TX BIOS:  Mrs. Annie Shaw
   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
   
   Life history
   
   FOLKLORE:
   
   Miss Effie Cowan,
   
   McLennan County, Texas.
   
   District 8.
   
   File NO. 240.
   
   Page NO. 1
   
   NO. of Words
   
   REFERENCE:
   
   Interview with Mrs Annie Shaw, San Antonio, Texas,
   
   Visiting in Mart, Texas.
   
   "I was born on the 29th day of October, 1870, near Griffin, Georgia. I
   was one of seven children by my fathers second wife. Their names were
   William and Elizabeth Woodward. As I was born at the close of the days
   of Reconstruction, I can remember many things that were handed down to
   me by my [DEL: parent :DEL] parent's of these days and the days of the
   Civil War.
   
   "When the war broke out the communities selected one of their men to
   stay and look after the women and children, he was in charge of the
   business of those who had no man in the family left, and my father was
   the one selected for our little community. They were in nine miles of
   "Shermans March / to the Sea", and his soldiers spread out in
   detachments and our community suffered from their raids in the loss of
   live-stock and feed- [DEL: suff :DEL] stuff. So far as I can remember
   they did not burn or destroy the homes. But the women were insulted
   and force was used if they tried to prevent the taking of the
   provisions. They were forced to keep the soldiers in their homes and
   cook for them when they passed thro' the community.
   
   "My two [?], on my mothers side, were soldiers in the Confederate
   army. I do not remember which battles they were in, but they were in
   some of the biggest battles of the war. Some in Tennessee.
   
     NOTE: C.12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022I can remember hearing my mother tell about how they were
   stationed at one time near our home and the women of the community
   would go to the camp and take their boys clothing and food. My uncle's
   names were William and Millage Hartsfield. Uncle Will Hartsfield was
   the [DEL: [?] :DEL] father of Mrs J.W. Howard of Mart. Returned from
   the war and about the year 1875 moved to Texas and settled in Milam
   County, near the town of Calvert, where he reared his family , and two
   of his sons are still living in this county.
   
   "My parents were still in Georgia during the days of Reconstruction.
   Father passed away when I was three years old, but I remember many
   things my mother told me of these days. The men who were sent from the
   North to hold the main offices were called carpet-bagger's. Many of
   them were unprincipled and [DEL: profiiteered :DEL] profiteered off
   the whites. They placed the negroes in the offices over the whites, as
   history shows, and the white people underwent many humiliating things
   at the negroes hands during these days. One of the most humiliating
   things they had to bear was the insults from the negro guards who were
   stationed along the highways and entrance to the towns. If they spoke
   to a woman , the women dared not reply.
   
   "The most appealing thing to my heart that she told me was how the
   slaves stayed and helped to take care of the family and the crops
   while the master's were gone to the war. Especially do I remember old
   Aunt Harriet who had helped to care for us children. When we left ,
   the neighbors came in to bid us good bye. They were lined up in a row
   and the family marched by and shook hands with each one of the friends
   to bid them farewell. Aunt Harriet stood at the end of the row, and
   today, in 00033.
   
   my memory I can see old Aunt Harriet as she stood at the end of the
   row with her handkershief in her [DEL: ha :DEL] hands, and a red
   bandana on her head, as she wiped the tears away [?] which were
   streaming down her face as she bade each one of us good-bye, and told
   us that she would [DEL: mee :DEL] meet us in "de hebbenly lan'," She
   has long since gone to her heavenly home. I can also bear in memory
   her lullaby's as she sang us to sleep in our childhood, and when our
   mother needed us to be kept quiet it was always Aunt Harriet who could
   hold us spell-bound as she told us the negro folk and fairy tales, and
   the ghost stories were our special delight.
   
   "Then there is the memory of Aunt Harriet as she would come up to "de
   big house" to sit with my mother on a Sunday afternoon and talk and
   have my mother read the Bible to her. Truly her soul has found her
   "hebbenly home". It was a hard thing for us to leave this dear old
   country, but the new state of Texas, was calling to the ones who were
   interested in founding new homes where the land was plentiful and
   cheap.
   
   "We had relatives who had already moved to Texas and were urging my
   father to come. They were Frank Foster of Mart, Texas. My Aunt and her
   family, Mrs Ben Reynolds of Mart, and a brother Will Hartsfield of the
   county of Milam, near [DEL: Calver :DEL] Calvert Texas. All these had
   written glowing descriptions of the country and so we were filled with
   the desire to try our fortunes in this new land, and especially were
   my brothers interested. They were filled with the spirit of adventure
   and the hope of the rich and cheap land was also a factor of my
   father's decision to come to Texas. 00044.
   
   "While we did not get in on the first rush after the war between the
   states, we came in time to hear, "The sound of that advancing
   multitude, which soon shall fill these deserts", as described by
   [William Bryant?] in his beautiful poem to the pioneer settler's.
   
   "We came by way of Atlanta [DEL: G :DEL] Ga. And New Orleans. Crossed
   the Missippi river on a ferry boat and on through South Texas to Waco,
   as our tickets were over the new Houston and Texas Central Rail-road,
   and we were at the little place they called Harrison Switch, about ten
   miles south of Waco when to our surprise out relatives Mr Foster and
   Reynolds met the train and brought us on to the little village of
   Mart. We came in the wagons on the 16th day of December 1884.
   
   "Their object in taking us off the train was in order for us to be in
   time for a wedding of a cousin, Ada Reynolds and Jack Payne. This was
   an important affair to the ones concerned. The relatives and the
   neighbors were there in large numbers and the house was filled to
   overflowing. Old Brother Hardwick, one of Marts first preachers, was
   the officiating minister.
   
   "This wedding occurred at the old Lewis Stpehens place, now owned by
   Dr J.R. Gillam of Mart, about two or three miles north-east of Mart.
   It was in December and so we had the Christmas decorations. There was
   a reception after a most bountiful dinner which was partaken of by
   around a hundred guests. The guests would eat in groups as there was
   not enough [DEL: [?] :DEL] room at the table for all at a time. There
   were all kinds of good things to eat, and truly we felt that Texas was
   a place where we 00055.
   
   would not go hungry. The next day the father and mother of the groom
   gave an "infair" and served dinner to the bridal couple and the
   relatives.
   
   "We rode to it in wagons and the bride and groom rode horseback. The
   bride's horse had a side saddle on which she sat side ways. It would
   have been a shocking thing for the ladies to have ridden astride as
   the custom is now. She had on a [DEL: lon :DEL] long riding skirt
   which extended below her shoes, if she had fallen off the horse her
   feet would have become tangled up in the skirt.
   
   "As we had just arrived from Georgia where it was a timbered country
   and every one had their carriages and buggies, the change to riding in
   the open prairie in an open wagon and the ladies riding horseback the
   contrast was noticable, to say the least, to us. I had never seen a
   side saddle before, and I did not understand how one could stay on one
   without falling.
   
   "Back in Georgia we had the big open fireplace where the fire burned
   all day in the winter and the embers were kept all night, The fire
   place had the big andirons and the log of wood for the night kept a
   warm glow as we slept by its light. Here in Texas they used the wood
   heaters, the first ones we ever saw.
   
   "I can also remember how it struck us as novel, the western accent of
   speech which our relatives had acquired. To our great surprise within
   two years after we came and when other relatives from Georgia came,
   they were equally shocked and surprised that we had acquired the same
   accent !00066"Over in the / present cemetery at Mart, was where the
   little house that was used for a church and school combined , stood.
   This was the first school and church house in the community. As I
   understand it the first school was taught for three months by a Mr
   Spickard in the year 1879 with an enrollment of fifteen pupils and the
   winter of 1880 Mrs Laura Cowan, who was our neighbor when we came to
   Mart, and whom we learned to honor and love, taught the next school
   with an enrollment of twenty eight.
   
   "In the winter of 1885 and 1886, a Mr and Mrs Chambers taught in this
   same school house. I was a pupil and by this time there were many more
   children in the community, as well as I can remember there were around
   fifty pupils. I do not recall all the names of the families who were
   represented, but some of them were the Howards, Reynolds, Stephens,
   Ingrams, Tulls, Barron, Criswell, Vaughan, Suttles, Lumpkin, and I
   think Mrs [DEL: Cowans :DEL] Cowan's oldest child E.J. was one of the
   pupils, also the Dunn boys Rogers, and Valentines.
   
   "When the winter term closed Mr Chambers got up a private school and I
   assisted him , to pay for my tuition. I was fifteen years of age at
   the time and was still anxious to keep up with my studies. I have
   since taught in the State school, but was never so proud of any school
   as this, my first experience under my teacher and with my neighbors
   children for my pupils. 00077"When we came to the Mart community in
   1884 we rented land from an old bachelor by the name of Brooks. The
   country was a ranch and stock country, the men raised their grain but
   not until a few years later did they commence to raise cotton. Our
   landlord owned ranches and city property in Waco, but was a confirmed
   old bachelor [?] [DEL: any :DEL] Many were the stories told of why he
   did not get married, one was that he took a barrel and every time he
   would eat a meal he would throw an [DEL: eual :DEL] equal amount in
   the barrel, at the end of the month when he looked into the barrel he
   said that it would break any man to feed a woman and he dared not try
   it!
   
   "We lived on what is now the Eskew Dairy place about half a mile north
   of Mart, to the south of us there lived the Townsend family who were
   among the first settlers and to the [DEL: eas :DEL] east across the
   road was the family of Mr and Mrs H.C. Cowan whom I have mentioned Mrs
   Cowan as being the second teacher to teach the Mart school. Better
   neighbors could not be found and many times their neighborly kindness
   helped us in sickness and in our trials of the new country to re-
   [DEL: adjus :DEL] adjust ourselves to the new life. There is a fond
   place in my memory for [DEL: thes :DEL] these our nearest neighbors.
   
   "Mart was a little village , with the stores situated on a public road
   on what is now South Carpenter Street, at the intersection of the
   street which turns off to the present school house. There were three
   or four stores. That of W.B. Stodghill, Ward Hewin was working for Mr
   Stodghill, but later owned a business of his own. Mr John Pearce was a
   clerk in one of the stores. Also J. W. Howard who operates a grocery
   today in Mart, Marts oldest grocery man.
   
   00088
   
   Captain Patillo from Waco was the Post Master and Dr R.L. Smith, now
   of Waco, was just begginning to practice medicine. Then there was Dr
   Carpenter and Dr Stephens. The [DEL: minister :DEL] minister's I
   remember best was Brother Suttle and Hardwick who lived until their
   passing to the Great Beyond in this [DEL: commu :DEL] community.
   
   "In 1900 I married Sam Shaw and moved to Henrietta Texas, this was
   still an unsettled or thinly settled country and the stock and
   ranchmen had drifted farther west from Central Texas. We did not like
   it here, it was so open and the wind's blew so hard, so we [DEL: mved
   :DEL] moved to New Mexico, and took up a government claim, which we
   still own. But the winds were so high and the sand would drift so
   badly that we found it not to our liking and so we came later to San
   Antonio, where we found the climate much more to our fancy, much
   milder winters and here my husband has been in business and we reared
   our children.
   
   "We had three girls, who are now married and have homes of their own,
   they are Mrs Ethel Fisher of Fredericksburg, Mrs Irene Gipson of
   ElDorado Arkansas, and Mrs James Martin of San Antonio. We love our
   home and our neighbors, and church in this city, but the dearest place
   in our hearts were the kind friend's and neighbors who helped us to
   adjust our lives when we came to Texas and found it so different in
   its unsettled condition from our home back in Georgia, in the little
   village of Mart, Texas. These people also had left their homes in the
   old states and were among the best friends and neighbors we ever had
   the good fortune to find.

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