[CHAPTER IX.]
“RECOLLECTION IS THE ONLY PARADISE FROM WHICH WE CANNOT BE TURNED OUT.”
To the aged, it is a delightful refuge. I found this especially true in the case of Aunt Gaines Williams, whom I visited May 16, 1911.
She was living with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Sarah Northington, on Esq. James H. Achey’s farm. Not until I began, several years ago, to interview these faithful old colored representatives of antebellum times, did I know how their minds were stored with rich recollections.
I was anxious to talk with Aunt Eliza, because she had been in touch with the Carr family all her life, and her daughter had been the wife of the late Rev. Altheus Carr.
Aunt Eliza Gaines Williams. Mother of five
generations of her family.
Aunt Eliza was born in 1828, as the property of Major James Norfleet, a prominent citizen of Robertson county, who owned large possessions on Sulphur Fork Creek; his homestead site being now owned by Greer Brothers, a mile or two southeast of Port Royal. At her birth, Major Norfleet gave her to his daughter Louisa, who named her for a favorite schoolmate, Mary Eliza Wheatley, but for short they always called her Eliza. Her mind seemed to dwell first, on her white people, of whom she spoke as follows:
“My young Mistress, Miss Louisa Norfleet, married Mr. Abraham Gaines, Mr. Billie Gaines’ father, and lived where Mr. Ed. Bourne now lives, in the village of Port Royal. When Mr. Billie Gaines was a few months old his mother went to Mr. Sam Northington’s to spend a few days, and while she was there she ate something that disagreed with her, and died suddenly from congestion of the stomach.