Tillie Sanders Duke

My name is Tillie Duke . I was born on March 15, 1862, in Roanoke, Virginia. I don't 'member nothin 'bout my parents, 'cept their name was Hall . When I was a baby they gave me away to Mr. and Mrs. Sam Lynch . When I was thirteen, they brought me to Wichita Falls. When they started to leave for Wichita Falls they sent the baggage on but it was several weeks before they could start, because of being snow bound. The Lynch home was on 7th Street, not far from where the County Courthouse now stands. The Lynch home was a two story house painted white, with a green border. Mrs. Lynch was good to me. I loved her like she was my own mother. She was the only mother I ever knew. I had to work hard. After my housework was done I would have to get up on a ladder and wash the outside of the house. Sometimes I worked for days and got the house clean, and a sandstorm would come along and the work was to do all over again. Summer I had to take all the carpets up. I'd clean and dust them and put them away till fall, all the stoves had to be taken down and polished and put away. When fall came they were put up again. Mr. Lynch owned a drugstore. In the afternoon, Mrs. Lynch would go to the sto' an' that give me a chance to do things unbeknowing to Mrs. Lynch . Neighbors to the Lynches had a colored man by the name of Sanders . One day he say to me 'Tillie ' I say 'What?' He say, 'How you like to be my little wife?' I say, 'What Mrs. Lynch think?' He say, 'What you care?' I say, 'I can't get away.' But me began to talk and study 'bout it. He had a hard time to get the license cause I'se so little an' so young. The Justice of the Peace married us. I was married in Mrs. Lynch's white dress. We bought a lot at 113 Lake Street, with a two-room shack on it for $150 - $10 down and $10 a month, from A. A. Brown . My house was the first house in the colored addition to be wired with electric lights. Mr. Sanders was a good man. We had two girls and one boy. Mr. Sanders died when my boy was very small. I married William Duke then. We had one girl. Me and Duke is divo'ced. I keeps boarders. I serve one public meal a day at noon and I has private customers all the time.