Here again, there is a confusion of patrollers with Ku Klux. It seems to
point to a use of the word Ku Klux before the War. Of course, it is
clear that the Ku Klux Klan operated after the War.
Ella Daniels' age is given as seventy-four on her insurance policy, and
I have placed that age on the first page of this story in the heading.
But three children were born after her and before the close of the War.
She says they were born two years apart. Allowing that the youngest was
born, in 1864, the one next to her would have been born in 1860, and she
would have been born in 1858. This seems likely too because she speaks
of nursing the children and going from house to house (page two) and
must have been quite a child to have been able to do that. Born in 1858,
she would have been seven years old in 1865 and would have been able to
have been doing such nursing as would have been required of her for two
years probably. So it appears to me that her age is eighty, but I have
recorded in the heading the same age decided upon for insurance.
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Mary Allen Darrow, Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 74
"I was born at Monticello, Arkansas at the last of the Cibil (Civil)
War. My parents' names was Richard and Ann Allen. They had thirteen
children. Mother was a house girl and papa a blacksmith and farmer.
"My great-grandma and grandpa was killed in Indian Nation (Alabama) by
Sam and Will Allen. They was coming west long 'fo'e the war from one of
the Carolinas. I disremembers which they told me. Great-grandpa was a
chief. They was shot and all the children run but they caught my Grandma
Evaline and put her in the wagon and brought her to Monticello,
Arkansas. They fixed her so she couldn't get loose from them. She was a
little full-blood Indian girl then. They got her fer my great-grandpa a
wife. He seen her and thought she was so pretty.
"She was wild. She wouldn't eat much else but meat and raw at that. She
had a child 'fo'e ever she'd eat bread. They tamed her. Grandpa's pa
that wanted the Indian wife was full-blood African. Mama was little
lighter than 'gingercake' color.
"My Indian grandma was mean. I was feard of 'er. She run us down and
ketch us and whoop us. She was tall slender woman. She was mean as she
could be. She'd cut a cat's head off fer no cause er tall. Grandpa was
kind. He'd bring me candy back if he went off. I cried after him. I
played with his girl. We was about the same size. Her name was Annie
Mathis. He was a Mathis. He was a blacksmith too at Monticello and later
he bought a farm three and one-half miles out. I was raised on a farm.
Papa died there. I washed and done field work all my life. Grandma
married Bob Mathis.
"Our owner was Sam and Lizzie Allen. William Allen was his brother. I
think Sam had eight children. There was a Claude Allen in Monticello and
some grandchildren, Eva Allen and Lent Allen. Eva married Robert Lawson.
I lived at Round Pond seventeen or eighteen years, then come to Forrest
City. I been away from them Allen's and Mathis' and Gill's so long and
'bout forgot 'em. They wasn't none too good to nobody--selfish. They'd
make trouble, then crap out of it. Pack it on anybody. They wasn't none
too good to do nothing. Some of 'em lazy as ever was white men and
women. Some of 'em I know wasn't rich--poor as 'Jobe's stucky.' I don't
know nothing 'bout 'em now. They wasn't good.
"I was a baby at freedom and I don't know about that nor the Ku Klux.
Grandpa started a blacksmith shop at Monticello after freedom.
"My pa was a white man. Richard Allen was mama's husband.
"Me and my husband gats ten dollars from the Old Age Pension. He is
ninety-six years old. He do a little about. I had a stroke and ain't
been no 'count since. He can tell you about the Cibil War."