George Newton

George Newton rooms and boards with a family living on Barwise Street. He is almost totally blind, but gets about by use of walking cane. George stutters when he talks. A typical negro. I was bo'n in Arkansas de secon' yeah aftah de surrendah. I nevah saw m' father. He was killed durin' th' wah. He had went t' th' wah wid Massa Newton . He wuzzen' shot. He was a makin' salt an' fell in the vat an' got scalded t' death. My mother took me to Louisiana when I was a baby. We lived in Houma, near Shreveport, Claven Parish. Nevah went to school a day in m' life. Schools not plentiful den as dey is now. Lived in Louisiana tell I as big as I is now. I worked for white folks on de farm -- raised up togedder wid white family name o' Smith. I married up wid Marthy Kilgore . We had two children. One boy an' one girl. Don' know where dey is now. I done been sap'rated fr'm my wife 'bout forty yeahs. Lat' time ' heared uv her she was in Denton. My mother was a house girl for de Newtons on her plantation. She say one time ol' massa had a cullud man whut was so lazy dat he wen' to de choppin' block an' chop off his own han'. She say cullud folks could fiddle an' dance all dey please, but wa'n't 'lowed t' sing an' pray. She say sometimes dey go out an' turn de wash pot bottom up 'ards so de echo go under de pot an' de white folks coulden' hear de songs. I've heared mother tell dat a hundred times. I come to Granbury, Texas, when I was 'bout thirty years ole. Come wid de Smiths , an' worked on a farm for 'em. It was called de Hasting farm. Hasting was de fur' man t' put up windmills. I lived in Spring town an' Fort Worth 'fore I come to Wichita Falls, when I could see good I worked at de 'Big Nigger Cafe' washin' dishes. Nevah was no han' t' lay 'roun' saloons much. I worked at one time, dough; it was de one wes' o' de ole frame deppo. I was here when dey went out (saloons). Firs' automobile I ever seen was run wid a chain. It had cogs lak de cotton planters an' cultivators down in Louisiana. You could hear it a comin' a long way off. I was raised in de sugah cane patch. Had m' fingers caught in de 'lasses mill many a time. I gets a pension fr'm de gov'ment. I gets 'long perty good, I guess.