go to the field all evening.

"We just had a hard time this winter. I had a stroke in October and had
to quit cooking. (Her eye is closed on her left side--ed.) I love farm
life. The flood last year got us behind too. We could do fine if I had
my health."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Sylvester Wethington
Holly Grove, Arkansas
Age: 77

"I recollect seeing the Malish (Malitia) pass up and down the road. I
can tell you two things happened at our house. The Yankee soldiers come
took all the stock we had all down to young mistress' mule. They come
fer it. Young mistress got a gun, went out there, put her side saddle on
the mule and climbed up. They let her an' that mule both be. Nother
thing they had a wall built in betwix er room and let hams and all kinds
provisions swing down in thor. It went unnoticed. I recken it muster
been 3 ft. wide and long as the room. Had to go up in the loft from de
front porch. The front porch wasn't ceiled but a place sawed out so you
could get up in the loft. They used a ladder and went up there bout once
a week. They swung hams and meal, flour and beef. They swung sacks er
corn down in that place. That all the place where they could keep us a
thing in de world to eat. They come an' got bout all we had. Look like
starvation ceptin' what we had stored way."

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Joe Whitaker, Madison, Arkansas
Age: 70 plus

"I'm a blacksmith; my pa was a fine blacksmith. He was a blacksmith in
the old war (Civil War). He never got a pension. He said he loss his
sheep skin. His owners was George and Bill Whitaker. Mother always said
her owners was pretty good. I never heard my pa speak of them in that
way. They was both born in Tennessee. She was never sold. I was born in
Murray County, Tennessee too. My mother was named Fronie Whitaker and pa
Ike Whitaker. Mother had eleven children. My wife is a full-blood
Cherokee Indian. We have ten children and twenty-three grandchildren.

"I don't have a word to say against the times; they are close at
present. Nor a word to say about the next generation. I think times is
progressing and I think the people are advancing some too."

[TR: The following is typed, but scratched out by hand:]
Interviewer's Comment

Some say his wife is a small part African.

Interviewer: Beulah Sherwood Hagg
Person interviewed: Mrs. Julia A. White, 3003 Cross St.