25.
OWi-~~NS CO. (~ohn Forsee)

	Although khis article is presented in narrative form and has but few characters, the writer believes it to be an exoellont exwnple of life in Owen County sixty or more years ago. With the exception of the grey eagle episode, similar events to these described were happening all over the county. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of any part of the article. Th~ narrator (George Dorsey, age 76 (negro) Owentown, Kent~oky, born in slavery and raised by a white family)bears a good reputation and is intelligent enough to react favorably and intelligently to questions con cernin~ the past. Further interviews concerning more general subjects are planned.

	nI was born on the 16th day of June, 1860 on the oie poor house farm ‘bout two miles from Owentown. My mother yousta tell me I‘d be a sleepy head. I didn‘t knew what she meant by that so finally one day, after I got to be a great big boy, I asked her what she

	“Well, she says, CI~j~k~~ that

the hot sun ant sleep themselves to

jess be a sleepy head.“

	“My mother belonged to Sammy Duvall, the father o‘ little 3am Duvall who died not long ago. Little Sam usta be town marshall here and a guard at the pen over at Frankfort. I was born a slave an‘ stayed one till the niggers was freed.

	“Bout the time the war was over I seen my first soldier. The road that passed along in front of our house was a dirt road. I‘d gone with mother to watch her milk a young cow late one night, ‘bout dark I guesa,when I heard somebody hollerin‘ and yeuin‘ an‘ I looked down the road a& seen ‘em coenin‘. I was ‘bout five years old then an‘ it looked to me lilce all the
meant.

is hatched in June jess stand ‘round in death. So, as you was born in June, you‘ll