and camped outside for the night.
There wasn't no more sleeping in that house.
"Some people believe in ghosts and some don't. What do you believe?
This is what I have seen myself. Mules and horses were running 'round
screaming and hollering every night. One day, I was walking along when
I saw a mule big as an elephant with ears at least three feet long and
eyes as big as auto lamps. He was standing right in the middle of the
road looking at me and making no motion to move. I was scared to
death, but I stooped down to pick up a stone. It wasn't but a second.
But when I raised up, he had vanished. He didn't make a sound. He just
disappeared in a second. That was in the broad open daylight. That was
what had been causing all the confusion with the mules and horses.
"When I first married I used to room with an old lady named Johnson.
Time we went to bed and put the light out, something would open the
doors. Finally I got scared and used to tell my wife to get up and
close the doors. Finally she got skittish about it. There used to be
the biggest storms around there and yet you couldn't see nothin'.
There wasn't no rain nor nothin'. Just sounds and noises like storms.
My wife comes to visit me sometimes now.
"My mother says there wasn't any such thing as marriage in slave
times. Old master jus' said, 'There's your husband, Florida.'"
Little Rock District
FOLKLORE SUBJECTS
Name of Interviewer: Irene Robertson
Subject: HISTORY OF ELLIS JEFFERSON--(NEGRO)
Story--Information (If not enough space on this page add page.)
This Information given by: Ellis Jefferson (Uncle Jeff) (C)
Place of Residence: Hazen, Arkansas
Occupation: Superanuated Minister of the M. E. Church
Age: 77
[TR: Personal information moved from bottom of form.]
He has his second eyesight and his hair is short and white. He is a
black skinned, bright-eyed old man. "Uncle Jeff" said he remembered
when the Civil War had ended they passed by where he lived with teams,
wagons filled, and especially the artillery wagon. They were carrying
them back to Washington. His mother was freed from Mrs. Nancy Marshall
of Roanoke, Va. She moved and brought his mother, he and his sister,
Ann, to Holly Springs, Miss. The county was named for his mistress:
Marshall County, Mississippi.
In 1868 they moved to [HW: within] 4 miles of DeWitt and 10 miles of
Arkansas Post. Later they moved to Kansas and near Wichita then back
to Marshall, Texas. His sister has
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