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V~.~derburgh County	~
	Lauana Creel	The Biography of a Child Born in $lavex‘y.

	Samuel Watson, a citi~,en of Favansvi1J.e~ Indiana, was born i.n Webster County, Kentucky, February 14, 1862. His master‘s home wa~ located two and one half miles

fror~ Clai, Kentucky on Crtborohard Creek.

.	~tUfl~1O Sa1TnV~ as the negro children living near his home on South East Fifth


Street cctli the old mans posse~es an unuaua~7ciear memory. in fact he remembers sec in~ the soldiers and hearing the report of‘ ‚~~nnon while he w~s yet an ~ infant . ~

	One story told by the old negro relates ‘how “old inissus“ se.ved “old massa‘s horses“. The story follows:

	The mistress accomranied by e. number of slaves was ~lking out one ~ and all were startled by the sound of hurry~r~ horses. Soon rn~.ny mounted soldiers could be aeon coming over a hill in the distance. The child Samuel ~as later told that the soldiers were rni~kin~ their way to Fort Donelson and were pressing horses into service. The~r ~were also enliztir.g negroes into zervîce whei~ possible.

	Old master, Thomas Watson, owned many good ab1e~.bodied slaires and. many 8plend~d horses. The mistress realized the dari~er of loss and o~enin~ the “big gate“

that separated the o~r~l~ fro; the forest 1~ndz, ~s. Watson ran into the midst of
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the horses shouting and frailin~ them. Th~ frightened horses ran into the for~

est off the highway and toward the river.

	When the soldiers stopped at the ~tson plantation thc~y found only a few old work horses standing under a tree and not desiring these they went on their way.

	~	The little negro boy ran and h~d himself in the corner made by a great out side chimney, where he waS found later, by his frightened mother. Uncle S&muel re~ members that the horses came home the folio‘~i1ng afternoon, none missing.

	Uncle Samuel remembers ~then the war ended and the slaves were emancipated. “Some were happy 1“ and seine were sad L“ ~y dreaded leaving their old. homes and their masters‘ families.

	Uncle Samuel‘s mother and three children were told that they viere free people and the master asked the niothe r to take her little one s and go away. ~

	s~ ~oomp~ied and tookher family to the plantation of Jourdain Je~nes, hoping
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