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The following story may not belong to this Stubblefield family but istoo precious to let slip
away so is placed here for safe keeping untilthe proper family can be found. "Mr. and Mrs. Alex Smith, an eighty-three year old negro couple wereslaves in kentucky near Paris, Tennessee, as children. They nowreside at 127 North Lake Street, on the western limits of South Bend(IN). This couple lives in a little shack patched up with tar paper,tin, and wood. Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, the talkative member of the family is a smallwoman, very wrinkled, with a stocking cap pulled over her gray hair.She wore a dress made of three different print materials; sleeves ofone kind, collar of another and body of a third. Her front teeth werediscolored, brown stubs, which suggested that she chews tobacco. Mr. Alex Smith, the husband is tall, though probably he was a wellbuilt man at one time. He gets around by means of a cane. Mrs. Smithsaid that he is not at all well, and he was in the hospital for sixweeks last winter. The wife, Elizabeth or Betty, as her husband calls her, was a slave onthe Peter Stubblefield plantation in Kentucky, the nearest town beingParis, Tennessee, while Mr. Smith was a slave on the RobertStubblefield plantation nearby. Although only a child of five, Mr. Smith remembers the Civil War,especially the marching of thousands of soldiers, and the horse-drawnartillery wagons. The Stubblefields freed their slaves the firstwinter after the war. On the Peter Stubblefield plantation the slaves were treated very welland had plenty to eat, while on the Robert Sutbblefield plantation Mr.Smith went hungry many times, and said, "Often, I would see a dog witha bit of bread, and I would have been willing to take it from him if Ihad not been afraid the dog would bite me." Mrs. Smith was named for Elizabeth Stubblefield, a relative of PeterStubblefield. As a child of five years or less, Elizabeth had to spin"long reels five cuts a day," pick seed from cotton, and cockle burrsfrom wool, and perform the duties of a house girl. Unlike the chores of Elizabeth, Mr. Smith had to chop wood, carrywater, chop weeds, care for cows, pick bugs from tobacco plants. Thislittle boy had to go barefoot both summer and winter, and remembersthe cracking of ice under his bare feet. The day the mistress and master came and told the slaves they werefree to go any place they desired, Mrs. Smith's mother told her laterthat she was glad to be free but she had no place to go or any moneyto go with. Many of the slaves would not leave and she neverwitnessed such crying as went on. Later Mrs. Smith was paid forworking. She worked in the fields for 'wittels' and clothes. A fewyears later she nursed children for twenty-five cents a week and'wittels,' but after a time she received fifty cents a week, board andtwo dresses. She married Mr. Smith at the age of twenty. Mr. Smith's father rented a farm and Mr. Smith has been a farmer allhis life. The Smith couple have been married sixty-four years. Mrs.Smith says, 'and never a cross word exchanged. Mr. Smith and I had nochildren.' The room the writer was invited into was a combination bed-room andliving room with a large heating stove in the centre of the smallroom. A bed on one side, a few chairs about the room. The floor wascovered with an old patched rug. The only other room beside this roomwas a very small kitchen. The whole home was shabby and poor. The only means of support the family has is a government old agepension which amounts to about fourteen dollars a month. Their little shack is situated in the center of a large lot aroundwhich a very nice vegetable garden is planted. The property belongsto Mr. Harry Brazy, and the old couple does not pay rent or taxes andthey may stay there as long as they live, 'which is good enough forus,' says Mrs. Smith. As the writer was leaving Mrs. Smith said, 'I like to talk and meetpeople. Come again.'" By Henrietta Karwowski, Field Worker, Federal writer's Project, St.Joseph County, District #1, South Bend, Indiana. |