TX BIOS:  Mrs. John Coleman
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Ridegbaugh, Mildred - P.W.-1,060
   
   Houston, Tex. - Dist. 6
   
   Folklore Pioneer history
   
   FEC-240
   
   Page 1 [Tales- Brief life history S-240 REMINISCENCES OF A PIONEER
   
   Her no longer brawny fingers fondled the aged shawl. She slowly,
   rather wearily, pleated the weave and then pressed it back into place.
   Her gray head nodded slightly as she remembered, and in her tired eyes
   gleamed something from the past.
   
   She is Mrs. John Coleman, 74 years old, and a resident of Houston for
   the past 42 years. She is a Daughter of the Confederacy, a Daughter of
   the Republic, and is a writer and member of the National Geographic
   Society.
   
   Her father was the famous John T. Cox, Texan Ranger, of second
   regiment, Co. D, who was fatally wounded in battle for the capture of
   the bell from the Harriet Lane. FRONTIER LIFE.
   
   She first remembered when, as a small child, she sat listening to the
   tales of Cherokee Co. from the lips of Sadie Gibbons, first white
   child born in the country. She remembered vaguely of Chief Bean's
   return to the plantation with his friendly Cherokee tribe for the
   annual ritual of drowning their evil spirits in old Bean Creek.
   
     NOTE: C12 - [2/?? ??]
     
   00022She remembered how the friendly chief lifted her high above his
   head while the rest of the tribe turned their backs and bent low to
   the ground paying their respect to the white child.
   
   Friendly Indians from Lamar and Grayson counties taught the white
   settlers how to make tonic from root bitters. Substances use were snow
   root, black hawk root, gransy gay beard, each of which were mixed with
   corn whiskey. A tablespoon was administered daily to all members of
   the settlement. These Indians also taught them how to dye their thread
   with root dye, how to make mud crocks, and how to built "spring
   houses". The "spring house" was a cellar built below the earth around
   a spring for the purpose of cooling and keeping meats. LIFE IN THE
   STOCKADES
   
   Mrs. Coleman fingered the worn shawl strings, as she told about her
   life in the stockades.
   
   "Our lives hung on threads when the Indians attacked the fort while
   the scalps of our neighbors dangled from their belts. Even we smaller
   children were stationed with flint back rifles, relics from the
   American Revolution. The grim faces of my parents come before my
   mind's eye as I remember my younger brothers being sent to climb the
   stockade picket to see if there were any Indians near. Often the
   children were left alone to defend' the fort while the elders went for
   ammunition." 00033PLANTATION LIFE
   
   From Grayson Co. the Cox family moved to Harris Co. to a large
   plantation. Mrs. Coleman explained that the sliding partitions of the
   old plantation house were remarkable in their simplicity.
   
   "Whey were constructed in such a way as to fold the entire wall into
   the ceiling grooves. An eight room house could easily be transformed
   into one large room", she explained. CUSTOMS "Sitting Mammy
   
   "In one corner of the room stood from three to five three-legged
   skillets, a cock-pit and a fire-place. In an easy chair at the end of
   the pit-turner sat black mammy, her hands mechanically operating the
   pit-turner. Once in a while her hand would go up to the chimney oven
   above her head. The chimney oven was a box-like crevice in the chimney
   where the food would stay hot and moist. Down in the edge of the
   fireplace on the grates there were evidences of an 'ash cake' hidden
   somewhere in the coals. 'Ash cake' was moist, salted cornmeal rolled
   in cabbage leaves and baked in ashes. The preparation proved the
   favorite with the plantation family". The "Shawl Pin"
   
   As Mrs. Coleman gathered the shawl about her shoulders she told of the
   "shawl pin." 00044"In the days of early Texas, overcoats were not
   known to simple folk. I never saw a coat until I was a grown woman.
   Men, women and children wore large home-spun shawls about their
   shoulders. They pinned these shawls with pins that were two-feet in
   length. When situations created the necessity, they used these pins as
   weapons against wild animals. Many a time can I remember guarding meat
   that we were bringing home with the 'shawl pin' in my hand. Sometimes
   we used them as shovels in digging herbs. These pins were shaped very
   much like a safety pin." ANIMAL PECULIARITIES.
   
   Wild hogs were always plentiful in the wooded country of Harris Co.
   They came in great hordes from the north country towards the sea. Wild
   turkey were also plentiful. Mrs. Coleman says:
   
   "We took a turkey call, made of a goose quill, and hid in the
   underbrush. Three minutes after we gave the call, we could hear a
   rumbling for miles; and over fields, stumps, bushes, and trees the
   turkeys would come. Pigeons flew in great hordes, blackening the sun
   for hours. The flapping of huge wings and the gutteral cries of the
   pigeons sounded like a hurricane or a storm at sea".
   
   The pigeons, however were dread to the country because they stole the
   acorns from the trees. "At night we could hear the acorns grinding
   together in the craws of the birds for forty miles in any direction",
   she declared. 00055"I have seen as many as six wild squirrels to one
   ear of corn. I can also remember when I was about six years old, when
   I came in from the fields and told mother I had killed sixteen
   rattlers that day. She said it was fine but she hoped I'd do better
   next day". SUPERSTITIONS.
   
   One of the most prevalent superstitions was regarding the burial of
   partially decayed materials under steps of the house of the person to
   whom one wished harm. Some prescriptions meant death, some insanity,
   and others only ill health. The certain "death prescription" was the
   combination of rotten tomatoes, rusty nails and horse hair. Chicken
   bones and a rusty hoe buried together under the door still brought ill
   health to the one who walked over it day after day. The combination of
   an old dress and thirteen fingernails would also produce a "decline".
   The "crazy dose" or concoction to procure insanity, was administered
   by putting herbs in the victims's coffee.
   
   Consultant: Mrs. John Coleman, age 74, 106 S. Wayside Drive, Houston,
   ex-writer for National Geographic. (interview, 9-5-36).
   
   LM

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