u know how it was. There
was no marriage at all. They just went on out and got the woman and the
white man said, 'There she is. You are man and wife.'

Right After the War

"My father died before freedom. My mother lived with him until her folks
moved away from his folks. Then she was separated from him and left him
in Mississippi. She belonged to one white man and he to another, and
that could happen any time.

"Right after freedom, she stayed with these white people, doing the
house work. She had the privilege of raising things for herself. She
made a garden, and raised vegetables and such like.

"My brother who had run off during slavery time and who later became a
preacher in the North invited us to live in the city with him.

Vocational Experiences

"I wasn't fourteen years old when I was tending to flowers for the Cairo
and Fulton Railroad. That was a railroad which later became Missouri
Pacific. They beautified everything. There wasn't any bridge. They had a
boat to take you into the town of Argenta then, and when the trains came
through, the same boat would carry the cars across. An engine would be
on the other side to finish the journey with them.

"There is one engineer living now who was active in that time, Charlie
Seymour, retired, of Little Rock. He used to run the first train over
the Baring Cross Bridge, and then he ran the first engine over the new
bridge here. He had already been retired when they finished the new
bridge, but they had him pull the first train over the new bridge
because he had pulled the first one over the old bridge. They wanted to
give him that honor.

"My manager in that time was Superintendent A.E. Buchanan.

"From this work, I was advanced to the office and stayed there twenty
years. I served under Commissioner Thomas Essex and later under
Commissioner J.A. Dean. This service included twenty years in various
departments.

"After that I billed freight for the Missouri Pacific at the Baring
Cross Storerooms under Mr. H.S. Turner for eight months or more. Then I
was transferred, because the location was not good for my health, to De
Soto, Missouri, forty-five miles this side of St. Louis. Sedentary work
had proved bad for me and I needed more active work. I waited on the
master mechanic there. After that I came back to Little Rock and worked
for the Pacific Express Company under Mr. G.F. Johnson, superintendent.
After that, I worked for the Quapaw Club[HW?] during its