ogether. Mr. Robert Thomas' place was right up dis same old street,
whar de Y.W.C.A. is now, and right dar is whar I was born. Dat was in
1860, a long time ago; and lots of things has happened since den. Lots
of people has moved away and lots more has died out, 'til dere ain't
many of de folks left here dat lived in Athens den. De Thomases,
Dorseys, and Phinizys was some of de oldest families here.

"I was too little to know much about de war but, little as I was, dere's
one thing dat's still as fresh in my memory now as den, and dat's how
people watched and waited to hear dat old Georgia train come in. Not
many folks was able to take de papers den, and de news in 'em was from
one to two weeks old when dey got here. All de men dat was able to fight
was off at de front and de folks at home was anxious for news. De way
dat old train brought 'em de news was lak dis: if de southern troops was
in de front, den dat old whistle jus' blowed continuously, but if it
was bad news, den it was jus' one short, sharp blast. In dat way, from
de time it got in hearin', evvybody could tell by de whistle if de news
was good or bad and, believe me, evvybody sho' did listen to dat train.

"Times was hard durin' de war but from what I've heared de folks dat was
old folks den say, dey warn't near as bad here as in lots of other
places. Yes Mam! Sho' I kin 'member dem Yankees comin' here, but dat was
atter de war was done over. Dey camped right here on Hancock Avenue.
Whar dey camped was mostly woods den, and deir camp reached nearly all
de way to whar Milledge Avenue is now. Us chillun was scared to death of
dem soldiers and stayed out of deir way all us could. My Marster, Mr.
Stevens Thomas, hid all of his family's silver and other valuables dat
could be put out of sight, for dem Yankees jus' went 'round takin'
whatever dey wanted. Dey stole all kinds of food out of de homes, went
into de smokehouses and got hams, and cotched up de chickens. Dey jus'
reached out and tuk what dey wanted and laughed about it lak dey hadn't
been stealin'.

"Dem Yankees brought de smallpox here wid 'em and give it to all de
Athens folks, and dat was somepin awful. Folks jus' died out wid it so
bad. Dey built a hospital what dey called de 'pest house' out whar de
stockade is now. It was rough and small but I reckon it helped some. It
warn't near large enough for all de folks dat was sick wid smallpox at
one time, and so dey finally got to whar dey used it jus' f