"My father was named Alec Summerville. He named himself after the
Civil War. They were going around letting the people choose their
names. He had belonged to Alec Watts; but when they allowed him to
select his own name after the war, he called himself Summerville after
the town Summerville (Somerville), Alabama. His mother was named
Charlotte Dantzler. She was born in North Carolina. John Haynes bought
her and brought her to Arkansas. My father was an overseer's child.
You know they whipped people in those days and forced them. That is
why he didn't go by the name of Watts after he got free and could
select his own name.
"The name of my mother's mother was Celia Watts. I don't know my
grandfather's first name. Old man Alec Watts' father gave my mother to
him. I didn't know anything about that except what was told to me.
They bought her from South Carolina. They came to Louisiana. My father
was bought in South Carolina too. After the Haynes met the Watts,
Watts married old man Haynes' daughter. He gave my father to his
daughter, Mary Watts. She was Mary Watts after she was married. She
was Mary Haynes before. Watts' father gave my mother to Alec Watts.
That is just the way it was.
"My mother and father had three children to live. I think there were
about thirteen in all. There are just two of us living now. I couldn't
tell you where Jeffrey Summerville, my living brother, is living now.