ceola is where the saying
originated, 'I'm from Missouri, show me.' After the war the smart guys
came through and talked the people into voting bonds, but there was no
railroad built and most counties paid their bonds, but the county in
which Osceola stands refused to pay for their bonds because there was
no railroad built, and they told the collectors to 'show me the railroad
and we will pay,' and that is where 'show me' originated."

"My wife died when we had three children. She had had to work hard all
her life and she said she didn't want her children to have to work as
hard as she had, and I promised her on her death bed, that I would
educate our girls. So I worked and sent the girls to school. My two
girls both graduated from Ottawa university, the oldest one being the
first colored girl to ever graduate from that school. After graduation
she went to teach school in Oklahoma, but only got twenty-five dollars a
month, and I had to work and send her money to pay her expenses. The
younger girl also graduated and went to teach school, but she did not
teach school long, until she married a well-to-do farmer in Oklahoma.
The older girl got her wages raised until she got one hundred and
twenty-five dollars per month. I have worked at farm work and tree
husbandry all my life. My oldest daughter bought me my first suit of
clothes I ever had."

"I have been living alone about twenty-five years. I don't know hew old
I was, but my oldest daughter had written my mother before she died, and
got our family record, which my mother kept in her old Bible. Each year
she writes me and tells me on my birthday how old I am."

THE AMERICAN GUIDE
TOPEKA, KANSAS

EX SLAVE STORY
HUTCHINSON, KANSAS
INTERVIEWER: E. Jean Foote

Belle Williams was born in slavery about the year 1850 or 1851. Her
mother's name was Elizabeth Hulsie, being the slave of Sid Hulsie, her
last name being the name of her master. The Hulsie plantation was
located in Carroll County, Arkansas. Belle Williams, better known as
"Auntie Belle" is most interesting. She lives in her own little home in
the one hundred block on Harvey Street, Hutchinson, Kansas. She is too
old and crippled to do hard work, so spends most of her time smoking her
pipe and rocking in her old armchair on the little porch of her home.
She is jolly, and most interesting.

"Yes, I was a slave," she said. "I was born a slave on a plantation in
Carroll County, Arkansas and lived there