!~:~‘~	350106	~	.	..
‚ ~	Oklahoma Writers ‚ Proj ect
	v~ ~ ~	~ ~3~Qi~X
	•r~ ~ •	Age 8]. yi‘s.
	~	Oklahoma City, Okiahoiria



	I was born. June 6, 1856 in Madison County, Georgia. Father was named Joe Do~vdy and mother was named Mary Dowdy. There was 9 of us boys, George, Smith, Lewis, Henry, William, myself, Newt, James ans. Jeff. There was one girl and she was my twin, and. her ‚ name was Sarah. My mother and father come from Richmond., Va., to G‘eorgia. Father lived on one side of the riverand my mother on. the other wide. My father would come over ever week to visit us. Noah Meadows bought my father and. Elizabeth Davis, daughter of the old master took my mother. They married in Noah Meadowst house..

	My mother was the cook in the Big House. Theytd give us pot likker with bread crumbs in it. Sometimes meat, jest sometimes, very seldom. I liked black-.eyed peas and still do till now. We lived in weatherboarc3. house. Our parents had corded.-up beds with ropes and us chillun slept on the floor for most part or in a hole bored in a log. Our house had one window jest big enoi~zgh to stick your hea4 out of, and one door, and. this one door faced. the Big House which was yoi~r mast ~ ~ house . Thi s was so that you couldn1 t gît out tless somebody seen you.

	My job was picking up chips and. keeping the calves and. cows separate so that the calve s wouldn~ t suck the cows dry. Mostly, we had Saturday aft er~ noons off to wash. I was show boy d.oingthe war ‚ me and. my‘ si ster~ ~ cause we was twins . My mother couldØn~Tbe bought ~ cause she done had. 9 boys for one farm and. neither my father, 1cause he was the father of tem. I was religious and. didn‘t play much, but I shd did. like to listen to preachings. I did. used. to play marbles sometimes.