Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, September 1996 Page: 153
[56] p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Documents, Letters, Reminiscences, Etc.
a loving, kind husband, but a tyrant, overbear-
ing tyrant. His ill, brutal nature drove from
under her own roof her two eldest daughters
Susy & Emily. She saw her two youngest
reduced to the most abject servitude. She saw
her daughter Martha work for him like a negro
until she reached womanhood and then marry
against her will. She saw her only boy slapped
and kicked and whipped and she dare not protest
against it.
He brought into her house 5 children the
youngest a little infant, that must have died, had
it not been for my mother's constant and kind
nursing. I am glad she took care of those
children, their mother no doubt thanked her for
it, and God blessed her for it, but from her
husband she received no thanks or consolations.
So soon as John Tooke was married he com-
menced planning to get hold of my mothers
property and also that of her children. He
succeeded in geting posession of hers without
much or no opposition, but to get the children's
he found some difficulty. But after an elapse of
some five years he obtained control of Martha's
and my property. He never did get Susy's and
Emily's. He fell out with his own blood rela-
tions in Ga and moved to Texas, tearing my
mother from her own old Father and from her
two daughters Susy & Emily. Our journey to
Texas was any thing but pleasant. Twelve
whites and about the same number of blacks
made up the company. Mother carried a baby in
her arms, about 5 or 6 months old. Our convey-
ance consisted of a four horse and a two horse
waggon. All were compelled to walk that were
able. At this time I was nine years old, and we
moved in the Fall of 1849. Of course the novelty
and romance of moving and camping out was
facinating to me. I was too young to think about
whither I was bending my steps, too young to
have trouble and had it been put to a vote
whether we should go to Texas or not; there is
no doubt but I should have voted in the affirma-
tive. Though thirty one long years have elapsedsince we started to Texas I remember with
astonishing accuracy the scenes that passed
before my eyes on that memorable morning. I
remember how the mules would plunge and
surge in the mud, how the driver (an old negro
by name Camb) would kick the saddle mule,
how he would jerk the leader with his left hand,
and whip with a great leather whip, the others
with his right hand, how he would yell at them,
you Alex, you Mike, you Pete, you Rock, get
up dar you dirty dogs every one of you. I
remember how Joe Tooke, Allen Tooke broth-
ers of John, and poor old Nelse, a negro and old
Hannah a negress, would put their shoulders to
the wheel to assist the mules through boggy
places and up precipitous hills. I remember the
great log fires at camp, how they did crackle,
and roar and glow and send light and heat far out
into the surrounding pine forest. I remember
seeing farmers along the road digging goober
peas and potatoes, great big red potatoes, how
they would stop and look at us and wonder what
we were up to. I remember how my mother
would gather me to her arms and kiss me
whenever opportunities offered. We halted a
day or so at Columbus Ga to rest. An old
gentleman by the name of Billy Bird, a relative
of my mother's entertained us. We then pro-
ceeded to Montgomery Ala, where waggons,
teams and freight were transferred to a boat
bound for Mobile. All of us including my
mother took deck passage-on the floor with
the negroes boat hands, and mules-The boat
was in the cotton trade. Every now and then she
would stop to take on cotton. The top of the
banks of the Alabamma were far above the
stream. To reach the boat with the cotton an
inclined plain was constructed at each station,
extending from the bank above to the water's
edge below. The boat would make fast opposite
the lower extremity of this plane. Two stalwart
negroes, boat hands, with cotton hooks in their
hands would stand facing each other, enough
distance between them for a bale of cotton to153
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, September 1996, periodical, September 1996; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151398/m1/41/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.