"I was born in October 1844, in Nashville, Arkansas. I don't remember
the exact day. I have went through thick and thin. I was a small girl
when my mother died. I got the rheumatism so bad I can't hardly walk. It
hurts me now. My oldest brother, Henry Briggs, was five years older than
me, and my youngest brother, Isaac Briggs, was five years younger than
me. I was born October, but he was born at Christmas Eve just after
surrender. My oldest brother died last year. My youngest brother is
in Galveston, Texas. If he is living, he is there. My name was Briggs
before I married. I was just studying about my sister-in-law when you
come up. If I could get the money, I would go to see her. She was my
oldest brother's wife. Her name was Frances Briggs after she married.
She lives in Emmet, Arkansas, where he married her. I just had two
brothers, no sisters.
"My husband's name was Henry Thompson. He has been dead about twelve or
thirteen years. I have had so much sickness I can't remember exactly. I
married him a long time ago. I got it put down in the Bible. I married
yonder in Emmet, Arkansas. I ain't got the Bible nor nothing. My brother
had it and he is dead.
"My father's name was Daniel Briggs. He died in Hot Springs. We were
small children when he and my mother was separated. He was in one place
and we were in another. He tried to get us children when he died, but we
was little and couldn't get to him. My mother was dead then.
"My mother's name was Susanna Briggs. Her father's name was Isaac Metz.
The children left him in South Carolina. The white folks sold them away
from him. My mother just had three children: me, and my two brothers. I
don't know how many my grandfather had. There were four sisters that I
know besides my mother and two boys: Aunt Melissa, and Aunt Jane, and
Aunt Annie, and Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Albert Mitchell, and Uncle Ben. My
grandmother's name was Betsy. I never got to see her but they told me
about her.