House

“I lived right in the yard.  We had four houses in the yard and three of them was made of logs and one was made out of one-by-twelve planks.  I lived in the one made out of planks.  It had one big room.  I reckon it was about twenty by fifteen, more than that, I reckon.  It was a big room.  There [HW:  were] two doors and no windows.  We had old candlesticks for lights.  We had old homemade tables.  All food was kept in the smokehouse and the pantry.  The food house and the smokehouse were two of the log cabins in the yard.

Schooling

“Goodwin schooled me. [TR:  First sentence lined out.] He had a teacher to come right on the place and stay there teaching.  He raised me and brought me up just as though I was his own child.

“I remember getting one whipping.  I didn’t get it from Mr. Goodwin though.  His brother gave it to me.  His brother sent me to get a horse.  An old hound was laying in the way on the saddle and the bridle.  He wouldn’t move so I picked up the bridle and hit him with it.  He hollered and master’s brother heard him and gave me a whipping.  That is the only whipping I ever got when I was small.

Ku Klux

“I heard of the Ku Klux Klan but I don’t know that I ever seen them.  I never noticed what effect they had on the colored people.  I just heard people talking about them.

Occupational Experiences

“The first work I did was farming—­after the War.  I farmed,—­down close to El Dorado, about six miles away from there.  I kept that up till I was about seventeen or eighteen years old or somewheres about there.  That was on James Goodwin’s place—­my last master, the man who raised me.  Then I left him and came to Little Rock.  I don’t remember in what year.  I went to school here in Little Rock.  I had already had some schooling.  My grandmother sent me.  The school I went to was called the Union School.  It was down on Sixth Street.  After I left there, I went to Capitol Hill School.  I was going to school during the Brooks-Baxter War.  The statehouse was on Markham Street and Center.  My grandmother’s name was Celie Robinson.  She went by the name of her owner.

“After I had gone to school several years—­I don’t remember just how many—­I worked down town about ten or eleven years.  Then I went to railroading.  First I was with the Iron Mountain and Southern.  Later, it changed its name to the Missouri Pacific.  I worked for them from 1891 to 1935.  On August 29th I received my last pay check.  I have tried ever since to get my railroad pension to which my years of service entitle me but have been unable to get it.  The law concerning the pension seems to have passed on the same day I received my last check, and although I worked for forty-four years and gave entire satisfaction, there has been a disposition to keep me from the pension.  While in service I had my jaw broken in two pieces and four front teeth knocked out by a piece of flying steel.