I'se Kentucky bawn and bred. My mother's slavery-time home was on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, in Greenup County, Kentucky. You see, it was the custom for slaves to take the name of the man what owned them. So when Mr. Doll Reed bought my grandmother and her two children, Mary and Bill , they was all called Reed . Mary was my mother. My grandma's name was Eliza . Mr. Reed tried to buy my grandpa, but the man what owned him (Mr. Biggs ) wouldn't sell him. Now Mr. Reed he didn't beliefe in slavery. Of co'se he bought slaves, but he never sold none. He never abused his slaves either befo' or after freedom. He was sho' kind to my folks and when the colored folks was freed, he tol' em 'You can stay on an' wo'k. I hope you do. You will be paid fo' yo' wo'k'. This farm would have been called a plantation if it was farther south. We raised grain of all kinds. We raised lots of cattle, and had great big orchards. The apples was barreled and shipped. Us children, and Marse's children, Lucy and Annie , was allowed to pick up apples and put 'em in big sacks (a bushel or mo' in a sack) and put 'em by the side of the road. Some one on the plantation would be going to town and would pick them up and sell them for us. We would get fifteen cents, maybe, a sack. This money was ours to do as we pleased with. We gen'ly bought candy. My father drowned when I was small. I don't 'member how or why he drowned. He and mother b'longed to different white folks. My father b'longed to a man by the name of Lawson .

I 'member our home well. It was about two miles from Greenup, what was the county seat of Greenup County. It was a large, two-story house about two blocks from the banks of the Ohio River on the Kentucky side. I was bawn on this place July 10, 1864. We moved to Greenup later. I had two brothers an' fo' sisters. Two sisters is daid now. My mother nursed Mr. Reed's baby when his first wife died. I grew up on this farm. No body never whup me but my mammy. I was so much littler than the rest they hated to see me whupped. Mrs. Reed and her children would hide me to keep me from bein' whupped. Mrs. Reed would sometimes say 'Fannie , you have a wonderful memory'. I went to school to about the Third Reader. When I was quite a little girl a man by the name of Thornberry was working for Mr. Reed . He ask Mr. Reed could I go stay with his wife and little children fo' fo' weeks. I stayed seven years. Reed Landing was a ware house with a gravel road down to the river bank. Between the ware house and the river was the trading block. It was a platform about 20 X 30 feet. Slaves was bought and sold there, or auctioned off or swapped for more desirable things. It was a public trading place and shipping place. In bad weather they kep' the grain an' things they was going to ship in the ware house. I never heard of no trains then. My mother tol' me that many slaves was treated like they was stock - that is, their rules of livin'. I use to cry when I'd hear the cows lowin' for their calves, knowing they was bein' sold an' separated. But our home was a comfort case we wouldn't be sold. Mrs. Reed taught us we mus' love the one what we married an' we mus' get a license. Mos' times masters and misses would jus' pick out some man fo' a woman an' say 'Dis yo' man', an' say to the man 'Dis yo' woman'. Didn't make no difference what they want. Then they read some from the Bible to 'em an' say 'Now you is husban' an' wife'. I moved from Kentucky in 1881 to Clay County then moved here in October 1888. I'se been a widow 27 years. I use to nurse for Dr. Robison , Dr. Collard , and Dr. Mackechney , but I taken lumbago in my back an' had to quit nursin'. I use to cook fo' bo'din' houses, Lion's Club, Shriners, and sometimes for a hundred people at a time. I'se candied a bushel of sweet potatoes at a time an' they was all eat up, too. It wasn't nothin' to cook 300 rolls at a time. I wish you could see the quilts I made for the Burke Burrnett ranch. I got $2.50 apiece for 'em. Some times I'd get $10.00 or $15.00 at a time when I took the quilts to the ranch. Dat's de way I paid fo' my home. I'se busy all the time. Of co'se I visits the sick - but what I means - I ain't got no time to gad aroun'. First thing I does of a mornin' is to go down on my knees an' ask God to lead me right an' not let my mind dwell on unholy things. I mostly washes now.