Shelby County TN

Slave Narrative of Dan Thomas

Person Interviewed: Dan Thomas Location: Nashville, Tennessee Place of Birth: Memphis, Tennessee Date of Birth: 1847 Place of Residence: 904 Jefferson Street, Nashville, Tennessee “I wuz bawn in slavery in 1847 at Memphis, Tennessee en mah marster wuz Deacon Allays. Mah mammy wuz de cook at de big house. Mah mammy d’ed soon atter I wuz bawn, en de Missis had me raised on a bottle. Marster en Missis treatus all dere slaves kindly en plenty ter eat en eve’y one wuz happy. I dunno nuthin ’bout mah daddy er whar he went. I hab no kin in dis worl’. … Read more

Biography of Thomas Lowell Mauldin

Thomas Lowell Mauldin, one of the founders and the secretary and treasurer of the Lund-Mauldin Company, Incorporated, was born near Magnolia, Arkansas, March 20, 1873, his parents being Thomas L. and Nancy Catherine (Skinner) Mauldin. The father was born in Hardeman county, Tennessee, and in 1872 went to Arkansas, where his death occurred the following year. He was a farmer by occupation and he served as a soldier of the Confederate army between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years. His wife was also a native of Hardeman county, Tennessee, and by her marriage became the mother of two children, … Read more

Biography of John Maloy

JOHN MALOY, deceased. Although the gentleman whose name heads this sketch has “passed to that bourne whence no traveler returns,” his walk through life was characterized by so much honor and such an earnest desire to benefit his fellows and the section in which he resided, that his memory will remain green in the hearts of the many citizens of Stone County, Arkansas He was born in Bengal, County Tyrone, Ireland, and when but a lad crossed the stormy ocean to America and landed at Quebec, thence to New York, from which place he went to Memphis, Tennessee, and in … Read more

Slave Narrative of Jenny Greer

Person Interviewed: Jenny Greer Location: Nashville, Tennessee Place of Birth: Florence, Alabama Age: 84 Place of Residence: 706 Overton Street, Nashville, Tennessee “Am 84 y’ars ole en wuz bawn in Florence, Alabama, ’bout seben miles fum town. Wuz bawn on de Collier plantashun en Marster en Missis wuz James en Jeanette Collier. Mah daddy en mammy wuz named Nelson en Jane Collier. I wuz named atter one ob mah Missis’ daughters. Our family wuz neber sold er divided.” “I’se bin ma’ied once. Ma’ied Neeley Greer. Thank de Lawd I aint got no chilluns. Chilluns ez so bad now I can’t … Read more

Biography of Capt. George M. Jones

Capt. Jones is the son of Henry F. and Mary (Waller) Jones, and was born in Shelby county, Tennessee, Oct. 19th, 1836.His father is still living there, aged eighty-one. His mother died in l856. George M. grew up on the farm, receiving his education at the common schools of the county where he lived. At the age of seventeen he went to Memphis, Tenn., and sold dry goods for the firm of Cossitt, Hill & Talmadge. He remained with them something over three years, receiving for his first year’s service, $75.00 and board; for the second, $100.00, and the third, … Read more

Biography of James G. Harris, M. D.

Dr. James G. Harris, a physician and surgeon of Muskogee, who is specializing in urology, was born on the 18th of February, 1889, in Muskogee county, and is a son of P. Collins and Mary A. (Davis) Harris, who were natives of Georgia and of Alabama respectively. The father served for two years with the Confederate army in the Civil war and was taken prisoner, being incarcerated for about a year. Soon after the war, owing to the fact that he was part Cherokee, he received an allotment from the government in Oklahoma, then Indian Territory, and removed to this … Read more

Biography of Guy Perry McNaughton, M. D.

Dr. Guy Peery McNaughton, a native son of Oklahoma and a representative of one of the most prominent pioneer families of the state, has been identified with the medical fraternity of Miami since 1912 and has established an enviable reputation as a diagnostician and bacteriologist, being widely known throughout north-eastern Oklahoma as a specialist in those lines of medical science. He was born in Ottawa County, December 18, 1887, his parents being J. P. and Clara E. (Peery) McNaughton. A complete family sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. On the home farm near Miami, Guy Peery McNaughton spent the period … Read more

Slave Narrative of Lucretia Alexander

Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor Person Interviewed: Lucretia Alexander Location: 1708 High Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Age: 89 Occupation: Washed. Ironed. Plowed. Hoed “I been married three times and my last name was Lucretia Alexander. I was twelve years old when the War began. My mother died at seventy-three or seventy-five. That was in August 1865—August the ninth. She was buried August twelfth. The reason they kept her was they had refugeed her children off to different places to keep them from the Yankees. They couldn’t get them back. My mother and her children were heir property. Her first master was … Read more

Natchez Trace

Natchez Under the Hill

In 1792, in a council held at Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis, Tennessee, is now located, a treaty was made with the Chickasaws, in which they granted the United States the right of way through their territory for a public road to be opened from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. This road was long known, and no doubt, remembered by many at the present time by the name “Natchez Trace.” It crossed the Tennessee River at a point then known as “Colberts Ferry,” and passed through the present counties of Tishomingo, Ittiwamba, Lee, Pantotoc, Chickasaw, Choctaw, thence on to Natchez, and … Read more

Slave Narrative of Emmett Beal

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Emmett Beal Age: 78 Location: Biscoe, Arkansas “I was born in Holloman County, Bolivar, Tennessee. Master Dr. Jim May owned my set er folks. He had two girls and two boys. I reckon he had a wife but I don’t recollect seeing her. Ma suckled me; William May with me. Ely and Seley and Susie was his children. “I churned for mama in slavery. She tied a cloth around the top so no flies get in. I better hadn’t let no fly get in the churn. She take me out to a peach tree … Read more

Biography of Capt. John Burgess Davis

When the great West was young the Mississippi River, as the principal gateway to it and almost the sole means of conveying its products to the out-side world was the center of commercial life. Men who followed the river were participants in stirring events and their work was fraught with an importance in the eyes of the public that we of today can little realize. To be a steamboat captain in the fifties and sixties invested the individual with a dignity as great as that accorded to the average railroad magnate nowadays. Captain John Burgess Davis earned his title when … Read more

Biography of Jackson Johnson

Jackson Johnson of St. Louis, who as chairman of the board of the International Shoe Company has gained not only American but world leadership in connection with shoe manufacturing interests, was born in La Grange, Alabama, on the 2d of November, 1859, a son of James Lee and Helen (Rand) Johnson, the former a native of Mississippi, while the latter was born in Alabama. The father owned and conducted a plantation up to the time of the Civil war. Jackson Johnson pursued his education in the public schools of his native state and when nineteen years of age initiated his … Read more

Biography of John Daniel Bewley, M. D.

Coming to Miami in 1916, Dr. John Daniel Bewley has thoroughly demonstrated his ability as a physician and surgeon and his professional labors have been attended with a gratifying measure of success. He was born in Dover, Pope County, Arkansas, March 25, 1874, of the marriage of Benjamin V. and Triphenia (West) Bewley, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Arkansas. Her father was a major in the Mexican war and was stationed at old Fort Gibson, Indian Territory. Prior to the Civil war he retired from the United States army and made his home in Arkansas … Read more

Biography of Walter S. Ezell

Walter S. Ezell. Contributing to the prestige of the City of Wichita as an educational center are a number of well ordered business and technical institutions, and prominent among the number is the Wichita Telegraph College, which was founded in the spring of 1912 by its present owner and manager, Walter S. Ezell, who as a mere boy had manifested a distinct predilection for the art of telegraphy and who contrived to pass much of his time in the telegraph office of the railway station of which his father was agent in the City of Memphis, Tennessee. As an expert … Read more

Biography of Rt. Rev. John Patrick Farrelly, D. D.

Farrelly, John Patrick, Rt. Rev. D. D.; Bishop of Cleveland; born, Memphis, Tenn., March 15, 1856; son of John P. and Martha Clay Moore Farrelly; early education in the grammar schools of Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky; studied classics for three years at Georgetown University, Washington, D. C.; in 1873, went to Europe, to complete classical education; graduated from the College of Notre Dame de la Paix, Namur, Belgium; from Namur, went to the American College, Rome, to study philosophy and theology; at the conclusion of a brilliant course received the Doctorate in Sacred Theology from The University of the Propaganda, … Read more

Slave Narrative of Rev. Wamble

Interviewer: Archie Koritz Person Interviewed: Rev. Wamble Location: Gary, Indiana Place of Birth: Monroe County, Mississippi, Date of Birth: 1859 Place of Residence: 1827 Madison Street, Gary, Indiana Occupation: Wagon-maker Archie Koritz, Field Worker Federal Writers’ Project Porter County-District #1 Valparaiso, Indiana EX-SLAVES REV. WAMBLE 1827 Madison Street Gary, Indiana [TR: above ‘Wamble’ in handwriting is ‘Womble’] Rev. Wamble was born a slave in Monroe County, Mississippi, in 1859. The Westbrook family owned many slaves in charge of over-seers who managed the farm, on which there were usually two hundred or more slaves. One of the Westbrook daughters married a … Read more

Biography of Andrew Jackson Edmondson

Andrew Jackson Edmondson, who since 1919 has had the agency for the Studebaker cars at Muskogee, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, September 16, 1872, and is a son of Edmond A. and Ann (Murell) Edmondson. The father was a planter, devoting his life to the management and development of his agricultural interests. His grandfather served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and kept a complete history of the struggle, being with Andrew Jackson in his operations in the south and at the battle of New Orleans. The manuscript which he prepared, however, was burned when the family residence … Read more

Biographical Sketch of S. E. Ray

S. E. Ray, dealer in dry and fancy goods, boots and shoes, etc., Charleston; was born near Montpelier, Vt., Aug. 5, 1833; in early childhood, he accompanied his parents to Geauga Co. (now Lake), Ohio; there, his father resided until his death, and his mother still resides there; at about the age of 20 years, Mr. Ray went to La Fayette, Ind., and engaged as a traveling salesman for Luce Brothers in the stationery business; and, after remaining with them four years, went to Chicago, and for about six years traveled for the well-known stationery house of Culver, Page, Hoyne … Read more

Biography of Thomas F. Browne

Thomas F. Browne, manager and resident vice president of the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company of Baltimore, Maryland, which corporation he has represented in St. Louis since the 6th of May, 1911, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, a son of the late Peter Randolph Bland Browne, who was likewise born in Tennessee and became a successful merchant of that state, where he resided to the time of his death, which occurred in March, 1878, when he had reached the age of forty-eight years. His wife, Willie Etta (Feild) Browne, was also born in Tennessee and was a daughter of Dr. … Read more

Biography of Ward Smith

Ward Smith, secretary of the Hunter-Robinson Milling & Grain Company and manager of the grain department, was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee, May 22, 1888. His father, Dr. J. Crittenden Smith, was a native of Columbia, Tennessee, and is now in business in Chicago. His father, Dr. T. C. Smith, is still living in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee. He and his immediate ancestors in the two preceding generations were physicians. The Smith family comes of English lineage. J. Crittenden Smith was united in marriage to Ella Ward, a daughter of John H. Ward, a wholesale furniture dealer of Nashville, Tennessee. He came … Read more