The Indigenous Black People of Monroe, Louisiana and the Surrounding Cities, Towns, and Villages: A 100 Year Documentary

By James O. McHenry ED.D

This book is for those Louisiana slaves (and all the American slaves) whose labor was forced without regard to their humanity, even further, with unrestrained disrespect for their existence. This book is a tribute to the indigenous (originated in or native to the region) Black people of Northeast Louisiana, those folk who were reared in the rural areas, villages, and small towns; who worked on the farms and plantations; sharecropped; cleared all the land; tended all the livestock; planted and harvested all the crops; cooked for, babysat, and cleaned the homes of White folk; and endured the hardships of it all. This is a tribute to those laborers and professionals who strived for better lives for themselves and their families; the people who remained in Monroe, those who migrated to Monroe to make it a fine place to call home, and those who returned to the warmth of Monroe to live; and also, to those who left the area and moved on to other parts of the United States and world. I want to thank them all for trusting me with their stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453588604

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Copyright © 2010 by James O. McHenry, Ed.D.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2010914574

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4535-8859-8

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4535-8858-1

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4535-8860-4

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE

TRIBUTE

PART ONE

Delia Pleasant-Berry

June 15, 1908

Extension, Franklin Parish, Louisiana

Place of Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

Freddie W. Bootie Jim Jones

September 10, 1910

Monroe, Louisiana

DOD—May 15, 1996

Comedian, Clown, Dancer, Showman, Minstrel Performer

PART TWO

Fred Sumler

November 25, 1912

Sterlington, Louisiana

(Died—23 January 2002 in Fresno, CA)

Mattie Eula King-Morris and Harriet Anna King-Reed

DOB—March 23, 1910 and March 14, 1919

Sterlington, Glendora Plantation, Louisiana

Bessie Wiley-Lacy

May 23, 1916

Glendora Plantation in Sterlington, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

S.O. McHenry

October 15, 1916

Fairbanks, Louisiana

Compiled and Quoted by Patricia McHenry-Richard

Leil Murray

March 15, 1917

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

Martha Sewell-Johnson

July 4, 1920

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Los Angeles, California

PART THREE

Juanita Marie Carr-Foster-Barnes

July 18, 1921

Gibsland, Louisiana

Residence—Ruston, Louisiana

Retired Teacher and Administrator

Lizzie T. Larkin

February 10, 1925

Oak Ridge, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, LA 71201

Retired Teacher from Monroe City School System

Thomas W. Moy

February 6, 1927

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Las Vegas, Nevada

Mackie Freeze

April 1927

Lampkin, Richland Plantation, Louisiana

Residence: Monroe, Louisiana

Retired Educator, Coach, Government Manager

Christina Johnson-Huff

July 26, 1927

Monroe, Louisiana

Retired Schoolteacher

Frances Pierce-Reddix

April 1, 1928

Monroe, Louisiana

Mathematics Teacher

Fannye Elizabeth Worford

November 10, 1928

Gilliam, Louisiana

Residence—Detroit, Michigan

Laura Brown

May 19, 1929

Concordia Parish, Louisiana

Retired Secretary—Carroll High School—Monroe, LA

Clemett Lewis-Davis-Powell

December 19, 1929

Wall Lake, Louisiana

Residence—Los Angeles, California

PART FOUR

Viola Yvette Talton-Dixon

December 9, 1932

Sterlington, Louisiana

Residence—Sterlington, Louisiana

Charles David Hill

February 26, 1934

Calhoun, Louisiana

Entrepreneur, Real Estate Magnate

Abe E. Pierce III

October 28, 1934

Monroe, Louisiana

Scientist, Teacher, Principal, Government Official, Former Mayor of Monroe, Louisiana

Charles W. Ross

November 28, 1934

Monroe, Louisiana

Dorth Edward Blade

b. February 23, 1935—d. June 10, 2009

Foules, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana

Residence: Monroe, Louisiana

Teacher, Coach, School Principal, Parish Official

Reverend John L. Russell

July 9, 1935

Mansfield, De Soto Parish, Louisiana

Minister, Pastor, Civic Activist

Roye E. Love

October 16, 1935

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Carson, California

Edna H. Davis

December 24, 1935

Monroe, Louisiana

Shirley Delores Adams-McHenry

April 3, 1937

Monroe, Louisiana

Dr. Louis Carl L. C. Thomas Jr.

August 20, 1937

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Carson, California

Musician, Teacher, School Administrator

Henry T. Gobie Johnson

August 23, 1937

Monroe, Louisiana

Abraham Bowie Jr.

March 16, 1938

Monroe, Louisiana

U.S. Marine Corp, Louisiana State Patrol, U.S. Marshals Service

Samuel A. Barnes

February 8, 1939

Collinston, Louisiana

Carroll High School—Monroe, Louisiana—1957

Artist/Black History Buff, Avid Golfer, Scribe and Poet of Sorts

Residence—Augusta, Georgia

Samuel A. Barnes, Class of 1957

Written in November 2003

Second Revision—August 2006

Johnny El McCaa

March 28, 1939

Rayville, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

Educator, Coach

William Morris Johnson

January 15, 1940

Monroe, Louisiana

Ethel M. Thomas-White

May 26, 1940

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Evans, Georgia

The Legacy of Alfred and Elisha Thomas

James O. McHenry

November 9, 1940

Sterlington, Louisiana

Teacher, U.S. Army, Probation Officer, Chief U.S. Pretrial Services Officer (Retired)

Houston, Texas

Charlesetta Lyles Thompson

December 19, 1940

El Dorado, Arkansas

Residence—Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Teacher, Poet

PART FIVE

Ernestine Pendleton-Dickerson

1941

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Converse, Texas

Profession—Pianist, Music Teacher

King George Smedley

August 5, 1941

Monroe, Louisiana

Roy Neal Shelling, Sr.

November 24, 1941

Monroe, Louisiana

Schoolteacher, Football Coach, Policeman, School Principal

Dr. Willie Allen Naylor

February 16, 1942

Holly Ridge, Louisiana

Eula D. Britton High School—Rayville—1959

Residence—Country Club Hills, Illinois

Bessie McHenry-Jordan

April 9, 1942

Sterlington, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

Small Town Memories

(1940—1960)

Maurice Wilton Johnson

March 2, 1943

Monroe, Louisiana

Musician (Principal Saxophonist), Educator, High School

and University Band Director

Mayor Clarence W. Hawkins

June 5, 1943

Meridian, Lauderdale, Mississippi

Teacher; Principal; Assistant School Superintendent;

Mayor, City of Bastrop, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana

Reverend Benjamin J. Martin, Ph.D.

June 30, 1943

Monroe, Louisiana

Pastor, St. Rest Baptist Church of Minden, Inc.

Residence—Minden, Louisiana

John Ethel Page-Minifield

August 4, 1943

Farmerville, Union Parish, Louisiana

Current Residence: Monroe, Louisiana

Retired Music Teacher, Musician

Thomas Allen Moorehead

April 21, 1944

Monroe, Louisiana

Carroll High School—1962

Residence—McLean, Virginia

Dr. Georgia Stewart-McDade

December 5, 1945

POB—Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—4802 South Mead Street

Seattle, Washington 98118

ZAKIYYAH RAHEEM, PH.D.

(Formerly Georgia Thomas)

February 22, 1946

Monroe, Louisiana

and

CARRIE A. THOMAS

June 6, 1948

Dallas, Texas 75217

Harry James Lewis, Mayor—City of Rayville

Born: April 3, 1946

Holly Ridge, Tensas Parish, Louisiana

Residence—Rayville, Richland Parish, Louisiana

Patricia McHenry-Richard

February 7, 1947 P.O.B.—Martinez, California

Residence—Oakland, California

Coming Up in Monroe, Louisiana

Barbara Ann Jackson-West

May 8, 1947

Monroe, Louisiana

Singer, R & B and Gospel Music

Residence—Monroe

Jennifer Robinson-Cassey

October 30, 1947

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—6516 Wooster Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90056

Rev. Delles Ray Howell Sr.

August 22, 1948

Vallejo, California

Resident: Monroe, Louisiana

National Football League, City of Monroe Executive, Pastor

Freddy Rattler

January 15, 1950

Monroe, Louisiana

Residence—Houston, Texas

Trombonist, Singer, Composer, Arranger,

Writer, and Spoken Word Poet

Senator Charles Dean Jones

March 25, 1950

Lake Providence, Louisiana

Louisiana State Senator—Attorney

PART SIX

Dr. LaWanna K. Gunn-Williams

May 25, 1952

Monroe, Louisiana

Profession: Marriage and Family Therapist, Psychotherapist, Christian Therapist, University Professor

Reverend Oliver W. Billups Jr.

Pastor—Mt. Olivet Baptist Church—Monroe, LA

June 1, 1953

Wisner, Louisiana

Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

Frank Joseph Detiege Jr.

August 20, 1955

Monroe, Louisiana

Educator, Newspaper Publisher

Mayor James Earl Jamie Mayo

March 30, 1957

Mer Rouge, Louisiana

Mayor, City of Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana

Johnell Reggie Moorhead

January 24, 1960

Baltimore, Maryland

Residence: Houston, TX

Mail & Shipping Manager for an Oilfield Supply Company

PART SEVEN

Franklin Frank David Kelley, Jr.

March 9, 1962

Jackson Parish, Louisiana

Residence—West Monroe, Louisiana

Professional Fine Art Painter

Judge Tammy Deon Lee

November 10, 1967

Monroe, Louisiana

Attorney, Judge, Monroe City Courts

PART EIGHT

Mosi Njemili Myles-Jackson

February 27, 1976

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Eighth Grade Teacher

Harrington Watson III

February 5, 1977

Monroe, Louisiana

Teacher, Assistant Principal

PART NINE

Mia DeShawn Whiteside-Williams

January 8, 1981

Oak Grove, Louisiana

Residence—Bastrop, Louisiana

Profession—Social Worker

Ashley Lynee’ Turner

August 10, 1982

Monroe, Louisiana

Aoko Jordan

October 13, 1987

Shreveport, Louisiana

PART TEN

Millicent Lisette Bridges

March 16, 1992

Monroe, Louisiana

Arlivia LaQuita Mesha Lawrence

November 1, 1992

Monroe, Louisiana

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to offer my deepest thanks to those captivating people who welcomed me into their homes and offices for interviews. I am very grateful to those who mailed information, documents, and photographs and who inspired with hope the success of this literary effort. This book became a reality because of you.

I am grateful to the persons who recommended friends and relatives whom they thought had inspiring and stimulating stories to tell. They were right. This is a collection of interesting events of history, poetry, fascinating stories, and engrossing biographies from very engaging people who are indigenous or native to, the Northeast Louisiana area, Monroe in particular.

This collection is not a definitive work. I hope that it will inspire other research and literary pieces about Monroe, Louisiana and the Surrounding Area.

PROLOGUE

There is an astounding amount of human history that goes up in smoke. Many remarkable, exciting, and great things that occurred in Monroe, Louisiana (and the surrounding cities, towns, and villages) are lost, never to be recovered. It is understood that the whole-life experience cannot be captured in a book, but there has been little attempt to record but a limited quantity of the Black history of this Northeast Louisiana area, rich as it is in significant people and events. This is not a definitive work; it is a small contribution to that responsibility.

We have some great bridges in our history, and we must maintain those bridges by constantly reminding the newest generations of the importance of themselves and those bridges. Significant voices, like Oprah Winfrey and Dr. William Bill Cosby, have said, and I paraphrase them, that the wretchedness of the recent past generations are our fault; we let them down by failing to pass on the values and experiences of earlier generations. Consequently, we all share the responsibility that the future has placed in our hands. But, we cannot deal with the future without dealing with the past. If we try it, the problems of the past will certainly follow us. Under the smoke of history is a smoldering fire of Black disenchantment and self-hatred, and it must be extinguished or dealt with effectively before we can proceed and expect change. This writer does not intend to diminish or ignore the spirituality, earthiness, strength, pride, intelligence (and genius), creativity, love, leadership, and the beauty that these Black Voices express. Each of them represents all of those qualities and more. Here at the beginning of the 21st century, I am pleased to facilitate the opportunity for these Black Voices to be heard in a primary publication of this type. These Voices are passing on the values and experiences of their generations.

The 2008 election of the first Black American President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, is a part of that essential transformation. This was not just a Black man being elected. His election serves as an evolutionary flashpoint, and the shift has occurred. It is plainly evident that President Obama is a man with a quick penetrating mind, the highest quality of skills, and exceptional credentials, and he can perform at the very highest level. He is a shining example for Black youth who need an example for emulation. The progressive changes that we dream of, however, will not come easily. Our collective thinking needs to evolve radically in a new direction in order for us to save the children and preserve our heritage. Now, more than ever, we need to adopt the virtues of books, Standard English, and good manners. We cannot depend only on the presence of Black people in important positions of government, business, and entertainment to represent us, but we need to make a lasting, positive, and final grass roots impression on the masses of our race as well as upon those around the world that watch and criticize us daily, often with racial stereotypical images.

My son, Ali, stated to me his dream for Black people: Dad, I hope that when the smoke clears and we all find ourselves in this new world, that Black people will know and understand: the history of the civil rights movement in the U.S.; the history of slavery in the U.S.; the history of the Atlantic slave trade; the impact of slavery on our educational status and self-esteem; the contributions of African-Americans to the U.S.; the culture and significance of the African people prior to the Atlantic slave trade; the power of education; the accomplishments of Africans in science and mathematics; the impact of colonization on African countries; the negative impact of certain types of Hip Hop and Rap; and the value, power, and principles of leadership, specifically for men. Ali is a young and very bright Prairie View A. & M. Electrical Engineering graduate and a MBA graduate of Rice University whom I think well-represents our future generations.

The latest generation needs to know that they can succeed despite the perils, obstacles, and challenges that are natural to the environment. They would do well to respect the wisdom of the ages, reflect upon it, and continue to communicate and share it. They cannot be allowed to forget the past, lest history repeat itself. They must realize that we are all connected to the past and we must learn from it so that we can carry the baton and pass it to the next generation in the continuing charge to excel in the future. They also need to know that we stand on the shoulders of giants and that we are a brilliant race.

During my childhood, age and graying hair were respected and honored. That glint of wisdom and brilliance in the elder’s eyes carried esteem and grace. Their words commanded respect. What happened to us? Has fear and self-hatred gripped us? Are we afraid to confront our children, our political system, the educational structure, the business sector, and demand justice? Have we become so sophisticated, assimilated, and integrated that we are ashamed of our history, dreams, traditions, and the stories of how it used to be? Because of these pressing questions, I decided that the biographical interviews had to be intergenerational. I had to craft interview questions that were consistent for the elders as well as the youth. All of them, especially the elders, are the repositories of much of Monroe’s and Northeast Louisiana’s history in the 20th century, and some of that history had never been shared beyond the confines of the Black family, where the truths about their lives in a majority White world could safely be told. Once those memories and stories were gone, that particular history could never be retrieved.

I want to share with the readers that this book was not the result of collaboration, extensive planning, or of my penetrating intellect. It had nothing to do with me. It never once occurred to me to research this type of material for a book, but the thought and title pierced my soul at once without warning upon my awakening from sleep on that summer morning in 2006. I was convinced instantly, with great joy that this was a moral responsibility, that it was going to be exciting, and that Monroe and Northeast Louisiana merits this recognition. It has been a pure delight for me, and I have learned so much about the history and culture of Northeast Louisiana, its people, and Monroe in particular, that I might never have known but for listening to these Black Voices. I tell those who ask me what inspired this book that the idea came directly from God. I mean that!

The persons who are represented as Black voices in this book have elected to be guideposts by sharing their experiences, and even by exposing themselves as examples to the world in order to usher future generations to a successful destiny. They are saying to the children, Use me and my past as a starting point and do not compromise your God-given greatness for a low standard of life. They are saying expect only the best in whatever you endeavor to master. They are saying, We value self-improvement over everything else. There is joy, pain, suffering, love, sacrifice, and success in these examples and it puts us in a unique position for advancement. For without these Black voices, without Black history, we cannot know where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. Never forget, because the present will soon become the past.

TRIBUTE

This book is for those Louisiana slaves (and all the American slaves) whose labor was forced without regard to their humanity, even further, with unrestrained disrespect for their existence. This book is a tribute to the indigenous (originated in or native to the region) Black people of Northeast Louisiana, those folk who were reared in the rural areas, villages, and small towns; who worked on the farms and plantations; sharecropped; cleared all the land; tended all the livestock; planted and harvested all the crops; cooked for, babysat, and cleaned the homes of White folk; and endured the hardships of it all. This is a tribute to those laborers and professionals who strived for better lives for themselves and their families; the people who remained in Monroe, those who migrated to Monroe to make it a fine place to call home, and those who returned to the warmth of Monroe to live; and also, to those who left the area and moved on to other parts of the United States and world. I want to thank them all for trusting me with their stories.

It is a tribute also to my family, especially my mother, Rebecca, who stressed education, thriftiness, and investing, and my father, Shirley O’Neal, who sacrificed, struggled, endured, encouraged, and always worked more than one job, and my family, siblings, and friends, who shared my enthusiasm and commitment for this book from the very beginning.

PART ONE

1900 to 1910

Delia Pleasant-Berry

June 15, 1908

Extension, Franklin Parish, Louisiana

Place of Residence—Monroe, Louisiana

My name is Delia Pleasant Berry—I am known by several names: Ma Dear, Dee, Grand-mother, Ms. Delia, Sister Berry, and Mother Berry. I was born on June 15, 1908 in Extension, Louisiana near Winnsboro to my proud parents, Ella Anderson-Pleasant (born about 1889) from New Orleans, Louisiana and Walker Pleasant (born about 1859 and died about 5 Jun 1919) from Ft. Necessity, Franklin Parish, Louisiana. I think my mother was part Creole and kind of dark in color, and my father looked part Indian too. He was light-brown skinned and about my color.

My grandfather on my daddy’s side was Dorsey Pleasant, he was from Kentucky, born in 1828, and he was called a Mulatto, or half-White. His wife, my grandmother, was named Emily Johnson Pleasant and she was born in about 1833 in Virginia. I don’t know how they got to Louisiana. Maybe they were slaves. They were married on 14 Jul 1866 in Concordia, LA.

On my mother’s side, the Andersons, my grandfather was Dan Anderson. He was born in about February 1837 in Mississippi. He was about 20 years older than my grandmother. Before I was born, they lived outside St. Joseph, Louisiana on the Panola Plantation in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with their four children. My grandmother, his wife, was named Ellen, and she was born on approximately April 1858 in Mississippi.

My husband was Ruben Berry and he was born in Louisiana in June 10, 1887. He had been married before, and he was about 20 years older than me. I don’t really know where he was from and we were not together when he died. I heard that he died in Greenville, Mississippi in 1968. I remember him as being kind of a mean and angry person. I don’t know what made him that way. I had one child, a daughter named Dorothy Berry. She was born on October 21, 1927 and died on April 23, 2003 in Monroe, Louisiana. She had four children, three daughters and one son. My grandson, Bobby, died in 1999. My granddaughters are Ruby Nell Berry, Mary Delores Berry, and Gloria Lee Berry. I have 12 great-grand children and 15 great-great grand children.

My half-brothers were John Harris, Lucas Harris, Dunk Phoenix, and Golden Pleasant (my whole brother). They are all deceased. I had three sisters: Missy Pleasant, Sadie Pleasant, and Della Harris Mathis. They are also deceased. I had an older sister-in-law named Grace Heckard-Pleasant (b. August 1887).

As I remember, our parents were loving parents. I heard mama say one time that when she’d get to fussing and huffing with father, he’d get his hat and go way down in the field until she cooled down. He was a nice and quiet man. I don’t remember a lot of information, but there is a lady in Winnsboro named Henrietta Holmes (married name) who knows all of that.

My Memory Isn’t Too Good Anymore

Since I had this last sickness, I can’t seem to get my words out good, but I remember that my brothers and I would play together when necessary (laughter). My brother Golden and I would play together with an old wagon wheel. He’d get it to rolling down the road and control it with a stick and a piece of iron, and he’d hit it with the piece of iron to make noise. My older brother was quiet, but we got along nice together. That’s all I remember.

The area that I grew up in was alright. We were in the country on the farm. We had to cut cotton stalks and weeds and things out of the field. It was pretty hard but we had to do it. I started working pretty early, at about 14 years old. We were share-cropping, and I guess it was pretty good since we didn’t have much choice. Things were pretty cheap and we had plenty to eat, so as children, we just enjoyed it. We didn’t know anything else. We picked the cotton and the White landowner would get his part or whatever. It was pretty good enjoyment.

My Life as a Little Girl

I could ride a horse too. I would ride without a saddle, but I would ride the real gentle horses. I didn’t pick with the wild horses. I would ride the horses all around, but I didn’t ride nowhere far.

Yes I did learn canning when I was a girl. I used to put up blackberries and plum jelly. We didn’t collect rain water or use a well for water. We had a pump when I was a girl, and we heated up our water for bathing on the wood-burning stove. We also cooked on that stove.

The boys hunted for food, but I don’t remember my daddy going hunting. We raised our own hogs, cows, and some horses. We also had a big garden. We had tall collard greens about this high, big old cabbage, onions, radish, ice potatoes and sweet potatoes too. I didn’t have a favorite food then. I could eat most anything, but I especially liked pork chops. I remember that I was in Winnsboro once back then, and I ate a banana. It didn’t agree with me, so I quit eating them.

I never got into trouble from when I was a little girl up until now (laughter). One girl, when I was growing up, was really mean toward me. After school was out, she used to love to jump on me. We used to have our biscuit with syrup poured over it in a bucket with a little meat down in there with it. At school when dinner time came, we used to eat together. It was so good. (We used to make syrup too at our place.) Then, when school was out, all the children would be yelling and me and this girl would go to fighting. She had a bucket too, and she hit me right up above my eye (laughter). The teacher would say, If you all don’t quit fighting . . . and I’d say, Well, she jumped on me, and I couldn’t do nothing with her. She was bigger than me, and I think she was older too. I don’t know why she didn’t like me (laughter). She was just mean. Her name won’t come to me now, because it was many years ago.

The school didn’t have a name, but it was in Ft. Necessity, so I guess it was just called the Ft. Necessity School. It was just one big room for all the children. It had a pump for our water. We had to stop school to work in the field when it was time to work it. We had to clean up the field from the other year so they could get it ready to plant new crops.

Country Medicines

When we got sick, especially with a cold, there wasn’t no doctor. Folks would get the buggy and take you to Ft. Necessity or between there, or something like that. Sometimes they would cook peach leaves or chicken feet soup and you would drink it. They also used boiled Merlin leaves for tea from a little bush something like mustard greens. It was used for fever. When I was sick as a little girl, they used to go to the store and buy Black-Draught and mix it with warm water, and you’d drink it like a tea. It was a laxative. Then they had something called Quinine. It was for malaria and also used for leg muscle cramps.

I remember that after my teeth came back when I was a little girl, they got bad from eating a lot of sweet stuff, like sugar cane. Sometimes when I’d drink cold water, it would hurt my gums so bad. I had to go again and have them pulled.

Music and Education during My Youth

We used to have an old record player called a gramophone. I was never no dancer, but I tried. I couldn’t sing either. I forgot the man’s name, but he used to sing a song called Do, Ra, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do. I used to love that song, but I never could get them notes right. I loved to hear somebody else say it (laughter).

One of my teachers was Mr. Large Swayze. He taught music. I attended Extension School to grade 7 in between working in the fields during planting and harvest seasons (hoeing and picking cotton). The days were long, hot, and tiring.

Working in White Folk’s Homes

I worked on the farm when I lived in Franklin Parish before moving to Monroe. When I came here, my husband went to some other place. The first place I worked when I came here was at the old St. Francis Nursing Home. I worked there for 2-3 months. After that I worked at Hunt’s Café downtown. It was located across from the old Central Bank downtown. I also worked at Hemp’s Café near the River. I used to take in ironing also, and I would iron large baskets of clothing. For ironing, I was paid $3.00 per basket.

I also worked at what I called the lazy job at Northeast Louisiana University. I had to clean all of the books in the library. When I got tired, I could rest when I wanted to. I think I was getting paid over one hundred dollars a month.

I can’t say that I suffered from racial abuse when I was a little girl coming up simply because I was a Black person, but the White people didn’t want you mixing with them. I used to work in private homes and there was this one White woman in particular who was kind of prejudiced. She made me get down on my knees with soap, rags, and a brush to scrub the floors. I did that a heap of times, because I worked there for a long time. I said, I don’t like to get on my knees to mop this kitchen up. I can clean it just as good with a mop rather than to get down on my knees to scrub this floor. I don’t scrub my own floors like this. I was about 25 or 30 years old then. Working in private homes, I earned $15.00 a week. I also worked as a hair dresser and I pressed hair for $.75 a head; much later my price went to $2.00 a head. A lot of my customers were credit customers and they’d say, I’ll pay you next week Ms Delia.

The Great Flood and the Great Depression

I remember the Great Depression that started in October 1929. I was 21 years old. Since life was already tough, I don’t remember suffering from it much. I also remember the Great Flood of 1927. We had heard that the Mississippi River flooded first. We were living back up in the hills between Wisner and Sicily Island, Louisiana. I was about 20 years old when that happened. Somebody came and picked us up in boats. The water was pretty deep, and some people were wading out. It was too far to the Boeuf Riverbank to wade, but we were lucky and didn’t have to wade. Water got into many folk’s houses, but when we got back, we saw that it didn’t get in ours. We saw plenty snakes at that time. (The Boeuf River originates in Arkansas and flows southeast into Louisiana where it joins the Ouachita River). We did a lot of fishing in the Boeuf River before the flood. While we were gone from home during the flooding, snakes got into people’s houses also.

Moving to Monroe

I can’t quite remember the year that I moved to Monroe. I’ll tell you how to figure it out. If you can remember this man, or if you know who he is, you’ll know then how many years I’ve been here. You heard tell of High Hat Sam Jones? That’s what they called him, and he was some kind of governor. (Note: Sam High Hat Houston Jones is the man who defeated Earl Kemp Long in the primary run-off for the Louisiana governorship. Sam Houston Jones became the Louisiana Governor in 1940 and served until 1944.) I moved here to Monroe the same year that High Hat Jones won.

Anyway, as I remember it, Governor High Hat Sam Jones did alright. He gave food stamps in Louisiana because he said that there was too much poverty in this state. Black and White people were very poor. He also gave out stamps for shoes and clothes.

I was never a slave because it was over when I came along. I did hear talk about it. My mother’s people came from Africa. I never heard her say where in Africa they came from. She was a little darker than me in color and was kind of strongly built. She was pretty good size and kind of dark-skinned, but not real, real dark-skinned; she was kind of dark. Mama came here with her sister and her uncle whose name was Hills Williams (born May 1849 in Louisiana). They happened to get away from wherever they were. {Hills Williams, according to the U.S. Census for 1900, was married to Jennie, born in August 1854. They were in the same household with their daughter, Dugar Williams, age 13 (born in September 1886). Their son, King, age 7 (born in September 1893) was also at the residence. Godfrey Johnson, a 5 year old grandson born in August 1894, was in the home too}.

Slavery and Beatings

There were stories about slavery and beatings too. There was one White man’s place, the Daly Place, owned by John Daly. I remember him whipping a couple of Black men. They would tie them to the fence and beat them with a whip. I don’t remember why, but it was for the least little thing, either something they did to each other or something the White man didn’t like. They were just like slaves because they couldn’t resist. It never happened to me because we were on a good White man’s place. His name was Spencer DeShay. He was just good to his workers. He owned a store but he didn’t run it for too long. He would let us have anything he grew. This all happened in Extension Louisiana in Franklin Parish.

My father was a slave too. I never heard him talk about it because he died before I got old enough to pay attention. He died in his sixties from pneumonia or something like that. He never got to a doctor. He took some stuff, some old-timey medicine that people used when they got sick.

I never witnessed a hanging, but I heard tell of it. I never actually saw anybody who was left hanging. I never heard that they hung any women. I didn’t know any of the people that I heard were hanged.

Getting Baptized

As a child I joined Locust Hill Baptist Church in Extension and was baptized in 1924 in the Boeuf River by Rev H.Y. Finister. When I moved to Monroe, my family and I united with the Solomon Temple Baptist Church; Rev. J. B. Brown was pastor. I was a member of the choir; I loved and still love to sing.

Later we united with the Rose of Sharon Baptist Church with Reverend J. B. Brown as pastor. I was crowned a Mother of the Church and I was a member of the Mission. I am still a member of Rose of Sharon Baptist Church. It is currently under the leadership of my wonderful pastor, Dr. A. B. Davis-Johnson, Sr.

What does God mean to Me?

You ask what God means to me? He means everything. He’s good to me. God is good and I pray to him everyday. I was in a bad car wreck in 1984, we were on our way to Winnsboro, and my cousin was driving. My knee was broken and they had to wire it up. I was treated at St. Francis Hospital. I never saw it coming and I was unconscious and didn’t know anything. I didn’t know if I was inside the car, on the ground, under the car or what. I don’t know how many days it was before I came to myself or knew who I was. My cousin’s wife died right there on the spot, and the way the accident happened, all of us could have died. This was right near Ticheli Road. Yes, God means everything.

Delia Pleasant Berry

2008

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People Living in Boxcars after 1932 Flood, circa—1932.—Floodwaters engulfed much of East and West Monroe from January through March of 1932. From the Collection of Ken Purcell.

Freddie W. Bootie Jim Jones

September 10, 1910

Monroe, Louisiana

DOD—May 15, 1996

Comedian, Clown, Dancer, Showman, Minstrel Performer

From the Liel Murray Collection

Interviewed March 16, 1984

My full name is Freddy William Jones. I was born in Monroe, my mother’s name was Agnes Robinson Jones, and she was born in November 1884 in Mississippi as were both her parents. My father’s name was Ted Jones and he was born in November 22, 1883 in Louisiana.

I know that my paternal grandmother was a Gullah or a Geechee from North Carolina, something like the French down in South Louisiana, and my paternal grandfather was from Virginia. His name was William T. Jones born in 1866. I met them both. Grandfather William’s parents, my great grandparents, were Parker Jones (a Mulatto, b. abt. 1831 in Virginia) and Kitty Jones (a Mulatto b. abt. 1830 in Virginia). They lived in Norfolk.

The only thing I knew about my grandfather was that he was a barber and they called him Barber Jones. I remember that he was a mean man and he would give you a lick with a walking stick if you even asked him for a match.

My Childhood in Monroe in the Early 1900’s

I was an only child and I got anything I wanted. I did go to school and I did do my homework. We didn’t have electricity or gas, so I had to bring in the coal and kindling wood for the heat and cooking. We did have kerosene and oil, however, and we would clean the lamp chimneys and fill them with kerosene.

My father worked for the City of Monroe when Mayor Arnold Bernstein was the Mayor of the City in the 1920s. Then, Monroe was prospering from the discovery of natural gas fields. The population was about 26,000 people. My mother was a cook for the Munhollands who owned a furniture store, and later she worked for other families in private homes. I grew up at 1104 Washington Street in Monroe in a house that we rented. My mother died in November 1968, but my dad died in 1945. I got along better with my mother because my father was mean and always wanted to whip. Maybe he got that from his daddy because they both sure liked to whip. He built our house on Breard in 1945, and he died the same year.

I graduated from Colored Industrial High School in New Orleans. My mother’s sister lived in New Orleans and I was staying with her at the time. I had previously attended the Wisner School on 8th and Washington Streets in Monroe. It later became the Monroe Colored High School.

When I was in school, we had a lot of concerts and talent shows. I was pretty good at dancing and telling lies (jokes) and I was sort of a clown. A major influence on my being an entertainer was the movie theatre where I saw the great Charlie Chaplin. I found out that people enjoyed seeing me on stage and that’s how I got into show business. My first comic job was at the KP Hall in Monroe on the corner of 11th and Desiard Streets at the age of 16 in 1926. It was black-face comedy and I painted my face with black. (At the time of this interview in 1984, Bootie Jim was of medium height, a medium brown-skinned man, was well dressed, and he always wore shoes that were shined to a very high gloss.)

I have to say that the greatest influence on my life was my mother. She encouraged me in the entertainment business because she was a dancer. She was not a buck dancer or a tap dancer like me; she was a round dancer (a smooth ballroom dance in which couples progressed around the room). There are a few people around here that will tell you that my mama could really dance. But I’ll tell you the way it was. You see my mother did drink. She drank a lot, but it was nothing but beer. And she was such a great dancer that guys would come down and carry her to the dance just to have somebody to round dance with. There was a girl across the track over there when I was young and living on Breard Street. I could take that girl to the dance contest and win every prize in town. My mama was like that.

Mardi Gras Comes to Monroe

Eventually the Mardi Gras came to Monroe with Nat Tole. He had an organized band and the people in Monroe would enjoy Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), but they didn’t have a Carnival parade at the time. Nat went to City Hall and got a parade permit and I auditioned for the position of King Zulu since I was known in town as a comedian. I had to make myself up with rings in my nose, earrings, and a grass skirt. I got the job. We boarded a boat on the River near Howard Johnson’s, docked on Pine and Walnut Streets, got on the float, and went up Desiard as far as 14th Street. The Monroe people really enjoyed the parades. When Nat Tole left, another fellow, whose name was Howard Lewis, took over, and after he died, a boy who worked at the Monroe News Star named Frank Perkins headed it up.

Working the Minstrel and Vaudeville Shows

I traveled to Shreveport, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and other cities and states around the country. I met Bob Hope, Lee Lasses White (the blackface Minstrel Man born in 1888 and died 1949 in Hollywood, CA), I met Mantan Moreland, a Vaudeville, Chitlin Circuit, indefinite talk comedian (Mantan was born 1902 in Monroe, Louisiana and died in Hollywood in 1973), and I met Ethel Waters (Jazz Singer who was born in 1896 and died in 1977), and Pearl Bailey (Vaudeville and Broadway Jazz Singer born in 1918 and died in 1990).

I worked a lot with carnivals and minstrel shows, and my act was comedy and buck dancing (an individual form of expression known as tap, with a person using his feet as an instrument to make rhythmic and percussive sounds to accompany the music). Sometimes I worked with a straight man on stage and other times I would be out there alone entertaining the audience. On occasion, I would be paid a $10 bill, or some other amount, to pull a practical joke on some important White person in the audience who everybody knew. That would get a lot of laughs.

I never did get a break to play the really big clubs like the Cotton Club up on Lennox Avenue in New York City or on Broadway. At right about that time, I was scheduled for a live rehearsal on Broadway, but I did not show up for the performance. I was drinking and got drunk, so I lost that opportunity. I would not say that I had a drinking problem, but I was a pretty big drinker. I had poor associations and would drink with my friends just to do it. A doctor told me once, If I were you, Mr. Jones, I’d quit drinking and smoking, so I quit.

I never did use drugs. Drugs were not as common as they are now. Youngsters were then controlled better by their parents, and children had chores and responsibilities that they were obligated to keep, or they got their butts whipped like I did. Kids today (1984) just come in from school, throw their books down, fix a sandwich out of the refrigerator, leave home, and return at their own convenience.

What really happened to stop the success of minstrel shows was the start of television. The shows were eventually featured on TV and people didn’t need to go to the tent to see minstrels anymore. Some of the shows that I had performed on were the Sugarfoot Dream (a Minstrel Show owned by a White man who was a famous blackface comedian himself known as Sugarfoot Gaffney), the Alabama Minstrel (in 1928, the admission fee was ten cents for children and twenty-five cents for adults), the Seas Green Minstrel (an Oakland, California show), the Rabbit Foot Minstrel (a well-travelled show that appeared in Monroe in 1954), the Dandy Dixie Minstrel (a talented colored company started in the early 1900s), and a number of other shows, many of which came to Monroe, Louisiana. The jobs were advertised in a pamphlet called The Billboard in which they would advertise for performers, comedians, chorus girls, straight men, dancers, and blues singers, and you could write them and apply.

Early Segregation in Monroe

We travelled by train and eventually by Greyhound bus and did a lot of one night stands. It was very tiring work. The audiences were separated by race, with the Blacks on one side and the Whites on the other. We always stayed in colored hotels or private homes. We had to go to the back of White restaurants to order carryout food. Segregation was no problem, and it was not embarrassing to us, because we were all accustomed to it and didn’t know anything else. We just followed the law of the land. That’s all you could do.

Lynching in Monroe

When segregation was over, things changed and it was better, because I made more money and associated with more people of different races. It was also better because before, I remember seeing Black people hanging by the neck in downtown Monroe at the courthouse. Somebody Black would be found hanging almost every morning. One day we went up there and found a White man hanging. After that, we didn’t see hangings anymore.

Getting Married and Quitting Show Business

My wife was named Mary Lee Washington, and she was born in 1922 in Monroe. She and her mother, Evelyn Washington, and her siblings lived on Breard near 11th Street with her grandparents, Prince and Mary Conway when she was a girl. I met her in the business while we were on a show together. She was a little-bitty girl and her uncles and I were musicians. She had been out in California with the Ringling Brothers Circus as a chorus girl. I knew her for five years before we married in 1950. We have been married for 34 years. She is 63 and I am 73 years of age. We have no children, but it is a nice marriage. We fuss and pout sometimes, but that just makes it interesting I guess.

I quit the entertainment business in about 1956 when the demand for that kind of work died out. Afterwards, I drove a taxi for the Red Top Cab Company in Monroe until about five months ago. Mary Lee quit the Minstrels when I did, and she became a maid at the Carousel Hotel. She used to work at the Francis Hotel in Monroe when they called it Francis Tower. It was easy to retire from driving because the taxis were not in good condition. There were frequent flat tires, no air conditioning, hot sun, and the dressy customers were wringing-wet when they reached their destinations.

I forgot to mention that I also worked with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American Baseball League, and we played in Yankee Stadium a few times. The team played from 1946 to 1962. I didn’t actually play baseball. I was one of their clowns. There were three of us clowns who would run out on the field with a bat, the pitcher would throw the ball, and we would hit it and run the opposite way, from home plate to third base. We did other funny stuff, sort of like the Harlem Globetrotters of basketball. The Indianapolis Clowns team was known for their colorful and outrageous behavior, but they were also a very serious baseball team. In 1952, they won the Negro American League Championship. We also played in Monroe against the Monroe Monarchs. Hank Aaron also played with the Indianapolis Clowns team.

On Growing Old

Now, all I do is go up to the Council on Aging, because there are a lot of people sitting around talking and laughing, playing dominoes, bingo, watching TV, or reading papers and magazines. I like to be around the noise. There’s one thing about the Council on Aging Center that I don’t like. They should have more exercise equipment like they do up north. Sometimes Ms Sybil takes us on a two block walk, but I think you need at least a mile to do any good.

As for how I feel about being 73 years of age, I feel like about 55, and do not like to be called old. The age is only a number. I know that I don’t act 73 because I move fast like a young person. I have always moved like that. I don’t have medical problems except for my nerves. I used to go to Conway Hospital until a foreign doctor named Dr. Chin threatened to put me in an old folk’s home. I have a house and a wife, so I was not going to any old folks home. When my wife got sick and I couldn’t take care of her, she stayed with her sisters in Tanglewood (a section of Monroe). I stayed here at home to prevent anyone from breaking in and taking everything. If I become disabled and she can’t help me, I will go to the rest home, because I don’t have anyone else. My mother died in Mary Goss Nursing Home on Thanksgiving Day in 1968. I delivered her Thanksgiving dinner at 11 o’clock that morning, and I told the nurse to see that she got it. I was driving a cab then. As I was ready to leave the cab stand to visit her, the telephone rang, and they told me she was gone.

I think they took nice care of my mother at Mary Goss because I was out there often. I had heard about how they treat people at nursing homes, so I would slip up in there sometimes when they didn’t know I was there. She was always sitting up, neat as can be, trying to sew, and laughing and talking. In my opinion, I think nursing homes are better than staying at your own home with a visiting nurse, because nursing homes provide more help, like a janitor, cook, nurse, doctors, and so on.

I’ll tell you my opinion about how neighborhoods could improve the lives of older people. Neighborhoods ain’t gonna try to do nothing for you. They don’t even come to see you if you’re sick. There may be only a few of them who do so in the Black neighborhoods. I imagine it’s the same in the White neighborhoods, because a lot of them don’t associate with one another, don’t visit each other, and they don’t speak. I see them out there not speaking. It happens right here at the Center too. People look the other way. But when I come in here, I come in hollering, Hey everybody. But that’s the difference in my attitude and their attitudes.

Problem Solving, Family, Self Help, and Religion

I place a lot of value on laughing. If you go around telling a lot of jokes and everybody gets to laughing, they forget the problems they were talking about. Just like me, and Jim Bradley, and Chester and John when we get in the Aging Center lobby. John likes to talk about whiskey. He said that yesterday a fellow gave him about this much whiskey in a quart bottle. He took a big swallow, put the bottle in a bag, and took it home and hid it. His sister found it and poured it in the commode. He said he started to hit his sister. He told us about it today and we got to laughing. Things like that take your mind off your troubles and keep you laughing.

And I also think in-law problems keep families, Black and Caucasian, from helping each other, and I think that both groups have the same kind of needs. My wife’s family is close people and they help each other. They call each other two and three times a day, and they all like me too. That’s why I’m so crazy about them. I don’t have any family of my own, but I do not have in-law problems.

About the importance of religion to me, I think religion is jam up. It can’t be beat. Some evenings I go to Stations of the Cross at Little Flower Church, and I take someone who needs a ride. I didn’t grow up Catholic. After my wife and I came back to Monroe, we went to Catholic Church because my mother was Catholic. I always did like Catholic Church because that’s all we had down in New Orleans. Some people go to church just to be seen. Because I drove a taxi, I have picked up people at some of the Baptist Churches, a couple of ladies for example. I put them in the back seat, and they don’t say anything about what the preacher said in the sermon. They say, Did you see so and so in church today? Yeah I saw her. Well, her and the pastor are going to get together . . . I wonder where they gonna meet at? I think people could get more out of church if they stayed around after services and shake hands and talk and not just jump in their cars and race off.

I Have No Regrets

As for my greatest accomplishment, other than taking care of myself, I’m most proud of my name, Bootie Jim, because everybody knows me all over the United States. One of my mother’s friends named Fannie (and that’s funny) started calling me Bootie Jim because when I was a little boy, I had a high behind. The name just stayed with me. But, I have no regrets about the way I’ve lived my life. Whatever I’ve wanted to do, I did it. I wasn’t perfect, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I just got on my knees and prayed and tried to forget it.

Freddie William Jones, a.k.a. Bootie Jim, died on May 15, 1996 at the age of 85 in Monroe, Louisiana under the personal care of his friend, Liel Murray.

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The Wisner School Graduating Class in Monroe, circa—1920. The Wisner School was located on Washington and 8th Streets, and it was later replaced by the Monroe Colored High School in 1922. The three teachers are on each end of the class. From the Collection of Antoinette Brooks.

PART TWO

1911 to 1920

The History of the Sumler Family of Sterlington,

(Glendora Plantation) Louisiana

by

Fred Sumler

November 25, 1912

Sterlington, Louisiana

 (Died—23 January 2002 in Fresno, CA)

Fred Sumler says he was always a quiet child who would listen to the older people, and they respected him for that. They, therefore, were always willing to share with him the slave history and other narratives as they remembered it. The following is a true story and family history that was handed down to Fred Sumler from the elders:

Although recorded slavery in America began in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the oldest known ancestor from the Sumlers was from Sterlington, Louisiana, and he was first known as Moses Baker (born in approximately 1835). It is not known when or why he adopted the name of Sumler. During slavery, the slaves took their surnames from the slave owner’s name. Great grandpa Moses’ slave owner’s name was Baker. He never revealed where he came from because he did not know. More often than not, children born in slavery were taken from their mothers as soon as they were able to do any type of manual labor, and had no attachment to a family. They had very little recollection of who they were or what part of the country they came from. They were ordinarily treated no better than animals. Moses Baker’s first reported memory was of being purchased on the slave block as a young boy. Old White man Baker had hundreds of acres of land. It took a hundred miles of fence to surround his property, so he needed a lot of slaves. He had been going to the slave auctions to buy like many rich owners did. Baker decided to be economical and raise his own slaves. He chose great grandpa Moses to be a breeder, just like you breed animals. Moses was a giant man of over 6 feet in height, was well over 200 pounds, well muscled, and was a perfect physical specimen who could father strong children.

Great grandmother Julia, who was White man Baker’s slave and Moses’ jump-the-broom wife, was a beautiful native Indian woman. Moses, according Fred, was a brown-skinned man with kinky hair. Great grandpa Moses always hoped someday, somehow, to bring all of his children together. During slavery, however, that was a distant dream that seemed very unlikely to ever become a reality.

The Civil War of 1861-1865

Allow me to go back a few years in time to set the scene for you. Rumors had been circulating during the late 1850s that a man named Abraham Lincoln was going to run for president, and he was going to do away with slavery if elected. Shortly thereafter, the war between the North and the South broke out. The Southern states were going to fight to maintain slavery. Thirteen states pulled out of the United States in 1861, got their own president, and formed the Confederate states. They chose old Jefferson Davis, a long, lanky, Mississippi peckerwood, as their President.

Jefferson Davis chose General Robert E. Lee to lead the Southern army. Lincoln chose General Ulysses S. Grant to lead the North. The South was ready to fight, and they were determined that the Yankees from the North were not going to change their Southern ways. So the South fired the first shot at Fort Sumter, North Carolina, a Northern army installation, and the war began.

The South had stockpiled guns, ammunition, and supplies. They failed to consider, however, that there were no large factories in the South and that they could not fight a major war against a real army. Although the South hated the North, their plows and most of their clothing came from up North. The North was industrialized and could change-over a factory in one day to make army equipment. The South was so mad, nevertheless, that they did not deal with that factor. The Southern Army was tough; they were even awesome at first, but then the supplies began to run out. They began rationing bullets, passing out a few at a time.

The North began to back them down. When the North would come upon slave auction platforms, where slaves were sold like cattle, old General Grant would give the order to burn those platforms. All signs of slavery were destroyed. Everything of value that the Northern soldiers came across, they seized, including cattle, hogs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and canned foods to feed their own army. They even confiscated the large plantation homes and used then as headquarters for the officers.

The Fall of the Old South

Every time a large Southern city would fall, the big, rich White man would go to the bankers and withdraw their money. They put the money in crock or iron pots and buried them, and they made maps so they could locate them when the war was over. Thousands of them, however, never returned from the war. That is why, right now, throughout the South, you occasionally hear of people finding treasures buried over a hundred years ago.

Southern soldiers were still wearing shoes and clothing that had been made in the North. By now, those items were worn out and could not be replaced. Uncle Fred said, and I quote, Them buggers was bare-footed and ragged in the zero weather, but they made it through the winter.

Spring came. One Southern farmer planted over a hundred acres of corn, which grew very tall. Old General Lee of the South had an idea to hide two divisions of soldiers in the corn field and ambush the Northern soldiers as they passed. But the Northern spies discovered the plot and General Grant put his heavy artillery within range of the corn fields. The story goes, according to Uncle Fred, that when those big shells were fired into the fields, you could see bodies flying up into the air, and also body parts, including heads and arms. They mowed that corn field down, and when they finished, it was a mess.

The North continued to march through the South burning big cities. They burned Atlanta, Georgia in 1864; they torched Chattanooga, Tennessee, and burned down Savannah, Georgia. The South ran out of everything, including places to run. Southern General Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865. Lee sent Grant word that he was ready to give up. When Southern President Jefferson Davis heard about this, he tried to escape by dressing in a ladies outfit. The Northern soldiers caught him and threw him in lock-up. He stayed for a long time, and after he was released, he went back to his plantation in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

President Lincoln had programs planned, but he never got a chance to implement them. Five days after General Lee surrendered, Lincoln was assassinated, Uncle Fred says, by some fool named John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson took over, but he didn’t care one way or the other. So, the Blacks as well as the Whites suffered in the South.

The Sumlers—The Post-Slavery Period

Well, sometime after the war ended in 1865, great grandpa Moses Sr. got his wish. He knew who his children were, and he rounded all of them up on the Baker Plantation, although they did not all know him. They were