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Bastrop County, TX |
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Mary Davis,
seventy-three, was born a slave on April 27, 1864, on the John Burleson cotton plantation, near Bastrop. Mary's
parents were Oliver and Jane Burleson. Mary said that anyone working
for the Burlesons, became a hard rough worker,
"cause he was made tough by 'em."
Mary, a tall, broad, heavy-set and very black complexioned woman, is a pleasant person to meet, despite the fact she
is crippled from rheumatism. She is so large, that it seems her feet are unable to carry
the load; she shuffles along in a stooped manner. It was a cloudy,
rainy day in April, and Mary was resting on a small, white painted iron bed, in the dining room, her Bible at
hand on the dining table. Mary is clean, and the interior of her
large but ramshackle house, at 1001 Olive Street, Austin, shows that she is neat and a good housewife. She has been
married twice to: Hannibal Davis and Anderson Davis; had one boy
and three girls by Hannibal. Mary lives with her son, Freddie, and receives a monthly pension of nine dollars
from the State of Texas. Her story: "Oliver
Burleson was my poppa. He was a tall black man. Oh, Lawd,
he was good to us chillun. He was a lovin' man to us. Poppa had always
been a hard field worker durin' slavery; but durin'
de sebenties, I think it was, he was a constable in
Hays County. Dis was long befo' I got
married. Poppa died on March 30, 1901, from smallpox. "Mothaw's name was Jane Burleson. Her grandmothaw
was a full-blooded Injun, so she said. Even my mothaw
had high cheek bones and a yaller skin. Her first mawster had been John Primm, at
Primm's Lake, near Smithville. Mawster Primm den
sold her to mawster Sam Craft, of
Bastrop. She was sold to him when she was only seben
years old. I don't remembah how much dat she said she was sold fo'. Den she was owned by John Burleson. "She was
married three times durin' slavery. Her first
husband was Abraham McKinney. Dey had one child, Margaret, and she was
only four months old when McKinney was sold. Margaret died later.
Her next husband was Dick Craft; dey had three chillun - William, Susanna, and Richard. Her third husband was
Oliver Burleson; dere was ten chillun
- Oliver, Charlie,
Phillip, Bob, Mary, Nellie, Lucinda, John, Harry, and Jane. Oliver was de oldest, and Jane was de youngest. Dere is only five of us chillun,
all of us girls, still livin'; dey's f'om de last husband. "When mothaw was a Craft, she was give
to Aleth Craft, when Aleth
got married. Aleth had a child and died, and den de baby
died. Dat meant dat mothaw belonged to Aleth's husband, John Burleson. John was den killed
by his brother-in-law, Wayne Barton. It was somethin' about fambly trubble.
Wayne killed John's brother's dog, I believe. Dey
had a fallin' out and on election day, in Bastrop, dey had a big argument. I think dat
den Wayne shot John dead. Dat Wayne even hit his father-in-law, Ed
Burleson, Sr., on de nose. "Den Ed Jr.,
went and killed Wayne. I don't know whut dey done to him. I do know dat
he got up and run away to Mexico. He den
stayed in Mexico long enough to marry a Spanish woman; he always let folks know dat she wasn't no Mexican. He never did bring her back to Texas wid him; but dey had two boys,
and I kain't remembah dere names, and he brought one of 'em wid him. He put de boy in school; den he sent him back to
Mexico. "When he run
off to Mexico, Ed had done been married to Miss Emma Kyle. She was de mother of Colonel Albert Sidney Burleson. "It was to de
old General Edward Burleson fahm, in San Marcos, dat poppa was brought, when he was only ten years old. He was
brought from Columbia, down in Brazoria County, and had been
owned by Mawster Stapes Townsend. Poppa was bought
by General Burleson in
a land deal. I think dat is how he was bought -
some land was bought, and poppa went wid
it, somehow. "After slavery,
my folks rented some land f'om Mawster
Ed Burleson, Jr. Dis fahm was on de head of de San Marcos River. "It was while
we was livin' dere dat Mawster Townsend's son,
Spence, come to San Marcos, and was on
his way to Mountain City, west of Kyle, where he went to buy some ranch land. He wanted to see poppa once mo'e. Him and poppa met on de road near San Marcos and dey didn't
know each other. Poppa was drivin' a yoke of oxen,
and was takin' a load of wood to town. He was comin'
f'om de country to town to sell dis load of mixed
wood - cedar, elm, oak and pinoak
- fo' one dollah. "Mothaw didn't know Mawster
Spence when he rode up to de cabin. He told her who he was, and whut
he was lookin' fo'. Mothaw told him that poppa was in town wid a load of wood. "He said he'd
wait till poppa come home dat night. "He put up his
flea-bitten gray hoss and had some coffee. A
flea-bitten hoss is whut
I called it, 'cause
it had little red spots all over it. "We had a log
cabin dat had only two rooms. Mawster
Spence slept on de bed in one of de rooms, and us chillun
slept on pallets on de floor. He stayed wid us dat night. "We done our cookin' all of de
time out in de log smoke house. We had our meats out dere too. Dere was sausages, hams, hog meats, and
pickled beef in a barrel. "We'd take a
barrel wid a good bottom, and den put chunks of raw
meat into it. We'd mix some salt wid
some saltpeter. Den we'd put a mixture of dat on de
bottom. Den we'd put a layer of meat on dat,
and den a layer of de mixture, till de barrel was filled. Den some rocks was put on top; dat
helped to draw de blood out. Yo' could take a pinch
of saltpeter and put it on a bone and all of de lean
meat would turn red on it. "I was Mary
Burleson when I was a girl. I was bawn on April 27,
1864. I'm goin' to be sebenty-four years old soon. "When I was a
girl, I plowed de fields wid
oxen, mules, and hosses. I hauled cotton to de gin. I helped clear de land of stumps,
and in de fall, I helped burn de cawnstalks. I
never was much of a cotton picker, and never
could pick my two hunnert pounds a day. I picked cotton right on de place where de fish
hatchery is in San Marcos. "In January,
1881, I got married to Hannibal Davis. He was a fahmer
and had moved to San Marcos, from
Robertson County. I had been to some folks' house on de other side of de San Marcos River, when it stahted to rainin'. De river
got up and I couldn't git back across. Hannibal come along on a mule and
took me home. Dat was on a Thursday in September, and he cou'ted me till de next January, when we got married. "Me and Hannibal had four chillun:
Louanna, Bertha, Freddie Lee and Dora. All of dem is dead now 'cept
Freddie Lee. "Freddie Lee is
now fifty, and he kain't
even write his own name. He's jes' a laborer. He had a chance to go to school, but he was jes' a blockhead. Yo' know dat yo' kain't
learn some boys nothin'.
He went to school fi' awhile and de teachahs said dat he jes' wouldn't learn nothin'. "All dat Freddie Lee wanted was his plows and mules. He liked
to do nothin' but fahm.
He could pick six hunnert
pounds of cotton a day. Folks used to say dat if yo' wouldn't bother him in a field, he'd work lak a convict. "'Freddie Lee,'
I used to tell him, 'I want yo' to be a doctah, or a teachah.' "'Oh, dere is too many of 'em now,'
he'd say. "When I was a
girl I did learn to read and write. I go to night school now, when I feel lak it. Dey want me to learn how
to talk good English plain, but it don't do no good. I forgit how to talk it in no time. I told 'em dat I was too old now to
learn dat and dat de road
is behind me. I am too old fo'
dat. "I kin read my
Bible. Dere is days when I feel low in spirits I
take my Bible, open it at any place, and ask de Lawd
to give me some peace. "Me and
Hannibal stayed in Robertson County fo' about
twenty-three years. Our fahm was near Calvert, between de Little and de Big
Brazos rivers. We raised cotton dat had stalks on 'em so big dat a child could stand on 'em.
Why, we had to take a ax and chop some of 'em
down! De stalks in dem Brazos River bottoms got so
big dat a pusson couldn't
pick a row alone. It took one pusson to pick one side of de row, and another pusson to pick de other side. |
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