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II

BOYHOOD IN LINCOLN COUNTY

Farm Life in Missouri - First Impressions of Slavery - The Block-Religion on the Frontier The Pioneer's "Good Times"- Master and Slaves.

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I was but six years old at the time of my father's death, and consequently my recollections of him are very vague. My mother was very ill when he died, but recovered her health in a few weeks' time and assumed the duties and shouldered the burden that had fallen upon her. Remaining with her in this new but now desolate home, made so by the death of the master and the great disaster caused by the flood, were six children, James, Jane, Elizabeth, Louisa, Matilda, and myself. The six older children, namely, George, Joseph, Mary, Martha, John, and Sarah, were married and in homes of their own. James and Jane did not remain long after the death of my father, but married and moved away. This left the four younger children, three sisters and myself, at the home with our mother. The neighborhood was sparsely settled, as said elsewhere, there being not a mile of railroad in the State, and the closest point to a navigable river, the Mississippi, was sixteen miles.

There was one water-mill and one "horse-mill" in the neighborhood. The water-mill ran only two or

three months in the year, and then only as the waters of Big Creek furnished the power. This mill would grind wheat and corn, but the flour made from the wheat was bolted by hand. The "horse-mill" was located some six miles from our home and the power used at that was two horses attached to a sweep. The burden of taking the grain to the mills and bringing back the meal and flour, most generally fell upon me after I reached the age of twelve years.

The family consisted of mother and four children and seven or eight slaves. My father made a will in which he gave to each of his eleven older children one or two slaves and certain personal property. To my mother he gave the place and seven or eight negroes— one man, three women and two or three younger slaves. This property was to be hers during her lifetime and at her death to vest in me, the youngest child.

On the farm were cultivated corn, wheat, and tobacco. Tobacco was the staple principally relied upon to furnish the means necessary to buy family supplies. However, in addition to the tobacco, some wheat, bacon, oats, poultry, butter and eggs were sent to market and sold. St. Louis, sixty miles away, was then, as it is now, the market for that section of the State. It took five days to make the trip, two in going, one day in St. Louis and two to return. After I reached fourteen years of age, the marketing for the succeeding four years fell upon me. Only two or three such trips were made in the year. In the winter I stood upon the streets in St. Louis and sold turkeys, geese, ducks, and chickens, and with the proceeds of such sales bought sugar, coffee, molasses,

salt, etc. On one occasion I made the trip without spending a single cent. The Missouri River at St. Charles was frozen over and wagon and team crossed without difficulty. The feed for the horses was carried in the wagon, as were the meat, bread and coffee that I used. At night I slept in the wagon or on the ground, as the weather permitted. These details are given for the purpose of showing the opportunities of that day and this. Then five days, now less than five hours to make the trip; then over heavy and unimproved roads, now in comfortable coaches.

The most interesting and enjoyable meetings of neighbors were at "log rollings," "corn shuckings" and "hog killings." Here the neighbors joined together to help each other. While the men were engaged in this work, the women were spinning or quilting, and when the day ended, a hearty and joyous gathering was held around the dinner table and fireplace. It is a question as to whether the people were not happier then than now. In the old time, friendships were stronger and more sincere. There was less selfishness and more of the milk of human kindness in the make-up of people than now. Families were strongly united, and it was a disgrace and reproach to countenance divorce. Men and women married each other for love-now in many cases for money and position. These comments may be a little out of place here, but the facts as I knew them when a boy made a deep impression upon me, and I have tried through life to emulate the stern integrity and the unselfish friendship that characterized the people of the early days.

The opportunities offered for obtaining an educa

It was

tion, however, were the most meagre. while attending the country school that an incident occurred in the neighborhood that had much to do with forming my future political opinions. Slavery was a recognized institution in the State, and men, women, and children were treated as chattels and bought and sold at public and private sale. My mother had fallen heir to several by the terms of my father's will. Neither she nor my father ever sold one. Brought up as I was with the institution, I never questioned the right or the wrong of slavery until the incident of which I am about to speak, occurred.

I saw a family sold in Troy when I was a boy, probably ten or twelve years of age. It consisted of husband, wife, and three children. The sale was conducted by a little sharp-nosed man by the name of Joe Shelton. The father of the family was first placed upon the block and sold to a trader from the South. The wife and mother was then sold to a different person, as were the two daughters, aged about sixteen and fourteen, and the baby boy about five years old. When the baby was put up for sale to the highest bidder and the father held him in his arms while Shelton asked for bids, the tears coursed their way down the black face of the good and unoffending father as the auctioneer proceeded. This child, this baby, was sold away from the father and mother. I can still hear that tiny thing calling out, "I want my mammy!" As I stood there and witnessed the wreck of this family, I for the first time understood and appreciated the iniquity of the institution. I went home that night and told my

mother what I had seen. I said to her that a just God would not countenance such a wrong—that the preaching of Mr. Wright and others that slavery was right and that it was a divine institution, could not be true, and as for me, if the time ever came when by word or act I could aid in striking a blow that would end it, the blow would be struck. I thank God that I kept the promise.

This was but one of the harrowing incidents of this accursed institution.

The country in and about the place my father bought was sparsely settled. The pioneers came mostly from Virginia and Kentucky, with now and then a family from a State farther south. In politics they were mostly Democrats, and in religion Primitive Baptists. Thomas Jefferson Wright (himself a Kentuckian) was the elder in charge of a congregation that met for worship two or three times each month in a log house then known as Sandrun Church. My father and mother were both members of this church and so continued up to the time they died.

Elder Wright officiated at the funeral of my father in October, 1844. He was a Southerner by birth, and his convictions on any subject were strong and generally expressed with great vigor. He believed in the institution of slavery, not only from a legal but from a religious and moral standpoint. He would preach sermon after sermon upon the subject and seek to prove by the Bible the correctness of his position. The right to own slaves and the doctrine of baptism by immersion were the two principal things that he sought to establish by the Bible. He (representing his church) was opposed to missions,

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