*Mazique Sanco was born a slave of Mrs. Louisa Green, in Columbia, South
Carolina, on February 10, 1849. Shortly after Mazique was freed, he
enlisted in the army and was sent with the Tenth Cavalry to San Angelo,
then Fort Concho, Texas. After Mazique left the army he became
well-known as a chef, and worked for several large hotels. Mazique uses
little dialect. When asked where Mazique is, his young wife says, "In
his office," and upon inquiry as to the location of this office, she
replies mirthfully, "On de river," for since he is too old to work,
Mazique spends most of his time fishing.*
"My mistress owned a beautiful home and three hundred twenty acres of
land in the edge of Columbia, in South Carolina, just back of the state
house. Her name was Mrs. Louisa Green and she was a widow lady. That's
where I was born, but when her nephew, Dr. Edward Flemming, married Miss
Dean, I was given to him for a wedding present, and so was my mother and
her other children. I was a very small boy then, and when I was ten Dr.
Flemming gave me to his crippled mother-in-law for a foot boy. She got
crippled in a runaway accident, when her husband was killed. He had two
fine horses, fiery and spirited as could be had. He called them Ash and
Dash, and one day he and his wife were out driving and the horses ran
the carriage into a big pine tree, and Mr. Dean was killed instantly,
and Mrs. Dean couldn't ever help herself again. I waited on her. I had a
good bed and food and was let to earn ten cent shin plasters.
"When the war was over she called up her five families of slaves and
told us we could go or stay. Some went and some stayed. I was always an
adventurer, wanting to see and learn things, so I left and went back to
my mother with Mrs. Flemming.
[Illustration: _Mazique Sanco_]
"I only stayed there a few months and hired out to Major Legg, and
worked for him several years. I felt I wasn't learning enough, so I
joined the United States Army and with a hundred and eighty-five boys
went to St. Louis, Missouri. From there we were transferred with the
Tenth Cavalry to Fort Concho. I helped haul the lumber from San Antonio
to finish the buildings at the fort. I was there five years.
"After I went to work at private employment I did some carpenter work,
but most of the houses were adobe or pecan pole buildings, so I got a
job from Mr. Jimmy Keating as mechanic for awhile, and then drifted to
Mexico. Odd jobs were all I could get for awhile, so I landed in El Paso
and got a job in a hotel.
"That was the start of my success, for I learned to be a skilled chef
and superintended the kitchens in some of the largest hotels in Texas. I
made as high as $80.00, in Houston. My last work was done at the St.
Angelus Hotel here in San Angelo and if you don't believe I'm a good
cook, just look at my wife over there. When I married her she was
fourteen years old and weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds. Now it's
been a long time since I could get her on the scales, not since she
passed the two hundred pound mark."