"The engineer who got killed in that wreck the other day (a wreck which occurred February 7, 1938, Monday morning at three and in which the engineer and five other people were killed) came right from my town, Fort Valley, Georgia. I came here from there in 1873. I don't know anybody living in Fort Valley now unless it's my own folks. And I don't 'spect I'd know them now. When I got married and left there, I was only twenty-one years old.
Parents and Relatives
"My mother and father were born in South Carolina. After their master and missis married they came to Georgia. Back there I don't know. When I remember anything they were in Georgia. They said they came from South Carolina to Georgia. I don't know how they came. Both of my parents were Negroes. They came to Arkansas ahead of me. I have their pictures." (He carried me into the parlor and showed me life-sized bust portraits of his mother and father.)
"There were eighteen of us: six boys and twelve girls. They are all dead now but myself and one sister. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. I am older than she is.
Occupation
"I am a caterer. I have been serving the Scottish Rite Masons in their annual reunion every six months for forty-one years. We are going to the Seventh Street Entrance this Friday. One of the orders will have a dinner and I am going down to serve it. I served the dinner for Teddy Roosevelt there, thirty years ago. This Roosevelt is a cousin of his.
Masters
"My parents' master was named Wade. When he died, I was so little that they had to lift me up to let me see into the coffin so I could look at him. I went to his daughter. My name is after my father's father. My grandfather was named Miller. I took his name. He was a white man.
"Wade's daughter was named Riley, but I keep my grandfather's name. My mother and father were then transferred to the Rileys too, and they took the name of Riley. It was after freedom that I took the name Miller from my original people. Haven Riley's father was my brother." (Haven Riley lives in Little Rock and was formerly an instructor at Philander Smith College. Now he is a public stenographer and a private teacher.)
"Wade owned all of my brothers and sisters and parents and some of my kin—father's sister and brother. There might have been some more I can't remember. Wade was a farmer.