“I was born in Anderson County, South Carolina. My papa was Abe Brown and my mama was Lizzie White. She died when I was a baby and Miss Nancy White took me up to her house and raised me. Her husband was Mars Henry White. They was good to me. Miss Nancy was the best. They treated me like their own boy. It was done freedom then but my papa stayed on the place. I learned to do up the night turns, slop the hogs and help bout the milkin’. They had young calves to pull off. I toted in the wood and picked up chips. She done everything for me and all the mother I knowed.
“When I was seven years old my papa pulled me off to Arkansas. We come on a immigration ticket, least I recken we did. I don’t think my papa paid our way. We was brought here. The land was better they told em.
“We settled in the woods close to Mariana and commenced farmin’. I been farmin’ and workin’ in the timber and I carpenters a little. The timber is gone.
“I supports myself all I can. I own a little house at Clarendon I recken is the reason I don’t get no Government help.”
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Dora Holmes (light brown)
1500 Valentine St., Little Rock, Ark.
Age: 60?
Occupation: Housewife
“My father’s half brothers were white. They all fought in the army. They were Confederate soldiers. Once during the war when they came home, they brought my mother the goods for two dresses,—twenty yards of figured voile, ten yards for each dress. The cost of the whole twenty yards was fifty dollars ($50.00).
“I still have the dresses and some petticoats and pantaloons which are nearly as old. I have ironed these things many a time until they were so stiff they stand straight up on the floor.”
Interviewer’s Comments
Mary Ann King, mother of Dora Holmes, was the original owner of the dresses. She died at the age of ninety-eight two or three years ago. One of the dresses is still in the possession of the daughter. It has a skirt with nine gores and a twelve-inch headed ruffle.