise, and she knew that sooner or later she would end up in bed with Jack.

The weekend came swiftly and sure enough Annie Lou, Phillip and the children had gone to visit Jack and his family. Surprisingly and to Annie Lou’s delight, 1st Street was just a 25-minute walk from the East End of town. After they had returned home that night, she retraced the path over and over in her mind being certain to every step of the way.

Annie Lou got up from the side of the bed where she’d been seated and moved around the room. Everything that had happened seemed like such a long time ago. She placed the wedding photo back inside the shabby old album and walked over to the bureau to get some clothing out to put on for the day. Since her separation from Phillip, she was on her own now and had to work just about every evening as a cook at the black hotel up the street. All the children were much older now and were scattered around town. She was living alone and barely getting by. Times were tough since the Depression. Occasionally she would get some money from her many suitors. She called them loans; they referred to them as payments. Annie Lou was living on the top floor of a twostory building on 2nd Street. She walked over to the window and looked down on the neighbors’ dingy clothes swaying back and forth as they hung on the lines in the alley below. She spied three drunks leaning against an adjacent building ing a bottle of whiskey from one to the other, trying to conceal it in a brown paper bag. Annie Lou thought it was disgusting.

Her thoughts returned to Phillip and their former marriage. How had it all ended? It was all because of Jack. Just as she had predicted, it didn’t take long for her to end up in bed with him—maybe a month at the most. It had begun on a day when she was feeling particularly frisky and her husband was working and the children were in school. She had ventured out for the day. The family was still living in the East End of Stonehenge. Annie Lou had ed the path that they had taken before when they’d gone to 1st Street. She had learned from conversing with Jack’s wife Vivian that she worked during the day cleaning houses over on the north side of town. She knew also that he worked at night and would most likely be home during the day. So arriving at the house, she had rung the doorbell and Jack had come to the door to greet her. He pulled her inside and that had been the beginning.

After that encounter, once or twice a week, she’d get up in the morning, fix breakfast for her husband and children and send them on their way. Within an hour, she would be knocking on the door at 1st Street. It seemed that Jack was insatiable. They’d lie in bed for hours uninterrupted until it was time for school

to let out. Then Annie Lou would gather up her clothing from the wooden bedroom floor and quietly leave by the back door.

Sometimes, though, stuff can get so good to you that you end up doing foolish things. Like old folks used to say, “You gotta know when to get off the bus!” To this day, Annie Lou couldn’t understand for the life of her, why they decided to run away together. The two of them had conjured up the plan. Things were getting so hot and heavy between them that the folks up and down 1st Street were gossiping left and right. If Jack’s wife was suspicious of anything, she didn’t let on to him. She was the quiet sort, one who wouldn’t cause a disturbance about it or even let on that she was aware of the goings on.

Anyway, the two of them met up one night around midnight. Annie Lou had sneaked out of the bed while Phillip was in a deep sleep. Jack had bought a used automobile from his employer and was waiting outside for her. Annie Lou checked on the children before leaving, and then quietly tipped down the steps and out the front door.

Two weeks had ed by before they returned to Stonehenge. By that time the news had reached Beaver County and had spread up and down 1st Street that Annie Lou and Jack had run off up north somewhere. All the folks who knew them were in an uproar. Minnie and Jacob couldn’t get over it. Phillip was furious! The children hadn’t stopped crying since the day she left. Jack’s wife hung her head in shame whenever she had to leave the house. The whole thing had brought nothing but shame and disgrace to the two families.

But several years had ed by since then. Phillip was long gone. Her marriage had ended shortly after her rendezvous with Jack. Even with the pain he had put her through, Jack’s wife Vivian had decided to stay with him. So Annie Lou had soon ended the affair and had avoided seeing him at all.

She moved away from the window and went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. It was getting late in the morning. She checked the time. Ten o’clock already. She had to be at work by four. Annie Lou went to the icebox and took out two eggs and a slab of bacon to eat. While she waited for the coffee to get hot on the stove and the eggs to boil and bacon to fry, she heard heavy footsteps coming up the steps. She got up from the kitchen chair and went to the door when the knock came. Opening the door, she was surprised to see Emma’s son Joe standing there.

She hugged him as he walked through the door. Joe was there to borrow some money. Annie Lou was barely making it herself, but she managed to find a couple of dollars that she had stashed away under her mattress and gave it to him. He kissed her on the cheek and thanked her, smiling as he turned and made his way back down the steps.

Annie Lou had always tried to do whatever she could for Emma’s three children. Just seeing Joe standing there when she opened the door brought back a lot of painful memories of her sister. She went back to the kitchen and turned the coffee pot off. The bacon and eggs were now done. Annie Lou put the food on her plate and sat down to eat, but right now, she didn’t feel too much like eating.

Over the years, she had tried not to think about Emma, but now the unhappy memories were all coming back. Annie Lou thought about how happy her sister had been after Detroit’s proposal. And although the planning was brief, the wedding turned out rather nicely. Jacob and Minnie had been elated when they got the news that Emma was finally marrying the man of her dreams. The couple had gone to the preacher’s house on Friday morning to get hitched and a reception was held on Saturday. By Monday morning, Emma and Detroit Taylor were headed up north on the train.

Living in Washington was harder for Detroit than he thought it would be, with a wife to feed and all. Before, all he had to worry about was feeding himself. Now

he had Emma and things were tough. Then four months into the marriage, Emma announced to him that she was in a family way and they would be having their first child in a few more months. As happy as he was about the baby, Detroit felt that they would not be able to survive up north with a family to feed and no one around to help out. Emma had not been able to find suitable work yet and he didn’t want her to take just any job. So, as much as he hated to do it, the two of them had packed up and headed back to Beaver County before the baby was born.

Annie Lou got up from the kitchen table and went out onto the porch outback of the 2-story building. She was getting emotional and needed the fresh air. She looked down on the alley below and the same three drunks were now sitting down against the building with their feet stretched out in front of them. Drunk already, Annie Lou thought as she shook her head disgustedly.

Her mind returned to her sister and Detroit as she sat down on an old wicker chair. She was actually relieved to see them return to Beaver County. Now that she and Emma had grown into adulthood, they had become a bit closer and had learned to confide in each other. So with Emma back in Beaver County and living close by, her marriage to Phillip hadn’t seemed quite so bad.

Shortly after moving back from Washington, Detroit and Emma’s daughter was born and they named her Lula. Detroit had to work at the sawmill to feed the family—the type of job that he had tried to avoid. But he loved her and did what he had to do to feed his family. The year after the first child was born, Emma became pregnant again and this time had a baby boy and named him Joe. She had begun to feel guilty about the children. This was not her husband’s dream for them. She knew deep down that his heart was up north. He had never aspired to this type of life. Every morning when she would get up and send him off to work, an awful sense of guilt would come over her. She was beginning to think that this was all her fault. Annie Lou had tried with all her might to convince Emma that things would get better and as soon as they did, she and Detroit could return to DC for a better life. This seemed to relieve her and make her feel better

about their life in Beaver County, but two years later came James, the third child. This was putting a strain on her hard working husband physically and herself emotionally. By this time, Detroit could see the change that had come over Emma. She was not the bright and vibrant woman he had married a few years before. And his hopes of ever returning to the north were slowly fading away. He tried hard to hide his despair from his wife. Emma, though, could see the look in his face and could read the disappointment in his eyes. She could see that his dreams had been crushed.

By the time Emma reached her 25th birthday, she was carrying her 4th child. In her mind, she knew that there was no way she could present her husband with another child.

Annie Lou reached into the pocket of her robe and found a handkerchief to wipe the tears that were rolling down her face. She could it just like it was yesterday! She had been outside working in the garden. Somehow she had known what Jacob had come to tell her when she spied him coming across the yard. She didn’t know what or how, but for some reason she knew it was about their sister Emma.

Deep down, Annie Lou knew that her sister had intended to destroy what was growing inside of her, but not to destroy herself in the process. She thought about the 3 young children without their mother and what would happen to them. Fortunately, Jonah and Mrs. Burruss had stepped right in and raised the children. Emma’s death almost destroyed Detroit. The children were just too young for him to bring up by himself, so he willingly gave them to Emma’s parents to take care of. After the funeral, a grieving Detroit left Beaver County forever and went to live up north in Baltimore.

Annie Lou wiped her eyes several times and then returned to the kitchen. Somehow the crying had done her a world of good and she felt like eating now. She had finally come to grips with her sister’s death.

The Last Days

Ms. Minnie talked about her husband’s last days on earth. Her daughter Nellie was able to give me a lot of information about him.

“Jacob’s mind started getting bad, what I call bad, after Matthew’s death,” Ms. Minnie said. “Jacob was in Eastern State for two years and eight months.”

Nellie started talking to us about her father. “His mind would get kinda off. I used to tell Momma when we used to come to the country. Poppa used to get to talking kinda off. I used to say that ‘Poppa’s mind is bad.’ When Poppa died he was 78. Old Man Bennie Winslow told me at the setting up that night. He said, ‘If you don’t know exactly how old your daddy is, I can tell you right now.’ He said, ‘He and I was born the same year and I’m 78 years old.’ That’s what old man Bennie told me right in the church. He said, ‘I’m 78 years old. Jacob and I was born the same year. I that.’

Ms. Minnie added, “I always have known Jacob’s age. Jacob was born on May 30th. I used to say Jacob come near not getting here in May!”

Footnote: Jacob Burruss died July 23, 1963 at Eastern State Hospital. During his lifetime he served as mail carrier during the time when black men carried the mail but could not touch the mail. To prevent him from handling the mail itself it was carried in a long black leather bag that had iron rods and locks. The mail was carried from one post office to the next, but could not be sorted by blacks. Jacob also served as a deacon of Mt. Calvary Cross Baptist Church in Beaver County. He provided for his wife, Minnie and their 12 children

through the occupation of farming.

Chapter 4

Ms. Minnie talked about the 12 offspring she had by Jacob. For the most part, they were just your average children growing up, but as they grew older, life took them in different directions and through different situations—some more dramatic than others.

Simon Herman

Simon was my first born. And Lord, have mercy! If it hadn’t been for that child, I don’t know what I would have did! I don’t know what I would have did! He was growing up like Conrad. Before he got as big as Conrad. I called that boy so much! “Simon!” Sometimes he’d come running. I’ll never forget it if ’twas today. “Maam?” I said, “Simon, for one time I didn’t call you.” I called the boy so much. “Si—mon!” Called him and he’d come running, “Maam?”

Simon went as far as the fifth or the sixth grade in school. After World War II he went into the service for 21 years. Twenty-one years in the service and then he came back in the state.

Simon brought Hannah back with him from overseas. They were married and had Arnie by then. I had a time getting those papers for him to marry Hannah. I’ll never forget that. Yeah, I forgot and sent the papers way over yonder, overseas, and Simon was born 1909 and I said he was born in 1949. They sent the papers back to me because won’t no way in the world that Simon was born in 1949! (laughter) I made a mistake!

Simon wrote me back and said, “Momma, you said that I was born in 1949. I was not born in 1949,” he said. “I had to send you this letter back and to tell you to get it right.”

I forgot to send the birth certificate, too. I had to send the right stuff before he could marry Hannah. Yes, indeed.

I gave him my approval. I didn’t have no pull backs or nothing about her being a German. I didn’t know nothing about her. He wanted to marry her. I just let him marry her.

Simon was very much like Jacob about loving children. That’s why his children stay with him today. I heard them tell Hannah more times than one when I used to go down there. Hannah used to sit down and tell me just like she was speaking poetry, holding to my hand, just rubbing my hand and patting my hand, we sitting on the couch. I can see ourselves now. Say, “You know, momma, I’m gonna leave Simon. I say I’m gonna leave him ’cause Simon’s got girls.”

And she had boys as you may call it. Tit for tat. (Laughter) I didn’t say that to her, but I found it out. So I said, “Hannah, don’t you all do that. You all stay together ’cause you’ve got two such pretty little children.” I said, “The children need you all.”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna take ’em with me. Gonna take ’em with me. I’m go leave him. I’m go leave him.”

I said, “Hannah, don’t do that, don’t do that.”

I stopped her just like that. Talking to me just as nice, just as nice, just rubbing my hand, just patting me and rubbing my hand just like that. And so Mindy was speaking up and said, “I ain’t going with you nowhere.” Them was her words.

I said, “She’s just talking like that now ’cause she’s small.” I said to myself, if Hannah goes, she’ll go.

She calls her Cookie. She said, “Cookie, you’re going with me, ain’t you?”

She said, “I ain’t going with you nowhere. I’m staying here with my daddy!”

I said to myself, if Hannah leaves, them children are going. Well, didn’t neither one of them go.

The Automobile

Ms. Minnie changed the subject for a moment and talked about worldly transportation:

Jacob used to drive a horse and buggy. Cars won’t around then. No indeed, won’t no cars! White people had no cars, either. We’d done got married and Simon was a good size child before cars began. We used to see about 3 go up the

highway about a year. Folks would be talking about it for about 6 months. “You see that automobile go up the road the other day?” “Yeah, man, I saw that thing! I believe that was a doctor!” (laughter) “Drew up from Stonehenge up to Beaver County courthouse!”

You don’t see them old cars much. You don’t see them much now. Yeah, Model T. Looks like a cart now.

Allen Clinton and Thaddius Malone

Allen was a good old boy. A good little old boy. He never did anything but stay around in the country. When he got old enough, he started working at the sawmill. I got up a many mornings, child, and cooked breakfast for them children. Started them off to work.

When Allen got married and left home, he made a living farming, working at the sawmill and selling liquor. All that kind of stuff.

You Cleo and Shorty were killed in that car accident in June 1963, the same year Jacob died. They never did know who was driving or if someone else was actually in the car, but somebody was speeding. Say the car was so high up in the air that folks thought ’twas an airplane! Two brothers . . . and they were Allen’s sons.

Thaddius also worked at the sawmill when he got old enough. My son Thaddius married Agnes and they had 9 children.

Nellie

Scott had done left Nellie and she and the 3 children were living with us. I raised them children. I’ve put more diapers on Scotty Junior than Nellie ever put on him! And Maxine . . . I put more diapers on them two children than Nellie ever put on them. I took Scotty, a child like that, and kept him until he got big enough to work and make money. He worked at Benny Ray’s.

Night Intruder

I’ll never forget it one night during Bethel meeting. Bethel meeting was coming off and like I told you, we never did lock my doors, just push ’em together. It was before church night. I believe it was fourth Sunday in August . . . fourth Sunday. Nobody know when Joe Taylor come in the house. Joe come on up there, open the door, come on through my room—me and Jacob there in the bed. Went on in the boys’ room, got in the bed with Simon them. Got between some of ’em.

Sunday morning, I said to myself, I have to churn. So I said, “Nellie, gotta get up early in the morning. I got to milk the cow and let the cow graze good before we go to church. I got to churn tomorrow morning.” So the next morning I called Nellie. I said, “Nellie, Nellie!” Nellie slept in the front room, see. I said, “Get up, get up, you all,” I said. “Cause we’ve got a whole lot to do this morning before we go to church.” Went on in the boys room, went in there for to go to the kitchen. Somebody raised their head up. I said, “Nellie, go back!” We didn’t have any clothes on, just the clothes we’d slept in. I said, “Go back, go back. Somebody’s in there with them boys!” I said, “Nellie, go back!” Nellie she went on back to the other part of the house. Joe just bust out and laughed, “I declare, you all is some kind of folks, some kind of folks. Anybody come to your house and get in the bed and go to bed and you all don’t even now know it.”

You see, Corene and all them from out yonder in Washington had come home for the meeting, and Joe, after he had married Nora would get up and come over to my house and stay all night when the house would be full and rooms were running kind of short, you know. He told Nora, “Nora, I’m going on over Jacob’s tonight and stay all night.” So Nora told him, “Okay, you go on up there and stay the night then.” And it was late before he come, you know, and we’d all was gone to bed. And Joe come there and opened the door, come on in the house, went in the boys room, pulled his clothes off and got in the bed with Simon and all of ’em and ain’t nobody never know it.

Bessie Ann and Andrew Bernard

Bessie Ann, my 5th child, was married twice. Her first husband was killed in a car accident. She had 7 children by him. Bessie Ann didn’t have such good luck with her husbands ’cause her 2nd husband was killed when a tree fell on him at the sawmill. She had 5 children by him.

Seems like the sawmill was the only job that black boys could get in them days ’cause my son Andrew worked there, too when he got big enough. Later on he got a job at a car dealership in Stonehenge. He also went into the service and became a Corporal. Andrew and his wife never had any children.

Robert Sylvester

Robert worked at Jimmie Brooks’ sawmill, too, until he started working here in Stonehenge. The first dollar that Robert ever made was at the sawmill. He was getting a dollar a day. Ain’t that some money?! He wasn’t no older than that child there. Robert was just about thirteen. And the first dollar Robert ever made Isaiah Watson and Pierre Clark stole it from him. If I didn’t tell ’em off! If I

didn’t tell ’em off! Robert had made the first dollar he had ever made in his life. And Robert was so proud of it and Pierre . . . You know where Benny Ray them lived from my house? Benny Ray them, you know. Used to walk through out there to the store, walked through all the time, about 2 or 3 times a week. Isaiah Watson used to live with Benny Ray, you know. Used to farm, used to hire him by the year. Anyway, two or three times a week they used to walk through out there to Fred McDemchek’s store. Walked right through my yard. So this one particular evening, just about sunset, few minutes before dark, Robert had just got there from the sawmill, had made a dollar. So, they know him so well, you know, they’d sat and talk for two or three hours, then go on out to the store. Robert he jumped up and showed them that dollar. Showed them that dollar. (Laughter) I’d go to the kitchen window. You know how the kitchen window is, right there on the corner. I’d look out there at them. They was standing out there like they were going out there toward the store. So they talked out there, laughed and talked about five or ten minutes. And, ah, Robert pulled the dollar out and showed it to them. He’d made a dollar today. And ‘tween Isaiah and Pierre, Robert come in the house just about crying. He said, “Momma!” He said, “You know Isaiah and Pierre done took my dollar where I made today!”

I said, “What?!” First dollar Robert ever made in his life got stolen from him. He was just a little teenage thing. He wasn’t old enough to work up at no sawmill. Jimmie Brooks knew him why he hired him. So Robert was so hurt as he cried. I said, “Well, that’s all right. I’m going down to Ms. Eugertha’s tomorrow. I go tell ’em about it.”

Now Isaiah Watson was colored and Pierre was white. He was a “maybe” boy. You know what that is. People used to get those children years ago just to raise them, you know. State boys. So I said, “That’s all right.” They was gone. Gone back to the store just running. Couldn’t stop them. Come on back by my house late. We’d gone to bed. The next morning I got up and went down to Ms. Eugertha’s and I told them . . . went right straight to the house and sat down and told them just what I felt like telling them.

And Ms. Eugertha said, “Now, Minnie, I gonna ask them.” Went out there and asked them. Naw, they didn’t have it. Neither one didn’t have it. Neither one didn’t steal it. But they stole it just like I’d hand you that fan. Robert come in the house crying. And didn’t neither one of ’em take it though.

So I went down Ms. Eugertha’s the next morning. And I sat there and told them right good. And I told them. I don’t know what I didn’t tell them. I said, “Isaiah or Pierre one is got it because Robert come in the house crying today and they went running across the field to the store.” I said, “Robert said both of them would look at it and it from this one to the other.” So I told ’em.

Ms. Eugertha say, “Minnie, if I thought that Pierre stole the dollar, I’d give you a dollar for it. But Pierre say he did not do it. Isaiah said he didn’t do it.”

I said, “One or the other got it.”

So Robert learned to be tough after that. They’d better not do it now. Like people say, “Better crawl up in a buzzard’s ass and tell him not to light!” Ms. Minnie laughed.

Robert’s First Child

Robert and Estherine stayed with us a while after they were married. They stayed there after Punky was born, too. The night they were married, they come over to my house. But they stayed there, but as it happened, just before the time ‘fore Punky born, ’twas right at Christmas, you know. Punky’s birthday is in December. I never will forget that. I think ‘tis about the 23rd, about 2 days to Christmas. They went to Stonehenge the 22nd or the 23rd of December, getting

ready for Christmas like folks do and Estherine come back by her momma’s and she couldn’t get back to my house. So Punky was born at her momma’s. They’d been in Stonehenge all day. Yes, indeed.

Jobs

Ms. Minnie paused to talk about the bonds among her children and the different jobs they had held through the years.

All of my boys done pretty good at getting along with each other for boys. My girls helped around the house some, but they didn’t do that much. Now they used to go down to the store and help Helga Winfield and Ms. Charmine Waller out there near Fred’s store, you know. Nellie minded Winston Coltrane and Little Bess minded Winston Coltrane. I believe Connie used to go out there, too. Yeah, Connie used to go out there, too. Mrs. Winfield them couldn’t do without us! If one couldn’t come, the other had to go.

Andrew Bernard worked at the sawmill before he got the job in Stonehenge. He was working for Jimmie Brooks at a sawmill. He and Robert. And they wanted to get a job in Stonehenge so bad. Had got big enough not to work at a sawmill if they could do any better. So Simon was there. Simon had never gone to the army then. Simon used to work at Jamison Motor Company on Broad Street. You ever hear talk about Jamison Motor Company? That’s where Simon was. That was when I first heard anything about Jamison Motor Company. Simon worked there and never had been to the army yet. So Simon would come home 2 or 3 times a week. Now he don’t come hardly now. Used to come home all the time. Now he don’t come at all.

So, he come up there one night, “You all, Andrew, you and Robert want to get a

job in Stonehenge so bad, a job in Stonehenge so bad. I got a job for you all. Got a job for one of you all. You all come on and go with me to Stonehenge. I got a job for one of you all.” Robert wanted to go and Andrew wanted to go. And Robert give up.

Andrew said, “I wanna go! I wanna go!” Andrew said, “Robert, let me go, let me go, let me go!”

So Simon said, “I don’t care which one of you all.” They’d just got grown, you know. “I don’t care which one of you all.”

Robert give up and said, “Andrew, well you go on.” And Andrew Bernard’s been down here ever since.

Connie Rae and Matthew

Connie was about 15 when she married Frank. As a matter of fact, she quit high school to get married. Connie and Frank had 11 children.

Ms. Minnie didn’t say much about Connie, but when she began to speak about Matthew, I could see the hurt in her eyes and feel the pain in her heart.

The hardest time we ever had was . . . I reckon hard times. I reckon that’s what you call it. I reckon it was sad time, when Matthew’s death. That was the saddest time I can .

Well, Matthew was married to Gladys Fowler. He had 2 children. His father-inlaw was Amos Fowler. You won’t old enough to . That was a time I’ll tell you!

Amos was the craziest thing. They was the craziest things. Zeke Fowler used to make me so mad. Matthew hadn’t been long come from the Army, you know. Matthew had somehow got to know Gladys anyway. I reckon they went to school together. And Matthew come from the Army and started going down there to see Gladys. Somehow, I don’t know how it got started, but anyway . . . and Zeke Fowler used to make me so mad. (Speaking in a man’s voice) “Matthew and Gladys go git married . . . Matthew and Gladys go git married. We go be kin to you all. We go be kin to you all. We go be kin to you all. I go be kin to the Burrusses. We’ll be kin to the Burrusses.”

The children used to come, “Momma,” say, “if Matthew marries Gladys, we ain’t gonna be no kin to Zeke is we?”

I would say, “Nooooo, we ain’t go be no kin to Zeke.” But I couldn’t tell Zeke nothing. But then after Matthew married Gladys, he won’t married to her 3 years before they killed him. But both of them got paid! Both of ’em got paid! As momma used to say, you do them things like that, you get a certain portion here on earth where man can see it, then you get the other after you go away from here. Now they’re getting the rest of it over yonder wherever they’re at, down yonder wherever they is. They’re getting the rest of it. God put it on ’em. Put it on Amos and him both right here where man can see it. We people could see it. The suffering that they went through! The suffering that they went through! Every piece of Zeke’s hair they say come off. They say his head was just as clean

as your hand.

They killed him. Amos and Zeke killed him. They shot him! Shot him and I don’t know if he struggled or lived long. I just don’t know that, you know. But, ah, the undertaker that came and got him say they set him afire and burnt the house down. Burnt the house down. All the people that were in the house found out the house was on fire and they got out. He was in the fire burning. But they say they didn’t know. They say they didn’t know Matthew was in the fire. But I don’t know if they didn’t or not. They didn’t know Matthew was in the fire. Zeke come running to our house. I’ll never forget that night. Lord have mercy, have mercy!

Zeke did part of it. He and Amos together. He and Amos together.

The law tried to do something about it, but they tell me that they went right straight to the old “whodoo”, you know and she done something. They say they went to her.

When that thing happened, everybody, the whole country was upset. The whole country. I bet Manfred James come to my house 5 times a week. Sometimes twice a day. He was a cop then, you know.

Matthew had been to the Army and come back. He was around ’bout in his twenties. And Amos would be after him, tell me as crazy as they was about him to marry Gladys, to marry Gladys, to marry Gladys. And they tell me, but Matthew wouldn’t let ’em tell. Connie knew a lot of stuff, Connie and Frank. Connie and Frank told me that they don’t know how many nights when Matthew would tell them he, Amos, would get after him and fight with him and do whatever he wanted to do and Matthew would leave the house and come up to Connie and Frank’s. They lived in that little house, you know, across from Sally Waller’s. You know that little house. And Frank’s car would be parked out there

in the yard like he stop his car at night. Say Matthew done come up there and got in Frank’s car and slept. And say, “Don’t you all tell Momma. Don’t tell Momma.”

I’ll never forget it one night, way in the night, at that time, I never did do nothing but shut my doors. Anybody could open it and come on in if they wanted to any time of the night. Back then you could do that. Nobody never bothered you. So, I’ll never forget that night if ’twas last night. We was in the bed. I and Jacob lying in bed. I was a married woman. Door opened. Somebody come up there. I opened my eyes and looked. I said, “Matthew”. I say, “Matthew, is that you?” He didn’t give me no answer. Kept on in the boys’ room and went to bed. And say Amos had tried to kill him that night. But he got out. He come home. He come home. He didn’t stay over at Connie and Frank’s. Connie them say he told them, “I done slept in Frank’s car a whole lotta nights.” He’d get away from there and run on away from the house, you know, and come on up to Connie and Frank’s and get in the car and lay in the car and sleep some days.

Well, Connie heard that Matthew didn’t have no car at that time. Well, he did have a car, but anyway, he called Frank and told Frank, “Come down and get me and Gladys and carry us up home (to see me) with you all some Sunday evening.” Connie and Frank would go down there ‘rectly they get home, get Matthew and Gladys. They come and got them one Sunday evening, Matthew and Gladys, Matthew and Gladys. Amos had been after him that whole day. Wanted to fight him, to fight him. I reckon he wanted to kill him then. But said he’d tell ’em, “Don’t tell momma.” He said it these many times, “Don’t tell momma.”

Connie said, “Momma, he got up on the curb. You all were sitting outdoors in the shade side the house like you used to sit. He’d say, ‘Now, Frank, don’t tell momma. Don’t tell momma.’” Connie and Frank sat there and didn’t tell me.

So they finally killed him and set him afire. The doctor, the undertaker said he

was burned up so that . . . Matthew was a great big . . . Matthew was a great big fine looking . . . Folks said he was the best looking child I had. That’s what folks used to say, “Ms. Minnie, that’s the best looking child you got.” People used to say Matthew and Connie favored a lot. I used to think they favored right smart.

And so, they just killed the child and burnt the child up. After they had killed the child, all the evidence that they raked up, you know. They got a lot of that. Say the house was burnt down to ashes, you know. Say they did all that stuff out in the yard and dragged him in the house and set the house afire.

That night when Zeke come a running in my house like I told you . . . didn’t never lock the door . . . we was in the bed sleep come busting in the house saying, “Lord, you all get up and come down to my house! Matthew done got burnt! Matthew Matthew Matthew in the house! Our house done burnt down and Matthew’s in there!”

They killed him out in the yard and dragged him in the house and set the house afire. We got that kind of evidence, someway, somehow ’cause people certainly worked on it. I don’t know how many shells that people picked up out in the yard. Gun had been shot. Shot gun. Shells! Picked them shells up and a knife, big knife was in the house where the house burnt down. The handles that were on the knife. The people combed the . . . they almost sifted the ashes to the house. Almost sifted the whole house. They worked on that house for near a month. Almost sifted the ashes. Got a lotta evidence.

But that night, Lord have mercy! We didn’t have no way to go down there quick so Thaddius had the car, had his car. I said, “Go tell Thaddius right quick to come and carry us down there to see ’bout Matthew! Tell Thaddius to come carry me to see ’bout Matthew. And Thaddius come just as quick as he could in his car and say, “Momma, what in the world done happened?” I don’t know what I said. I lost my mind! I think. I said, “Matthew’s been here tonight!”

Hadn’t been nowhere. I said, “Matthew brought me some money! And Matthew say, ‘Momma.’ He brought me some money. He put it in my hand.”

And they said, “Momma, how come you think Matthew’s been here tonight? Matthew ain’t been here tonight.”

I said, “Matthew’s been here to the house tonight.” That’s the time they were

killing him. I reckon he had me on his mind. That was the last thing. The last thing he could think of, if he had the mind to think. He had me on his mind. And that’s why I thought he come. And I started wondering. I thought I was in the bed! And I saw him open the door and come running in the house and say, “Momma, here’s some money I owe you. I owe you this money.”

I don’t know what I said when I was telling about the money. I said, “Matthew, you don’t owe me no money.” He said, “This the money that I owe you.” I’ll never forget that thing. I thought he did it. And Matthew ain’t been nowhere. I told them, “Well, Matthew’s been to the house tonight.” I was telling them all the time we were going on down there. I said, “Matthew brought me some money tonight and give me some money.”

They said, “Momma, Matthew ain’t been up your house tonight.”

I don’t know. I don’t know what I said just as soon as that. Lord, when we got there in sight of the place, all I saw was a light blaze! House had burnt down! And tell me, I don’t seeing Amos and Zeke. But the people where . . . so many people got there . . . said that where Matthew’s body was found in the house, Amos and Zeke stood right side by side. Nowhere for to hurry there, just watched them. They told me that they did. Just watched that place. People wondered why Amos and Zeke stand so still together. And they watched that place and said that was Matthew’s body burning up and they could see it. Well, I heard it said the family said they heard a roaring. House was on fire. I always heard that. And say, they thought it was a car coming through the yard. And come to find out, the house was on fire. Said they just did make it out.

I don’t know why they killed him. He was fool about him, fool about him! He was fool about Matthew! And say Amos picked on Matthew. And say Amos used to want to wrestle with Matthew. That’s what they used to tell and say by Matthew being a great big tall man. He was big and tall, husky. And had been in the Army. And say, Amos won’t a handful to Matthew. And Amos used to tell it, say,

“I couldn’t get a lick off him to save my life. I tried my best to wrestle with him, to wrestle him.” Say, “I can’t do a thing.” Say, “He’d stretch them big arms out and knock me back just as fast as I come up to him. I can’t never get to him to give him a lick.” Say, “If he didn’t take them big arms and hit me with his fist, he’d take his feet and kick me.” Say, “I couldn’t never get a lick on him.” I used to hear them say he tell it. Matthew was a great big man, a great big man. He won’t big as Simon by a long ways. He was bigger than Robert. Bigger body. He wasn’t tall as Robert. Bigger body. And they buried him in a little coffin like they bury a little child. Won’t nothing left. Say Samantha the undertaker said won’t nothing left. Just a “raking up”. A “raking up”. He’s buried out there at Mt. Calvary Cross. You see that tall tombstone with “Matthew Burruss” on it.

Jacob took Matthew’s death very well. He was calm. He just wouldn’t talk a lot. Kept a lot of it inside. Some people would have been ready to fight. I was so hurt. I don’t know if I could fight or not.

All this happened the 16th of April just before Easter, 1949. Poor little fellow. He was such a good child. You know I can tell the truth. I’ve said that to people before. Matthew was unusual. He was a child that you never saw get mad. He wasn’t hard to please. Just was good. He just was good. I can’t ever say, from a child, all the way up, I don’t know when Matthew got mad about anything.

Matthew’s Wife Gladys

Gladys was the poorest person to put in a house that ever was put in a house. She told me these words. She and I got along fine and she would tell me so much stuff. I washed. I never will forget if ’twas today. Oh, I wish she would’ve let me alone. You know how you grade clothes when you wash? The white clothes, you wash them first. The colored clothes and on and on . . . and I’d be gone out there hanging some clothes and Gladys would’ve got the white shirts and put them down in the tub with the colored clothes. Yes, she did and that’s the truth. She

worried me. Trying to help. Know she was trying to help.

Whenever I see Gladys now she will laugh and tell this tale. One evening a storm was rising and I was milking the cows as hard as I could and you know how the wind blow, blowing all the dust and things. And I had a hen out there with some chickens and Baby June and Stanley was catching . . . had put the hens and chickens in a box at night, you know, and I didn’t want the chicken to get winded. The storm was rising, thundering and doing, the wind blew and Gladys was talking about “Ms. Minnie was milking the cow just as hard as she could and Baby June and Stanley was catching the hens and chickens and putting them in a box to put them in the smoking house. Ms. Minnie milking the cow just as hard as she could and said, ‘Catch that hen by her hands!’” (Laughter) Gladys done told that thing don’t know how many times. Said, “Ms. Minnie, you know that evening you told Baby June, ‘Catch that hen, catch that chicken by her hands?’”

See, why I said that, little Stanley had bent over to catch the hen right by her tail. You know how they were just scratching and pulling, scratching and pulling. You’d never seen so much dust and I was milking the cow just as hard as I could and told him, “Catch that chicken by her hands!” Stanley and Baby June were just good size children. Weren’t big enough for nothing much.

And when Gladys stayed there at the house, she never did go down there. Never wanted to go down there. Amos used to come home every once in a while. They were married then you know. Matthew and Gladys were getting along, but he’d come home. I hated him. I’ll never forget one Sunday, he come up there and all that stuff he was telling Gladys of who had come. Somebody related to him and all that stuff that they had brought there and “I come up here to tell you about it. I want you to come on down there. They waiting for you to come on down there.” I and Gladys were in the kitchen. I’ll never forget it.

I said, “Gladys, when are you going to get ready and go?”

Gladys said, “I ain’t going!”

I said, “Why, Gladys? Why, Gladys?”

She said, “You believe all that stuff Amos telling you?”

I said, “Yeah, I thought so.”

She said, “Ms. Minnie, ain’t none of that stuff so!”

I said, “Oh, I didn’t know.” (with sarcasm)

She said, “Ain’t nobody down there. Ain’t nobody down there. I ain’t . . . noooo, I ain’t going down there!”

Didn’t never want to go home. Didn’t never want to go home. The beatingnest thing. She didn’t want to go home.

Floyd Arnold and Stanley

I’ll tell you who look like they like to get a little argument—my Floyd. When he is drinky, he fusses. It was just like Robert was saying the other day. I’ve heard it said these many times, that “Floyd ain’t nobody’s fool. He got sense, he got sense. If Floyd just didn’t drink quite as much,” said, “Floyd would be some kind of smart.” I’ve heard that so many times. “Floyd’s got sense. He’s got sense enough to do so much stuff.” And he’s willing to do. He’s willing. Just don’t let him get too much whiskey in him.

When I used to stay over at Clinton’s, and Ruby’s washing machine got so it wouldn’t halfway do. Ruby called Floyd and told him she wanted him to come up there and look at her washing machine and fix it ’cause he had fixed it one time before and it had lasted near 12 months after he had fixed it. And so, she said, “But Floyd, don’t drink nothing ‘fore you come. Don’t drink nothing ’fore you come.” Said, “If he drinks anything ’fore he comes, he won’t be no good at all.”

My youngest son Stanley served in the Army during the Korean Conflict. He’s

married with 5 children.

Susie June “Baby June” (the youngest child)

My heart has done broke, child. My heart has done broke. So much stuff that Baby June went through that I ain’t never told nobody. I ain’t told nobody. Oh, Lord, Heather Gatewood was so anxious for them to get married. If she could have married ’em, she’d have married ’em. Yeah, she would have married ’em. And they were married in that year 1950 something.

I never called Bobby nothing but “that old boy”. Baby June used to say, “Momma don’t ever call him his name. Momma just say ‘that old boy’.”

I said, “Yeah, that old boy. I can’t stand him.” I said, “I hate to look at him.” Every time I look at him, I’d say his mouth looked dirty. Old nose look like it was stuck on there. His mouth look like an old . . . (Whispered something, then laughed). And child, I did everything but spit in his face. He still kept coming. Came just to spite me. He did. He told me that afterwards. After he got to treating her so mean. He told people, “They didn’t want me to marry her, and I was going to show ’em that I was going to marry her. I didn’t love her.” That’s what he said. That’s what I heard that he said.

But Baby June won’t crazy about him so. I’ll tell ‘ya. Baby June used to tell that thing to me so often. Well, you know they say that Heather Gatewood is a . . . I used to tell that when Rebbie stayed at the house, you know. Baby June had to laugh. I said, “I’ll bet you one thing.” Rebbie was standing up there eating an orange. I said, “If any of them Gatewoods want that orange,” I said, “you’d take it out your mouth and give it to ’em.” I said, “They do anything they want to do and get anybody they want to get.”

Jacob never did say nothing. Just looked to me for everything. Never would say nothing. And I’d say, “Baby June, time’s you’s to come on in. It’s getting late. Time to just come on in.”

I’ll never forget one night, she said, “Momma, you’re always calling and asking, make me come in,” say, “suppose you get him to stop coming to see me no more?”

I said, “That’s what I’m trying to make. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to do that!” (Laughter)

“Suppose he stop and don’t come no more?”

I said, “That’s just what I’m trying to do, just what I’m trying to do!”

And one day he went to Stonehenge, come back from Stonehenge and brought Baby June a pretty blouse, a pretty blouse. He did that before he was married to her. And brought her a necklace. A necklace and a blouse. And brought it in an old gray bag. He give it to her. And was afraid to let me know it. She say, “Momma.” Bobby had done come and gone. She said, “Momma.” I’ll never forget it. “Bobby brought me a present today.”

I said, “Present?” I said, “What sort of present?”

And she said, “I ain’t gonna let you see it. I know you gonna get mad.”

I reckon I was nearly an hour making her let me see that thing. She said, “I knew you were gonna get mad.” I kept telling her no, I won’t go get mad, to make her let me see it. So, it was a blouse and a pretty necklace. And that blouse was there at the house when she left there, just as good as the day she got it. Just left it there. Look like she didn’t care for it. She was afraid to let me see it, you know.

Chapter 5—Other Relatives

I asked Ms. Minnie as we wound down our interview if she had any other relatives she wanted me to know about. She said she had a cousin named Tessie whom she was very fond of. The two of them had remained close throughout the years until Tessie’s death over a decade ago.

Cousin Tessie

Tessie and I were first cousins. Tessie’s daddy and my daddy was two brothers. Tessie’s daddy was named Tom and my daddy was named Moses. That’s why you used to see us so close, so close. Tessie didn’t have no sisters but Mary. Her brothers were Walter and Bob Lee. I reckon that’s all she had. Walter and Bob Lee and Mary. Her mother was Rosa Joy and she married my uncle, my daddy’s brother. I don’t my father’s other brothers and sisters. I don’t nothing about them no more. Don’t no more. Uncle Tom, Uncle Tom I couldn’t stand Uncle Tom when I was a child growing up. Never done nothing for me.

Chapter 6

Before I packed up my recorder and notepad to leave Ms. Minnie and her daughter Nellie, we started a conversation about the church and how things had changed at Mt. Calvary Cross in Beaver County over the years.

“Ms. Minnie, did you ever hold any positions at church?” I asked. “You were a Sunday school teacher weren’t you?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I used to teach Sunday school, but I was a secretary before I got married. I kept the books from time to time. I took them until I got married just before Simon born. I don’t know who took the books then. I can’t think. Somebody had to take the books.”

“Did you ever sing on any choirs or anything?”

“Didn’t have no choirs,” Ms. Minnie said.

Nellie chimed in, “Ain’t nobody have no choirs back then.” We all laughed. “I’ll never forget the first choir they had at Mt. Calvary Cross.”

“Yeah, Nellie was born,” Ms. Minnie said.

“Yeah, I was a big child when the first choir they had,” Nellie recalled.

“Didn’t have no music or nothing?” I inquired.

“No,” Nellie answered. “Way by and by Mr. Kingston, they got an old organ and Mr. Kingston used to . . . no, child, they didn’t have no music when I was brought up in the church.”

“Church won’t nothing like ‘tis now,” Ms. Minnie put in.

“Oh, no, ain’t have no kind of music,” Nellie said.

“Get in there and just sing”, I murmured.

“I the first old organ they had in there, don’t I, momma?” Nellie asked.

“Yes, you ought to,” Ms. Minnie answered.

“The first old organ, that old organ . . .” Nellie began.

“I don’t know where the thing’s at,” Ms. Minnie interrupted.

“That old organ ‘woo woo woo woo’”, Nellie continued. “That’s the way it used to sound. Mr. Kingston used to get up in there. He could play it.”

“Couldn’t nobody play it but Mr. Kingston,” Ms. Minnie laughed.

“Nobody but him,” Nellie smiled. “It used to go ‘woo woo, rescue the perishing’ (singing, imitating Mr. Kingston). “That was the main piece—Rescue the Perishing. That was all I believe he could play—Rescue the Perishing.”

“Won’t no choirs back then?” I asked.

“No, ain’t have no choirs, but that was good meeting, let me tell you one thing!” Nellie said excitedly.

“No, won’t no choirs!” Ms. Minnie repeated.

“That’s what we need to go back to,” I said staunchly.

“That was good meeting,” Nellie recalled. “Let me tell you (pausing to reminisce). “When you can walk in a church and hear somebody strike up singing anywhere in the church they want to. That’s meeting! You know what I mean? Now that takes me back. You know what I’m talking about? I could write a book, child. It takes me back ’cause I think about it all the time. Just think about how the church is now, nobody strikes up no matter how good you can sing in a church. The choirs and things take over. You know what I mean. You sit

there with your mouth shut and don’t utter a sound the whole time you’re sitting in there. It’s something to think about. It is! And people used to strike out when revival meeting come. It was something grand because the people would sing all over the church, child. Yeah, it was good.”

“Sing all over the church,” Ms. Minnie ed. “One sing there, one sing there, one sing there.”

“Men would come from different places and sing, child,” Nellie said excitedly.

“Probably had more men back then than women,” I put in.

“Oh, yeah, they did,” replied Nellie.

“Sit back there now and ain’t the first man back there,” I said.

“Oh, it is?” Nellie asked.

“Only men in there sometimes are on the choir and on the Deacon seat.” I replied.

“Well, it ain’t as many men as ‘tis women no how. Very few men,” Nellie observed.

“Five women to one man,” Ms. Minnie said.

“Yeah, ‘tis a very few men and they all look like they’re dying out now,” Nellie chanted.

“Yep, and the younger ones don’t even come. The young ones, they are down at the store,” I replied.

“Yeah, at the store,” Ms. Minnie said.

“Down at Freddie McDemchek’s woods,” I frowned. “Gotta dig ’em up from the woods.”

“You sure telling the truth about that,” Ms. Minnie acknowledged. “They say they done stayed down in the woods ’til the woods’ just as nasty as it can be. Like a cow pasture.” We all started laughing.

“I know it. I wouldn’t even go down there, I said.

“I wouldn’t walk down there for nothing,” Nellie replied.

“Just like a cow pasture,” Ms. Minnie repeated as she laughed.

“They need to put up a toilet down there,” said Nellie.

“They need something down there,” I acknowledged.

“I wouldn’t go down there for nothing,” Nellie repeated.

“I hear people say that same thing,” Ms. Minnie said before changing the subject back to the order of church service. She picked up where she had left off, “ . . . opening song, prayer by this one, prayer by this one.”

“I think they still do that,” I said.

“Uh hum,” Ms. Minnie agreed. “ Here’s the way we used to have to have it. Sunday School was called to order by the above date. They called it the above date and leading hymn, opening song, whoever sang the opening song, whatever the song was. Prayer by such and such a one.”

“Did you all do much going to any other churches?” I inquired. “I know about going to Peaceful Garland Church when you were eating the biscuits.” (Ms. Minnie had told me some years ago about her and her family riding on an oxcart to Peaceful Garland Church and the oxcart coming lose, and biscuits rolling here and there).

“Didn’t do too much,” she answered. “I done walked to Bethel, I done walked to Mt. Hopeful Mission, walked to Mt. Zion Emmanuel, walked.”

“That was before the oxen?” I asked. “Cause I you telling me about the oxen. You all were going up to Peaceful Garland on the oxen.”

“Oh, the oxcart?” she laughed. “Oh, yeah, yeah, Lord, I was a child, a child. I reckon I was about like McCoy’s little girl. I imagine I was something like that child. Uh hum, I can it.”

Nellie ed in the conversation again, “When I go to church now and sit back there sometimes, especially at revival time, I think back and I say, Lord, where is Mr. Dailey Myers that used to . . . you don’t him? He lived here on 4th Street. Deacon Dailey Myers from Moore Street Assembly of God Church. Child, that was my children’s them uncle, great uncle. When the deacons got ready to take up collection, child, everybody in the church couldn’t wait for them to take up collection because they knew he was going to sing two or three hymns. He’d get ‘round that table, child, and sing them hymns and everybody would be just so glad that he’d sing. And momma, you know Mr. Jesse Coleman, don’t you?”

“Noooo,” Ms. Minnie answered.

“You ought to know him,” Nellie said. “Maybe he don’t get up there much now ’cause Nancy them’s been carrying him up there.”

“Is he still living?” I asked.

“Yeah,” replied Ms. Minnie.

“Uh hum,” Nellie spoke up. “Nancy them was carrying him up there even last year two or three times.”

“Yeah, ’cause I rode up there with him once,” Ms. Minnie said.

“And he’s another good singer,” Nellie alleged.

“From a child like this,” Ms. Minnie agreed holding her hand up as if to measure a child’s height.

“He used to get up there and sing?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ms. Minnie answered.

“Yeah, he’s another good singer,” Nellie said to us. “And I tell momma that that’s where them children, the children momma say there, the two children that momma say sing.”

“Oh, the Jamisons,” I recalled.

“The Jamison girls,” Ms. Minnie stated.

“The Jamison girls,” Nellie agreed. “ That’s where they get it from ’cause them

are Jesse Coleman’s nieces and things, great nieces and things.”

“They are?” I asked.

“Yeah. You hear your momma talking about Ms. Nettie Coleman?” Nellie inquired of me.

“Uh hum,” I answered.

“Nettie Dabney”, Nellie stated. “Them is their great aunts, them children’s great aunts. And Ms. Hattie Coleman, she was a good singer, too. They’re all them children’s great aunts. They’re starting from little children. You see they got the talent. They didn’t just pick that up from nowhere because that’s in them.”

“If it’s in them, it’s coming out,” I said.

“Yeah, ’cause that’s in them,” Nellie agreed.

“They can really sing, can’t they?” Ms. Minnie smiled.

“Uh hum”, I answered.

“Jesse Coleman was one of the singingest men in Stonehenge, child!” Nellie said

excitedly. “He’d get up there with that voice, kind of a rattling voice. And Lord, that man was a singing man!”

“How was church meetings back then, Ms. Minnie?” I asked changing the subject a bit. “People fussed probably.”

“Yeah. Nellie can tell you about the fussing,” she answered.

“Probably didn’t get nothing done,” I knowingly stated.

“Don’t say na word about them church meetings.” Nellie was anxious to talk about it.

“Probably didn’t get nothing done,” I repeated.

Nellie took a deep breath, “When I was a child, I didn’t go to no church meetings. Sometimes, we done walked up there to Mt. Calvary Cross for Sunday School and them folks, them deacons would start to arguing. And we children all sitting back there with our books ready for them to start Sunday School and they’d argue the whole meeting through. We didn’t get nothing. I’d say, ‘We didn’t get nothing today.’ They’d start arguing. First thing they’d say is, ‘Let’s get the business off first.’ And when they start, that’s it. Sometimes they’d argue ’bout . . . This time of year they were terrible about getting ready for the Sunday School Convention. Never will forget, they’d start to arguing about ‘Let’s get the business off first. Then have the Sunday School lesson.’ Who they go send? Here they go . . . the same thing every year. Who they go send? Appoint such and such a one to do such and such a thing. And you know somebody’s got to write the minutes and things . . . all that stuff. And things like that you see. Get to

arguing up there, child. Well, you sent such and such a one last year. Who you go send this year? Every year they’d end up sending about the same one they sent last year. Every year you see, different church, different churches. Some years they’d end up at Mt. Calvary. I know several years they end up at Mt. Calvary. Every once in a while, every once in a while.”

“Every once in a while, they’d come back,” Ms. Minnie said.

Nellie continued, “I never will forget the time Mr. Joey Windham, Uncle Jake Ingram, Mr. Kingston and Mr. Will Moses got in that Sunday School that Sunday and I’ll tell you, they shook fists at each other.” We all laughed. “I’ll tell you, yes he did, too. And Mr. Theo Brooks tickled me. They were arguing then about the Sunday School Convention. They didn’t have enough money in the treasury to send the money they were supposed to send. Folk in them days didn’t have no money in no church treasury then.”

“Nooooo,” Ms. Minnie agreed.

“They argued and argued and Mr. Theo Brooks, I’ll never forget it, jumped up, took his pocket book out, and went up there and said, ‘Look at here, you all can cut that arguing out! I’m going to lay this money for you all right on the table now!’ His own money out of his pocket. ‘Here’s the money on the table so you all can cut that arguing out!’ Mr. Brooks had got mad. He was hot tempered, you know. He said, ‘I’m go lay it on the table!’ Said, ‘Here it is!’ I don’t know whether it quieted them down or not, but that was the Sunday we didn’t have no Sunday School.” We all laughed as Nellie told the story. “ They argued the whole Sunday School.”

“Until it was time for church,” Ms. Minnie said.

“And they did that a lot of times, especially if they had some business to take care of,” Nellie stated.

“Oh, yeah, they didn’t know how to take care of no business,” Ms. Minnie declared.

“They never did have . . .” Nellie paused. “You see, they didn’t know what no business meeting was. They didn’t have no business bringing that up in Sunday School at all. You know what I mean?”

“No, they didn’t, they didn’t. A whole lot of them now try to bring that stuff back in church meeting,” I said.

“Table it! Table it!” Ms. Minnie laughed.

“Would get to arguing, would sit down there and argue for 2 hours,” I stated.

“Can’t argue about them kind of things!” Nellie affirmed.

“Uh huh. Uh huh!” Ms. Minnie agreed.

“Wouldn’t get anywhere,” I said.

“That’s right,” Ms. Minnie declared.

“Ain’t hitting on nothing ’cause that’s what business meetings are for. You go there for that special thing,” smiled Nellie.

“Uh huh. They’ll sit there and argue. Some of them will argue until the end,” I finished.

Well, with this final statement, my visit with Ms. Minnie had regretfully come to an end. What an enlightening visit it had been! Feeling good about my session with Ms. Minnie and her daughter Nellie, I packed up my tape recorder and notepad, gathered my son who had been attentive throughout the afternoon, and left there feeling confident that this time was well spent. When I got home, I began to write.

Epilogue

Ms. Minnie lived her entire life close to the Lord, attending church faithfully every Sunday. Always keeping her sense of humor and feisty ways, she didn’t let age slow her down. Ms. Minnie went anywhere she wanted to go and continued to be an inspiration to her children, grandchildren, friends and acquaintances until the age of 98 when, after a brief illness, ed away quietly in the year 1988. As irony would have it, it was the anniversary of the death of her son Matthew. Ms. Minnie was grandmother to 73 and great grandmother, great-great grandmother, and great-great-great grandmother to countless others.

Over the years Minnie and Jacob’s family grew to be very strong and proud of their heritage. Most of the have stayed around Beaver County. Those who moved away still come home for family reunions, weddings, funerals and occasional visits.

Detroit and Emma, both deceased now, have grandchildren and other relatives who are still alive and well in the United States. Detroit never did re-marry after Emma’s death nor did he return to live in Beaver County. When he himself died many years later, he was still up north in Baltimore. Their three children, Lula, Joe and James, also deceased, were raised well by their grandparents and grew up to be well respected adults in the community.

Annie Lou, Phillip and all of their five children are now deceased. There are many of their grandchildren, great grandchildren and other relatives who are still alive. Annie Lou never did re-unite with Phillip nor did she change her lifestyle.