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	~	EL.SLAv~ STORIES	~	Page One
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TOM MILLS was born in Fayette
Co.• Alabama, In 1858, a slave
of‘ Oeor~ Pattereon, i~ho owned
~	father and. mother. In
	18b2 George Patterson moved to
Ç	Texas, bringing Tom and his
	mother, but not his father.
	After they were freed, it was
	difficult for T~Ss mother to
	earn a living and they had a
	hard time for several years,
	until Tom was old enough to go
	to work on a ranch, as a COWs
	hand. In 1892 ~ undertook
	stock farming, finally settling
	in Uvalcle in 1919. Re now lives
	in a four-room house he built
	himself. A. peach orchard and
	a grape arbor shade the west
	side of the houes and. well-fed
	COWS are in the little paiture.
	¶rom is contented and optimistic
	and. says he can “do a lot of work
	yet.“



‘II was born in Alabama, in Fayette Co. in 1858. My

mother was named ~aline Riley and. my father was named Thad Mills. My sisters were nstmed ~lla and Ann and Lou and Maggie and Mat ildy, and the youngest one was ‚ast er • I had two brothers ‚ Ri chard and. 35n. Bob Leb~u.c was my great-uncle and for a long while he ran a freight wagon fr~ Salt Lakes to this country. That was the only way ot~ getting salt to Texas, this part of Texas, I mean, because Salt Lakes is down east of Corpus, close to the bay. My uncle was finally killed by the Indians in ?rio County.

	“In Alabama we lived on Patterson‘s place. The grandmother of all these Patterions was Betsy Patterson and ~lived. on k~er estate.
‚t‘


My mother wove the clotn • It kep ‚ her pre tty busy, but she was et out

and. active. My uncle was blacksmith and made all the plows, too.

u~e Z~ad a picket bouse ‚ one room ‚ and two beds built in corners.