me
de silver, de gold, and de money, I'll burn you alive.' Him reply: 'I
haven't many more years to live. Burn and be damned!' De Yankee was
surprised at his bravery, ordered father to take de torch from under de
bed and say: 'You 'bout de bravest man I ever see in South Carolina.'

"His wife, old Miss Mary, was sister to Congressman Joe Woodward. Deir
house and plantation was out at Buckhead. I was a boy eleven years old
and was in de house when he died, in 1874. He was de oldest person I
ever saw, eighty-seven. He had several chillun. Thomas marry Eliza Peay,
de baby of Col. Austin Peay, one of de rich race horse folks. Marse
Boykin marry Miss Cora Dantzler of Orangeburg. Him went to de war. Then
Nicholas, Austin, John, and Belton, all went to de Civil War. Austin was
killed at second Bull Run. Marse Nicholas go to Alabama and become
sheriff out dere. Marse John marry Miss Morris and was clerk of court
here for twenty-eight years.

"One of Marse John's sons is Senator Lyles, de cotton buyer here in
Winnsboro. De youngest boy, just a lad at freedom, marry Miss Cora Irby.
Two of deir chillun marry Marse Jim and Marse Bill Mobley in Columbia.
De youngest child, Miss Rebecca marry Marse DuBose Ellison in Winnsboro.

"First time I marry Emily Kinlock and had one child. Emily die. Then I
marry Lizzie Brown. Us had six chillun. When Lizzie die, I marry a
widow, Frances Young. Us too old to have chillun.

"I live at Rion, S.C. Just piddle 'round wid chickens and garden truck.
I sells them to de stone cutters and de mill people of Winnsboro. I's
past de age to work hard, and I'm mighty sorry dat our race was set free
too soon."

PROJECT #1655
W.W. Dixon,
Winnsboro, S.C.

ELI HARRISON
EX-SLAVE 87 YEARS.

Eli Harrison lives on a small ten-acre tract of land near Dutchman
Creek, in Fairfield County, approximately seven miles southeast of
Winnsboro. The house, which he owns, is a small shack or shanty
constructed of scantlings and slabs. He lives in it alone and does his
own cooking. He has been on the relief roll for the past three years,
and ekes out a subsistence on the charity of the Longtown and Ridgeway
people. He is small, wiry, and healthy, weighing about 110 pounds.

"I sure has had a time a finding you! I was up here to Winnsboro befo'
dis Welfare Society, tryin' to git a pension and they ask me who know my
age. I tell them a whole lot of people out of town knows it. Then they
ask if anybody