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Life during the 1860's and the Civil War
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began, but Cottonwood was not in the fight. The government had issued
the "Emancipation Proclamation"
freeing all the slaves. The south went to war rather than give up the slaves they
had paid for. Henry knew that sooner or later he would
have to let the slaves go. Henry had bought some of them on the Courthouse Square at Clarksville. One day, they even sold a white man while
he was down there, but the man’s
brother bought him for a dime.
Henry had several hundred acres of land, several teams of horses, and lots of farming equipment. What he didn’t have
were people to work
the land. Henry was one to make the best of a bad situation. He called all the slaves together for
the last time. First he told them they
were free to go if they wished, but if any of them wanted to stay he would sharecrop
with them. This meant that Henry would furnish the
land, the farming equipment, and seed. They would do the work and
when the crops were harvested they halved the cotton. Also 1/3 of the land
had to be planted in corn or some feed crop for the horses. Some of the slaves were worried about how they would eat until their crops were
finished. Henry said
he would start a store and they could have credit until harvest time.
It’s hard to say just how many slaves Henry had, but I would guess about 40. I guess that about half of them
stayed on a nd the rest left.
The ones that stayed took up the last name of Weathers. Some of their names were
Billie, Robert, Mattie T., Evaline, and Walter.
Evaline wanted to stay on and continue helping Elizabeth with the housework and the children. She had a small boy, Walter, and had lost
her husband not long before. She didn’t think she could make it alone so she
stayed. Besides she loved Josh and the other children as if
they were her own.
In 1860, Vina started to school in Cottonwood. The benches in the school were made of rough logs and Vina didn’t like this. Every morning
one of the colored men, that had stayed, would take Vina to school. They
would drive up in a horse and buggy. The colored man would get out
and get a little rocking chair out and carry it in for Vina to sit in. Vina was always dressed well and had her hair fixed nice. She was a
very pretty girl. In
the afternoon the colored man would pick up Vina and her rocking chair and take them home. On January 3, 1861 Mary Susan Weathers and Robert W. Senters were married in the Cottonwood Methodist Church. In 1862, Henry was having trouble selling his cotton and getting supplies up the river on the boats. The war back in
the east was taking
most of the supplies.
In 1863 Josh was setting in the cookhouse eating breakfast. Evaline was there cleaning and doing the dishes. What Josh didn’t know was
that Union Soldiers were moving into the bottoms that morning. They had come to make sure all the
slaves had been freed. One of the soldiers
kicked open the door, stepped in, and raised his rifle to shoot Josh. Josh
was setting there unarmed and only a boy of 16. Evaline grabbed
Josh and pulled him behind her. He would have to
shoot her first. The soldier, thinking that she was a slave in bondage, didn’t know what to
think. The soldier didn’t shoot and Evaline had saved his life. After things were straightened out the soldiers moved on to Clarksville
where they did
battle. Cottonwood had survived without anyone being hurt badly.
In 1864, the Civil War was over and the South had lost. This meant that the confederate money that Henry had
made in selling cotton
wasn’t good. Henry placed the money in a small box and put it away. He had a shoe box full
of confederate money when the war was over. Of
course he had some gold left, but not very much. The federal government wanted back taxes on the land and this created quite a problem for
Henry, with as much land as he
had. Some of the land would have to be sold to pay taxes. The government put a tax on cotton farmers. Since
the North didn’t raise cotton, this was one way the North had of getting back at the South. This tax didn’t last but
about 2 years and then
was declared unconstitutional.
Henry and his family were now trying to raise a cotton crop. It was quite a job without the slaves to do the work.
Josh and the girls had
to give up the easy life they were used to and help their father with the crops. It had been
quite a change for them over the past 3 or 4
years. In 1865 and 1866, the South was faced with men coming from the North trying to profit from the spoils of war.
These men were known at
carpetbaggers, because they usually had everything they owned in a carpetbag. These men would try to pick up land by paying back taxes on
it. They would also try to by land at a very low price
from people who couldn’t afford to pay their taxes and was having a hard time making
a living. Men like this kept Henry on his toes, trying to keep all of his land.
Some men lost everything they had in the war, their family, their land, and their fortune. Some men had fought so long
in the war that
they didn’t know anything else but fighting, killing, and stealing. Some were just born lazy and wouldn’t
do an honest days work. These were
the type that would band together, rob and steal from the working people. Josh came home to tell Henry of a band of outlaws that were in the area. It seems they had raided a community up
the river. They had to
prepare for the outlaws so they took their cows and horses to Ash Lake in a wooded area.
They roped off a small piece of ground next to the
lake, using trees for fence post. One side of the lake was next
to them so they would have plenty of water to drink. They put plenty of feed
with them in hopes of keeping them quite.
Josh and Henry walked back to the house and loaded guns and prepared for the raid that would come. A few
nights later a band of outlaws
came into Cottonwood looking for something to steal. Josh, Henry, and Robert
Senters, were waiting on them at Henry’s house. The outlaws
tried to get into the house, but the trio started shooting and drove them back. The outlaws looked around, and seen there was no any
livestock to steal. They must have
thought that some other gang had already been there and cleaned them out, because they mounted and rode
off. Josh and Henry waited a few days, then went to the lake and brought the livestock back home.
In 1867, Joseph bought 80 acres of the Bates farm from Henry. He didn’t really want to sell this land so he made
Josh promise to sell it
back to him if he ever decided to sell it. Josh gave Henry 80 dollars for the entire 80 acres.
Ten years later he sold it back to Henry.
Josh was 21 years of age when he bought the land. He moved out of the bottoms and into the old Bates house. He bought two teams of horses to
farm with. Each team could farm 30 acres.
Josh hired help to work the other team and to do some hoeing. This land wasn’t bottom- land but it
was good rich upland. With all due respect to my great-grandfather, Josh wasn’t as good a farmer as was Henry. Although
he did all right farming this land in cotton, corn, and vegetables.
Christmas came in 1867 and R.W. Senters gave Elizabeth a new bible. The old bible had been used for years and was pretty ragged. Senters
copied the family records out of the old bible into the new one. Senters had a
beautiful handwriting. You can tell by his writing that he
was an educated man of his time. This bible is still in the family today.
On May 18, 1869, Sarah Jane Elizabeth Weathers married Fieldon Sterling Hackney. Henry gave both his married daughters 40 acres of land
joining each other. This was very handy for the girls visiting each other.
This land was their wedding present from Henry and was probably
located near Ash Lake.Henry hired Fieldon as a bookkeeper for his store. He would keep records of the supplies the sharecroppers got. He was also a farmer, the
bookkeeping was a sideline.
Back in those days, lots of children died young or at birth. Sallie and Mary were no different from anyone else.
Mary lost
two children
at very young ages. Sallie lost a boy at the age of 6 that she had named after her brother, Joshua.
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