Schooling

“My first teacher was Miss Sarah Henley.  I could show you the home she used to live in.  It’s right up the street.  It’s on Third Street between Izard and State right in the middle of the block—­next to the building on the corner of Izard on the south side of Third Street.  There is a brick building there on the corner and her house is a very pretty one right next to it.  She was a white woman and was my first teacher.  She taught me, as near as I can remember, one session.  My next teacher was Mrs. Hunt.  She was from Ohio.  My first teacher was from Ohio too.  Mrs. Hunt taught me about two sessions.  Lemme see, Mrs. Clapp came after her.  She was from Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Clapp taught me one session.  I am trying to think of that other teacher.  We went over to Union School then.  Charlotte Andrews taught us there for a while.  That was her maiden name.  Her married name is Stephens.  She was the first colored teacher in the city.  Mrs. Hubbard teached us a while, too.  Mrs. Scull taught us right here on Gaines and Seventh Streets where this church is now.  They moved us a long time ago down to the Mess House at the Rock Island for a while but we didn’t stay there long.  We came back to the Methodist church—­the one on Eighth and Broadway, not the Bethel Church on Ninth and Broadway.  There was a colored church on Eighth and Broadway then.  They kept sweeping us ’round because the schools were all crowded.  Woods, a colored man, was one of the teachers at Capitol Hill Public School.  We were there when it first opened.  That was the last school I went to.  I finished eight grades.  Me and Scipio Jones went to school together and were in the same class.  I left him in school and went to work to take care of my folks.

Occupational Experiences

“Right after the Civil War, I went to school.  I did no work except to sell papers and black boots on the corner of Main and Markham on Sunday.  After I stopped school I went to work as assistant porter in the railroad office at the Union Station for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, Southern Railway and Cairo and Fulton.  That was one road or system.  I stayed with them from 1873 till 1882 in the office as office porter.  From that I went train porter out of the office in 1882.  I stayed as train porter till 1892.  Then right back from 1892 I went in the general superintendent’s private car.  Then from there I went to the shop here in North Little Rock—­the Missouri Pacific Shops—­as a straw boss of the storeroom gang.  That was in 1893.  I stayed in the shop until 1894.  Then I was transferred back on this side as coach cleaner.  That was in 1895.  I stayed as coach cleaner till 1913.  From that I went to the State Capitol and stayed there as janitor of the Supreme Court for three years.  In 1917, I went back to the coach cleaning department.  That was during the war.  I stayed there till 1922.  I come out on the strike and have been out ever since.  Since then I have done house cleaning all over the city.  That brings me up to about two years ago.  Now I pick up something here and something there.  I have been knocking around sick most of the time and supported by the Relief and the Welfare principally.