“Matilda Haney was my name then, and I nursed Thad’s children in slavery time.”
Age
“I think I’m between ninety-seven and ninety-eight years old. They had an old-age contest in Reverend Smith’s time. They had Reverend Coffee and another man here since Reverend Smith. The pastor we have now is Yates. Our church is Lee Chapel A. M. E. Church. The contest was in 1935 I think and the people all agreed that I was the oldest colored woman in North Little Rock. They said I was ninety-six years old then. That would make me about ninety-eight years old now. But I saw my children afterwards and they said I was a year older. I used to have my age in the family Bible and my husband’s too, but it got burnt up. Accordin’ to them I oughta be about ninety-nine or a hundred.”
Occupation
“My folks didn’t raise no cotton. They raised about two bales a year. Didn’t have nobody to raise it. Thirty slaves were not enough for that. And they didn’t care nothin’ about it nohow. They had forty-six acres of land in wheat and lots in corn and potatoes. They raised cows, hogs, horses, turkeys, chickens, and everything else. Even had peafowls. The geese used to run me ’round many a day.
“They ran a cotton gin and my father managed it. That was his job all the time before the War.
“After the War, my father farmed. He worked on shares. They never cheated him that he knew about. If they did, he didn’t know it. He owned his horses and cows.”