“They were as kind to me, as they could be, and I was content to stay with them.
“After coming to Tennessee, Mr. Winston did not live very long, and his widow, after a respectable time, married a Mr. Coleman, grandfather of the first Mrs. Polk Prince, and great grandfather of Mrs. Lewis Downer, of Guthrie, Ky.
“But I was always called Kitty Winston. The Colemans and Johnsons were related, and through their visiting from Fortson Spring neighborhood to Spring Creek, farther down toward Clarksville, I met my lifetime companion.
“He was the property of Mr. Aquilla Johnson, of Spring Creek, and was first known as Horace Johnson.
“We were married when we were both quite young. Soon after our marriage, it was necessary to make a division of the property, and Mr. Johnson sold my husband to Mr. James Carr, of Port Royal, grandfather of Mr. Ed, and Ross Bourne.
“We had not been long settled down to quiet, peaceable living in our little cabin home, when it began to be whispered around among a cruel class of white people called overseers, that I could be deprived of my free birth right, and made a slave. Of course it made me very unhappy, and I prayed earnestly over the matter.
“I went to sertain good white friends who had known me longest, and laid the case before them, and they advised me to go to Esq. Dick Blount, of Fortson’s Spring, and he would fix up some papers that would establish my freedom for all time to come.
“I put out for the Blount home in haste, my husband going with me. When we reached there, a member of the Esquire’s family told me he was drunk, but if I could wait an hour or two, he might be sober enough to talk to me. Of course I waited. We were seated in the back yard, and a quiet couple we were, for it was a solemn time in our lives.
“By, and by, we saw the Esquire came out on the back porch, and washed his face. I whispered and asked Horace, if he reckoned he was washing the drunk off.
“We walked up to the door, and told our mission; Esq. Blount advised us to go on to Clarksville, and said he would follow on shortly.