Craddock relates that his father suffered from chills and fever which, quinine, the only remedy known then, failed to cure. Someone advised him, next time the chill came on, to plunge into a deep and cold hole in the river. Ed says his father, out of desperation, tried the suggested cure, and it worked, in a way squaring with the modern medical theory of setting up a counterirritant in certain cases.
Craddock's mother was owned by the family of Marmadukes, one of whom was an early-day governor of Missouri.
[Isabelle Daniel [TR: Mrs. Eli Daniel]
Interview with Mrs. Eli Daniel,
Marshall, Missouri.
An aged negress answered the door when I knocked and asked if this was Isabelle, she invited me into her parlor, a tiny room with a rather good-looking brussels rug upon the floor, and panel lace curtains hung at the windows. The walls were hung with enlarged crayon pictures of Isabelle's husband and their sons and daughters; no other pictures adorn the walls. The center is the old family Bible occupying the place of honor; all the births, deaths, and marriages of the family have been carefully recorded in this book. An album holds next place and contains many old fashioned pictures of her "white folks" and friends of her younger days.
The outside of this little four room house is quite attractive, it was formerly painted white, but not much paint clings to it now; old fashioned green shutters still hang at the windows, a tiny little portico shelters the front door. There is room at one end for a small porch swing to be hung. At the other end an old weather-beaten chair affords a resting place for the caller.
The yard is entirely enclosed by a fancy wire fence, and a concrete walk leads to the porch.
This old woman lives entirely alone in this little cottage which was provided for her many years ago by the will of her old master.
She says she is 87 years old, but circumstances seem to indicate that she is at least 90; she said she was married and had a child about a year old when the war closed in 1865.
Her work as a slave was almost all in the house; she was taught to sew, and had to help make the clothes for the other slaves. She also was a nursemaid for her mistress' little children and at one time was hired out to the methodist preacher's family to take care of the children when his wife was ill.