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A speckled hen and her
chickens
(Alabama)
A speckled hen and her chickens
scratched contentedly in the small front yard of a four room cottage. Blue
Roman hyacinths and yellow jonquils splashed gay color in little tufts on
the grassy lawn.
An old man in a faded wash suit sat on the narrow porch and rocked in a
home-made hickory chair.
"Come on in if you ain't afraid of a cold because that's what me an my old
lady's got an' mighty bad ones at that," he called. "I'm just settin' out
here in the sunshine trying to make up my mind to go put up them chickens
for her, 'cause the cow kicked her over yestiddy and she can't git about
to-day. She want tryin' ter hook her or nothing like that, you see that
old cow's blind in one eye, and my old lady wuz milkin' her and that
little dog there run between her legs and the cow give a sudden turn and
knocked the old lady flat.
"Her head sort of struck the side of the barn," he added worriedly, "and
that's what's troubling her worse en any thing else. I took her in to see
Dr. Scales last night and he give her something to ease her pain and then
stropped her up pretty tight. He said she might have broke a rib er two;
couldn't tell. Then agin hit could be a floatin' kidney. Then he chuckled
an said confidentially, "She's sick so much I tale her if the cow hadn't
knocked her down 'twould er been some-thin' else, but she says that's
sorry comfort.
I just been telling her while she's laid up I think if we had a stork of
corn for ever one of them little old johnny-jump- ups out there that hit
would look jes as pretty, and we'd be a heap sight better off, but she'd
have a fit if them chickens scratched up a one of them little old flower
bushes. Yes sir, my wife claims raisin' corn is my job; but she says them
flower bushes been there ever since she come here, and there they're gonna
stay.
"Come to think of it they've been there a lot longer than that, 'cause
this here is Pa's old place en Ma set them flowers out right after they
moved here from on the 'Bigbee. I want nothing but a little shaver then.
Well I want so little either, 'bout twelve I reckon, an' I'm goin' on 71
now. Been livin' right here ever since then.
"I was born tho' on my grandfather's plantation 'bout four miles from here
at what they called old Martin's ferry.
"Yessum my grandfather Marius Martin was French and that ferry was named
fer him, that's how come it sounds different from the way you call it. Yes
he wuz French all right, an him and his brother come over here on a boat
when they wuz little fellers. Grand-Pa was sixteen, an his brother was 14.
Grand-Pa said hit wuz 3 days 'fore any body knowed they wuz on that boat.
They were jes stored away and never had nothin' but a little ole hardtack,
or somethin' like that to eat that they brought with them.
"His brother died in New York en never got to Alabama but Grand-Pa went on
to Virginia and finally married there a woman name Mary Ann Cathey. They
had one child an that was Ma, her name wuz Susan Matilda Martin. Ma wuz a
baby in arms, or you might say jes toddlin' 'bout cause I've heered her
say when they come to Alabama in the early days they come in a covered
wagon, en that little chair over there come right with em. They were 'mong
the first to cross the river, the 1st white settlers round here, and they
had to build a raft by tying poles together so as to cross the 'Bigbee. Ma
said she tried to play in the water while they were polin' em across, and
she fell in. A negro boy they owned called Lewis Martin pulled her out.
"My grand-father bought up a lot of land right there on the 'Bigbee where
they crossed at, and later built Martin's Ferry and lived there the rest
of his life. At least his family did, but he wuz a land speculator and
went all over every where buyin' up land 'til he was one of the richest
men in this part of the country. If old Lewis Martin, that same nigger
what pulled Ma out the river, had lived, I'd have as much as any-body the
rest of my days. You see the Yankees marched on Livingston and the
Confederates sent out runners telling every body. Well there want no banks
here then, so grand-pa took a old black pot and wrapped up $150,000 in
gold and put in it, and him and Lewis carried it out on the river and
buried it & grand-Pa told Lewis if he tole anybody where it wuz, he'd kill
him.
"Well it was too bad Lewis didn't tell, as it turned out. That night Grand
Pa came back home en the excitement run high. What all happened, I dunno,
but I reckon hit wuz too much fer him; anyhow he had a stroke and was dead
'fore anybody ever knowed he'd hid the money. He just want in his clear
mind no mo' after that, en when it come to paying the funeral expenses
Grandma couldn't find the money, en Lewis I reckon wuz skeered to tell!
"Well a long time after that Lewis sent fer me one dark night. He'd had er
tooth pulled over in Marengo en erysipl'as set in and the Doctor said want
no hope fer him.
"Well he told his wife to send fer 'Little Marster' (that was whut Lewis
always called me) 'cause he wuz gonna die en he wanted to tell him where
the white oak tree wuz on the Bigbee where they buried the money when the
Yankees come.
"I tole Pa I was goin to see 'bout old Lewis but when I got there Lewis
was as dead as a door nail. His wife wuz so skeered she couldn't recollect
nothing he had said, jes' a white oak, she kept mumbling and that was all.
Well we looked fer a long time but didn't no body ever find nothing. Twas
too much territory and too many white oaks. 'Course Pa had a heap of land
left him, but John McKinnis, (lived right up yonder near that old church)
beat him out of pretty near all he had. Grand-Pa you see speculated in
Florida and owned one hundred and eleven sections right where Tallahassee
stands today. He owned a mile square at Pensacola where they had the first
fishing shacks, and sixteen plantations in Marengo, Green and Hale, but
John McKinnis beat him out of most every bit of it. Not young John of
Meridian, but his Pa, old man John McKinnis. He took one hundred and
eighty bales of cotton on a boat down the river to Mobile and sold hit,
claimed somehow hit belonged to him, but it was old Mrs Thedford's, (Dick
Thedford's Ma) and she never got a cent out of it. Young John was one of
the biggest scoundrels in this section of the country;" Mr. Estes added
reflectively, "a natural born thief. Yes sir we ought to have a heap we
ain't got. Been here long enough an' all of us hard workers.
"When my Grandpa come here there want
no Epes, this here wuz all Jones Bluff in them days, name fer a old half
breed Indian Jim Jones. He owned 'most all this land 'round here from
Warsaw to the Choctaw line. The tribes had given him a lot of it, and all
the early settlers like J.P. Hillman and Abe Hillman, old man Billie
Holloway and Jim Lee's father, they wanted to buy it from him. He lived up
'bout the fort on the 'Bigbee. You can see where the fort used to be from
over here. Well one night (Christmas eve I believe) it was, was back in
1833 these early white settlers got together an' went up there they said
to make Jim a good offer fer his land, co'se I dunno whut it wuz it wuz
they offered him, but Jim refused to sell and they killed him and buried
him right there on the river, and in 1915 when the Colonial Dames of
America wuz having that piece of Marble put there to mark the old Fort,
I'm blest if they didn't dig up old Jim Jones' bones. Co'se they burried 'em
ergin right along close by in that bunch of cedar trees, but it seems sort
of sad to me, to think about old Jim.
"Then Jim's son in-law a Frenchman name La Bruce what married Jim's indian
daughter, claimed the land, en so they had to trade with him. Ma said he
wuz a nice gentleman to be married to that Indian, but he left here en
went down in Miss. with the rest of 'em and I never heared whut become of
him.
"Yes sir right up there where old Jim Jones lived stood the old Fort
Tombecbe as she was called, built by the order of the Governor of
Louisiana, Bienville, and it says on the monument whut is true, I know
'Here civilization and Savagery beheld the Glory of France.
"Yes sir I wuz right there the day they unveiled her. Fact is I barbecued
every bit of the meat fer the dinner, en hit wuz about ez good a barbecue
ez I ever et, if I do say so myself. Heflin wuz the speaker en he's a good
'en, but I ain't never voted fer him yit, en never will fur ez that goes.
"Yes that old Fort has seen a heap uv blood shed. The French, British and
Spaniards. It used to be called 'Fort Confederation.' Close by there the
whites treated with the Choctaw indians old Mushulatubbe Puckshenubbee and
Pushmataha for the land they owned east of the Tombigbee.
"I can remember the indians around here many as 75 or a hundred when
they'd come in the spring with blow-guns, arrows and baskets. The squaws
would sit down flat on the ground with the papooses strapped on their
backs and wait for the Indian men to do the tradin'. There were 3 saloons
here in them days but it was against the law to sell 'fire water' as they
called it, to the indians, but when the indians were ready to start home
they'd let 'em have a few drinks and I can hear 'em yelling 'whoop pee'
right now as they rode off toward the bottoms.
"I've heared Ma tell so much I can't honestly tell what I did see, en what
I didn't but she knowed this country when they had so many little black
bears here my Gran-Pa had to take the niggers in shif's en let some sleep
day so at night they could take torches and beat on tin buckets in the
corn field to keep the bears from eatin' up all the rosenneers, and they
said they had high palin's to try to keep the bears from catching the
chillun. Cose this was all cleared up when I come erlong, but I recollect
fust electric lights, here at Jones Bluff. The Atlanta Constitution come
out saying the Hattie B. Moore would come up the river next run with
electric lights, my goodness you never saw so many folks in all your life
as was on the river banks all up and down the river, men women en chillun,
waitin fer that boat. Pretty soon here she come puffin' en a blowin' en
hit wuz er sight to behold. Looked like the whole shebang was on fire. See
there wuz 3 boats run up and down the river here to Mobile. The Hard Cash,
The Tally, and The Hattie B. Moore. The Rain-Deer run here too but she
sunk. All them boats run 'til June, they stopped in June, had landings
like Gainesville, Jones Bluff, Dials landing 'bout four miles down the
river from here, and Dirdens landing where Balzell and all his family was
raised at, and the Brassfield landing come in there at Forkland. Then
Demopolis and so on down to Mobile. Boats want allowed to come out on
Sunday t'all, had to come out on Saddy and dock above the tide-water or
else wait 'til a Monday Mornin'.
Pa used to load cotton fer Mr Hillman, (Albert's Pa up there,) here at
Jones Bluff and I'd be erlong with him. Seen him put on as many as 5 or 6
thousand bales at a time. The mate would come out on top of one them
bluffs with a ax handle in his hand and holler at dem niggers, cuss em,
and some time I've seed him knock one of em off them lime rock cliffs. My
me he was cruel. See the niggers had to load en unload every thing. They'd
tote to the stores the sugar and flour and coffee in big sacks brought up
from de merchants in Mobile, en some time a nigger would git pretty
careless en drop er sack en bust it, Lordy but he'd be sorry 'fore dat
mate got thru wid him. See the mate always come out on land, but the
Captain he stayed on the boat. As I remember they had 12 deck hands, 2
engineers, en 8 pilots day en night shift. Had 2 what they called rouster-bouts
one for day an' one for night to spilt up the ligh'ood for the torch pans.
Had 2 little baskets on each side held kerosine lamps for the head-lights,
and if they'd land here at night they'd run hang out a couple of them
little torch pans on a tree so as to see how to git up de bluff with all
the stuff they had. That was before the Hattie B. got electric lights. Man
she was a pretty sight as I ever seen. Now you take the people that used
to go backwards en fordwards to Mobile on them boats. They had a great big
hotel for em in them days right up there on the Bigbee, back of where Doc
Henegan used ter live, en they'd all come down en stay at that hotel
waitin' fer the boat, and if you were a planter and had any cotton to sell
those commission merchants didnt think nothin to pay all your expenses on
the boat to Mobile, and all you had to do wuz jes sell 'em your cotton.
They'd make you have a good time all right.
They show fed good on the boats too. Deck hands et on 1st deck and white
folks up in de cabins. They'd stop en git er cow or er pig, and cut it up
and dress it nice. And they had mighty good cooks too en every body could
eat all they mind to. Want no body to stop you. Manys the time I've rid on
them steam boats. I liked Mobile so much I thought after I growned up I'd
like to settle there en I did fer er little while, then I come back to be
with Ma and Pa, en here I been ever since. I run the Epes Cotton oil
Company's mill at night fer 'bout twenty three years, them I was the
tollkeeper yonder on that bridge. 'Fore they freed hit, there 'bout six
years lacking from September 'til March. Right there's where I kilt Red
Windham. You remember hearin' bout that I reckon don't you? Well Red was a
liakable sort of fellow when he want drinking, but trouble was he was
always drinking, he didnt want to pay no toll en I didn't want to have no
trouble 'bout that little money, but seemed like he was just looking for
trouble, en it come to [?] question of me er him, en I seed one or the
other of us wuz gonna die sure en certain, so I lowed hit wuzn't no need
of it being me, so long as I was in the right cordin' to law any way, so I
had to kill him. Pretty bad en I ain't got over it yet, looks like on dark
nights up there by the fort I can hear old Red holler fer helf but 'twant
noting' else I could do I reckon. But I don't care 'bout talkin' 'bout
that so much lets get back to old times.
Look out there on that fence at them 2 old quilts. Bet you aint never seen
none no prettier. Ive been offered by Moreland Nixon fifty dollars a piece
for 'em. But I'll have to be poorer than I am now to take it. The dye for
them quilts was made right down at Martin's ferry at Grand-Pa's
plantation, out of copperas and bark and such like, the thread was spun
there, and the cloth woven every speck of it by the negroes on the place.
One's the tulip pattern, and I ferget the other name, but to my way of
thinking they don't make quilts pretty as them two hanging out there. Them
en er old china hen dish is all I've got left of Ma's old , that belonged
to my little sister, ma give it to her and she died when she want more en
seven years old, so Ive kept it as er rememberance of her.
Ive got Grand-Pa's leather pocket book I forgot that, lined with red silk
and his name Marius Martin cut in it. Pa cut it there I'm pretty sure.
Lots of folks wants to buy them quilts but I aint hungry yet. Well I
better feed the old lady's chickens and put 'em up for her of she'll be
hopping out here herself 'fore long. Tell Miss Mead, the lady what sees
about the niggers, to come out any time after to day en I'll go with her
down on the bend 'cause don't no body hardly know this country and the
folks down in de bottoms like I do, just been here so long. I reckon, but
some times I think it wont be so long now. The old lady's trying persuade
me not to farm none this year, didn't really farm none to 'mount to
nothing last year, jes er little corn on this here six acres, but I hates
to give up, hates to git old en I doan want to be dependent. I ain't yet,
I've got a little saved up, mine en the old lady's nest egg I calls it,
and that reminds me I better be putting' up them chickens 'fore I hears
somethin' I aint after hearin'. She's mighty peaceful tho the old lady is,
when she's right well, but she's been ailin a heap looks like lately.
John R. Estes,
Epes, Alabama
March 21, 1939
R.P.Tartt
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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