3~OHN F. VAN H00K
Ex~«&1ave  L	~ 76


	~rohn F. -Van aook was a short, stout man wjth a shining bald pate, a fringe of kinky gray hair, kindly eyes, and a white mustache of the Lord Chamberlain variety. Eis shabby work clothes were clean and carefully mended, and he leaned on a cane for support.

	sohn was looking for the “Farm Bureau Office,“ but he agreed. to return for an interview after he had transacted his business. When he reappeared a short time later and. settled down in a comfortable chair he gave the story of his early life with apparent enjoyment.

	In language remarkably fre e of dialect ‚ ~Tohn began by telling his full name and added that he was well known in Georgia and the whole country. “Until I retired,“ he remarked, “I taught school in North ‘~arolina, end in Hall, ~ackson, and Rabun Counties, in Georgia. I sin farming now about five miles from Athens in the Sandy Creek district. I wasborn in 1862 in Macon County, North Carolina, on the George Seller‘s plantation, which borders the Little Tennessee River.

	“I don‘t know enything nmch, first hand, about the war period, as I was quite a child when that ended, but I can tell you all about the days of ~econstruction. What I know about the things that took place during the war was told me by my mother and other old people.
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