INTSRVIEWEE. Mrs. Julia Houck HartleyINTERVIEIi/ERI Mrs. Doris Hawk
LT" sT TT:t/ATEi September 1974
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We want to know who your oarpn+Qfirst moved into Yazoo County - whSI they^n^dfMy mother was (*>)was a country schoolteacher md my Dadrtfr"' andHawk; horn and raised in Yazoo cXtv Mis^ William Thomascriminal lawyer, Miss., and was a
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We want to know where they firstowned their land? settled and where theyWe settled in Yazoo County and itland, Z5it acres on the Benton road lour^mfi "^HenYazoo City, Miss. "niles east of
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We want to know if y'all ever owned any slaves?No, my grandfather hauled them out of n iboat and runn them into Mississippi when 1+ '^Westate, but he never owned a slavef ®
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Where did you go to school?
At Center Ridge, Miss,
We want to know the name of the ar*y,^^i ^ .school and who your teachers were? ^ ̂̂ escribe the
JHi I never had but one teacher un+n t ^ ,It was a one-room schoolhouse, two miles ^azoo City,Benton Road and Miss Rebecca Miller was m^+ ̂ "theyears. ^ T-cacher for six
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Tell what they studied and how many ounno ,^ pupils you had in it
It was about 30 pupils in it and we ^regular, nothing particular, but mos+w ,arithmetic. was spelling f»spelling and
DHi What you learned, what they taught them h
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Hartley
Well, I learned to read and wite and I learned to "be aninterior decorator "by going to Miss Rebecca and I*ve beenan interior decorator all my life.
I was in town with my Daddy when the Dorseys and Kellys hadtheir shoot-out at the courthouse and killed each other—just left the street laying in dead men—over a gossipinglie old Birdsall put in the paper - that old crook, heought been killed before he was.
DHi Describe the businesses in Benton.
JHi There was a country store and a li
Did you go to a public school?
Yes mam.
Describe the public school system.
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ttle place to buy cottonand John Sharp Williams owned it - the United States Senator.And it was some Guions lived up there. I wasn't very wellacquainted in Benton because we always come back the otherdirection.
I can't describe it. All I know was that it was just alittle country school house and I didn't know anythingabout the public school system. My daddy was one of theofficers of the school, but I don't know anything aboutthe business part.
We want you to tell us about Grandpa's boat and what theycarried on there and if they paid farei or, if they carriedslaves on it, did they carry them free or did they have topay to ride?
Well, he hauled cotton and it was called, "Hawk's Cotton Blossom"and he'd take the boat to St. Louis and get loads of people andtake them to New Orleans to the Mardi Gras and when he'd comeout of New Orleans, if the slaves wasn't branded, he'd putthem in the hulls of the boat and haul them into Mississippiand turn them loose.
Dia you tsvoi.
About ten times. I went to New Orleans. Mama, Papa slater'sdaughter and myself ~ we went all the time with him. VJewere eight and ten years old.Where would you go?
go to New Orleans to someplace there where my GranddaddyWe'd
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Mrs, Hartley
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Stayed when he was in New Orleans,horse races there.
He took us to the
Can you tell them any storfes about trips on the steamboatthat your granddaddy told you, or some that you say andknew?
Well, all that he ever had to say anything about was thedamn Yankees. He didn't like the Yankees. He was in theCivil War,
We want to know what Grandpa's name was.
His name was William Andrew Houck. Our name is really,not lawfully, Houck. Grandpa was bom in Stedgrad, GermanjddHe came to America when he was 11 years old. And he come,up in Alabama, his Daddy was a foimder and made stoves. Ourname, of course, has drifted away in seven years. But itsHouck. And 0. K, Houck Piano Company man, his people is myDaddy's first cousins. As my husband said once, our familyis like a hill of potatoes — the best of us in the ground.
Tell where the family cemetery is—where the old Houcks areburied, Julia. Tell where the family cemetery is out onBenton Highway and who was buried there.
Well its on the place that Grandma homesteaded — Papa'sMama! And it was Uncle John - Papa's brother's buriedtherei and Mama's oldest boy, Malcolm's, buried there;and Aunt Fanny's son, Little Robert's, buried there;and Grandma and Grandpa and Mama; and my little sister,Minnie - she's buried there. And that's all that wasburied there. And before the Civil War, Grandma set outthree rows of cedar trees so the grave yard wouldn't getlost Afterward the children all got grown and separated,thev'sold the place to the Duggans and they cut down allthe big cedar trees and sold them. There's nothing therebut stumps and you can't hardly find them for the weeds andgrass.
m tiaII about when Grandpa came down on the boat and metGrandma - she was a Vaughan.
Hidn't meet her on the boat. Well, you see. Grandpaawav from his father up in Alabama and made him a raft
^ floated down the Tennessee into the Mississippi Riverhe landed at Vicksburg and he went down to the boat
Vet him a job and this captain was up in the cabin,as a fool, and he put him on as a roustabout. AskedS could he carry the end of a bale of cotton. He triedVrand he was on there for seven years before Grandpa everinvited him out to his house. Grandpa lived at Vaughan'a
<^t«tion 20 miles from Yazoo City. And it was Christmas^vf^d'the wrld was covered with snow and Grandma*s_b^ot^rs met them at the boat in a log wagon and carriedtLre and Grandpa said he never saw such a prettyi^hifUfe-she was sitting at the end of the table
there were seven other girls and six boys. And?fJrv Mfield* s mother was the sister of my Grandma.Lucy Brumriei g^jifieid Oil Wells and there was a manThey owned of them. And a lot of the-,1^ r:—^ Lo qtill living up around Kosciusko and Canton
, -^oTHPTn-her "the tale you told us about whenevertSy'fi?st°movld there, about the log house they built onback of the place?
JH« Yes.
+ +bP loff house where y'all lived until you builtDHi Tell aboutthe new house up front.
.. a and Grandma, before the Civil War, lived inJHi Well, Grandpa ^ place and Grandpa gota log come home and it was killed two hogs...a furlough ° ^j^g kitchen and they didn't haveand he heard a no grease and a brass saucer withany coal And hi took it and went in there toa burner fixea i" ^ Yankee soldier in thesee what the meat. He come at my Granddaddy withkitchen, ste^ing^the meax.^ ^ hickory,rollinga bayonet and ^ ^ g^dsi he made his rolling pinsj?bfng hLself Se 4as handy.with a knife but....^thaV rauddy water under the bridge....
+he name of some of your school girl friends -DHi Tell us school?what y'all aiQ ^wiiai' j — ,
JH^ fftta Herron there at Yazoo City, ^d N^ie andMagfie and - used to be my boyfriend, andLoSis, and El^c pi^ckstons and Ada Wallace was a good
the and a girl, Callie Buckley, A^es Miller -friend J^^orknew them but Callie is living now.I don't sumner. Miss., at least she did. AndCallie li"'® +hnt's Miss Rebecca's brother—went to schoolJoe Mill®^::;rtw Joyner, Ellie Jo^er, Alma Fatheree--oh.with us. ^5iook of us and we all went down there and had^lifbelftime together.
«-p vour teachers at the public school?^ere some of you
Well when I moved into Yazoo Gityj I started at theYazoo CitY High School — Graimaar School, at least, andiviTas Annie Ellis—God rest her soul—she was one of them.And Miss Sxum was one of them and Miss Hall was one ofthPTTi' and in Yazoo City, Monson Hinman, and Lucretia Zeno,Xaem, aim XII '^er-fehunr +V%/sao V»otro ae> +
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T Tmow of that's living.MeSs. But the rest of them - Monson died ahout a yeara-o at Greenwood, Miss. There was a...I'm trying to think.
Aunt Julia, Ho you rememher when Yazoo City humed?JHi In 190'f.
DHi Can you describe how Yazoo City looked and what happened andall?
Ti++le hamlet, hut it was a good little towni andIt was a an explosion of a gaslight in J.S.B. Bluitt'sit °^"Sht li wined it out from the Dalton Lumber Company tohome. And 1 thing that was left standing wasthe railroad house at Monroe and Broadway. He satFountain „ ^sked him wasn't he going to get hisin the yard an . was going to take oare of him."
"house didn't hum. It was the only house leftAnd his ^? y „- City. And the next morning, I went tostanding in I never saw so much charred, humttown with was pitiful. But, I'll tell you onestuff in ®y.;r„7t'have the Red Cross and all of that to comething, we dion scratch.in and Hslp ^ Baptist ChurchNohody Helpen* j-in Yazoo City.
Blank portion of tape follows.the Roans married him, I don't taow which one.....one of tn= was. Well, anyhow, the old Heath house
I forget whion Benton Road. Its ahout two miles andis still were hefore you get to Duggan's. Itsa half. J'^®?(jggt houses in the county. It was huilt way
V o and Fitzhugh's, and the Jordans and all—GrandpahllThouseful of sisters.Were you living in Yazoo City when they had the smallpoxepidemic?
Yes.
l^Jhat year was that in?T «rnq living there when they had the diptheriaAbout 1-9.. Nettie Gregory died with it.
epidemic p tjoo# «"
I lifhat year was that in?1+ Tmow (unintelligible) 13• I think.Honey I I don ^ ^ it killed some bull frogs.,.,
(blank 'tape/•• •: • fried them and the next day them(unintelligible; ^er the pecan tree and killed a toadthree kids was ou frying it in a bucket lid.and took a.bucket lid ^ ..Doris, who done this?"V^as it (^5^^!®^ticked him with a piece of glass and BessieShe says Sug^ cooking him.cut him up and X ra
Blank portion of tape.Captain Andy Hawk?Captain Andy
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DH. our name to be c^led Hawk-the Negroes couldn'tAnd how ^o® ^ they called it Hawk,pronounce Houcit
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,, it Hawk-like chicken hawkTheV call®" * - ^
,.ey call you Hawk instead of the real name?l^hy did tney w,«w N«^nfiadid •cne^ "4+ Well
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, you know Negroes coxildn'tThey couldn't say'^ir. Houck, they said Hawk, JustAnd they di^ always called him that. But allme'chicken tod^ Hawk's Cotton Blossom.„i them called him P Houck. I'm named after the twoWeufmy S^ti£Sy-two years old In thegrandmother here ten weeks,hosnital*.*
^ _ -eady to catch the Greyhound to Yazoo County
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JHi Ypc^ I'm coming to Yazoo City again. •...•-in GreenwoodiJHi Yes, I m co^ng y city that day and stayed there^tifwe S Sn. Arkansas and bought a dailyuntil we wenx ^ urinten and he taught menewspaper. My hu^an^ anything in a printing officeto print, ^d I an editorials. But I surefrom sweeping out uo wxxox &learned it after I married.
