Delilah Franklin~Choctaw Freedwoman
My parents were Louis and Ruthie Stevenson, both
born in the Choctaw Nation and Father was a farmer. There were fourteen
children in our family.
I was born in 1867, ten miles west of Tatums, on
Wild Horse Creek, in the Chickasaw Nation. There were so many wild horses
on this creek, that it acquired the name of Wild Horse.
I was born in a log house, with puncheon floor,
and a stick and mud or 'cat' chimney. The house caught afire many
times and I would run for the water bucket and pour water on the fire to
extinguish it. We used water from a spring and drank out of a gourd.
Our table was made of a large box and our chairs were hewed log benches and
blocks. Our beds were made of poles and the mattresses were of hay.
I didn't get to go to school. Father made
me stay at home and work in the field. I picked cotton in my apron
and carried it to a basket and when the basket was full it was taken to the
wagon and weighed. This was the way I earned my clothes each year.
I wore split leather shoes with brass toes and
when the soles wore out, Father re-soled them with wooden pegs which he made
from white oak. I had only one pair of shoes a year and when this pair
wore out I went bare footed until time to buy another pair, which was late in
the fall, after the cotton was picked.
Several wagons full of people went to market
together, once a year to
We drive oxen to market and to church. Our
wagon had wooden wheels and wooden axles. It moaned and groaned as we
drove along.
The preachers in those days did not receive
money for their services. We gave them food instead. Father was a
very religious man. We were not allowed to cook on Sunday. Each
Saturday we cut enough wood and cooked enough food to do the family until
Monday. We never missed church services, no matter how bad the weather.
My dresses were made of cotton, and it took ten
yards for a dress. I wore bustles and hoops and a tight basque. The
skirts were long, dragging the ground. We had to hold them out of
our way as we walked.
Sunday was the only day of the week which I
knew, and we always told the time of day by the sun. I used to enjoy going
to dances. They were always square dances and the music was furnished by
men playing a fiddle and an accordion. We always watched the Big Dipper
and Joles' Coffin to know when it was time to go home.
In those days we knew nothing about Beauty
Shoppes. We curled our hair on corn shucks. First we greased it
thoroughly with lard, and then braided it up with corn shucks, all over our
heads. When we got ready to go to these dances we unbraided it and combed
it into curls. We used flour for face powder.
We washed our clothes in the creek and hung them
on the bushes and trees to dry. We knew nothing about clothes lines.
Our tubs were old barrels sawed through the center, and our wash boards were
battling sticks.
Our church had a fund for buying coffins for the
members who died. They bought the lumber and made the coffin.
These coffins were small at the head and the foot, and large in the center,
covered with black sateen and lined with bleached muslin, and a cotton pillow
was placed at the head. The body was hauled to the cemetery in an ox wagon, and
the mourners sang as they proceeded slowly along.
The funeral was held at the grave. We
followed the custom of the Indians and buried the things which the dead person
had treasured with them.
Mother smoked an old pipe which she made from
clay, using a piece of cane for the stem. We grew our own tobacco.
I was married to Ed Franklin and have eight
children. My husband is dead.
I have lived in
Father and Mother are buried at
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Source:
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/pioneer/paper.asp?pID=2261&vID=32 |
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Interviewer:
John F.
Daugherty
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Interviewee:
Delilah
Franklin
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Rights:
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Volume:
32
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Interview
ID: 4691
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Date:
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