Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-06-27
DADDY WILL.
A Glimpse of Ancient Dixie.
Harper's Magazine

oeautifui social outgrowths, the old
time-favored and trusted family do
mestic, is rapidly fading out of sight
and mind. TO fix upon the memory
some faint traces of the dusky but
kindly vissage of one of these relics
OF by-gone day, and of an institu-
ton once co-extensive with the the
Union, but now utterly and forever
swept away, is the object of this I'M.
pretending sketch.
Though slave, the old negro FAM
lily domestic was more than a servant
and was often a friend that sticketh
closer than brother In both sexes
they were as intrinsically part of
the family household as if they were
knit to it by closest ties of blood and
kiDship. They shared its joys aad
divided its griefs they participated
in It's prosperity and helped to carry
the burden of adversely; they were
identified with all its feelings, preiu>
dices, hopes and fears, with its pride,
its friendships, its loves and hates !;
and they were made the safe reposi-
tories of its most carefully guarded
secrets trustees whom no punish
ments could seduce nor offers of re-
ward corrupt.
In the early part of the present GEN.
fury two adjacent plantations in one
of the lower tier of Middle States
were owned by families whose mem
bers were connected by a friendship
which was the closer for having been
a traditional heirloom for many gen
erations. Colonel Dater and Major
Duncan, the heads OF these families.
were old comrades in arms, who had
encountered perils together in which
each had risked life for the other !;
and their friendship was kept cheerily
burning by the interchange of thou
sand spontaneous acts, as thoughtful
as they were loving, on every ordin-
airy or extraordinary event of their
lives: on anniversaries of births and
deaths and marriages in memorial
of military promotions and civic ad-
vancements: of battles in which they
had been engaged, or of perils from
which one had been rescued by the
other; of the planting of favorite
tree or the foaling of favorite colt.
So it happened that on the birth of
a son, Colonel Dater, as was the usage
with many slave holding families, as
signed to the young heir for his own
peculiar servant the child of one of
his most trusty slaves, bright negro
lad of six or seven, named Will /; and
in like manner when, few months
later,a son was also born to his friend
Major Duncan, he gave the young
stranger another OF the same stanch
and trusty stock, Wills twin sister
Betty, to be the little fellows nurse
and attendant.
The sons OF the old comrades per-
petuated and cemented the inherited
family friendship by companionship
that grew closer and became more es-
sential to the happiness of each with
increasing years. Like their fathers
they embraced tie profession of arms
and when the Mexican war broke out
they entered into it with ardor, emerg-
ing from it with high reputation
for skill and valor, and each with the
well earned rank of colonel. Will
accompanied his young master to
Mexico as body-servant, and in that
capacity had shared the young off
GERS dangers, and accompanied MIN
In al! his daring exploits, approving
himself, and being estimated by Col.
onel Dater throughout the whole of
that campaign, as well as the longer
one of life, the trusted and most de-
voted of friends. Although he had
been given his freedom by Colonel
Dater, when they were both young
men, Daddy Will, as he came to be
invariably called by his masters child
rem and their children after them, re-
manned with the Dater family, who
placed unbounded trust in his fidelity
and sagacity. When Colonel Dater
died he left a comfortable provision
for his old friend, who was then verg.
ing toward three-score, and in his will
charged his son sedulously to care
Tor him in his declining years-a trust
which young Mr.. Dater gladly accept
ed and reverently performed, receiv-
ing in return most loyal and affection
ate service.
But if Mr.. Dater inherited the leg
acy of Daddy Willis answering fidel.
ity, the faithful old man transferred
to his masters daughter Kate the de-
voted attachment which he had con-
centrated in his earlier years on her
grandfather, Colonel Dater. No knight
was ever more chivairous in his devo-
ton to his legal lady than was Daddy
Will to this beautiful girl from the
time when he first beheld her living
on her mothers bosom, babe few
days old. With the poetical instinct
which is often strong in men of his
race, he had then knelt down by Mrs.
Dater's bedside to kiss the helpless
babe, and as he did so he silently VOW
ed to his dead friend and master that
he would stan by his grandchild
while life should last Then, turning
to happy Mrs. Dater, and lifting her
delicate white hand to his lips with
the grace of courtier, he calculated,
DE dear little apple blossom And
from that hour Little apple Blossom
as he uniformly called Kate, except
on rare occasions, had no more abiect
slave or loving worshipper than Dad
dy Will F.; and the young girl requited
his love by an affection as frank and
unreserved as his own.
1t was very beautiful to see these
two, as Kate blossomed from infancy
into girlhood. Daddy Will was a man
of great statute, and despite his grow.
ing years still held himself erect. and
preserved the soldierly gait and bear
ing which he had acquired during his
military life. He was exceedingly
scrupulous in his toilet, which was in
variably suit of black broadcloth,
the coat being of the inevitable swal.
low-tail cut, almost universally worn
half century ago, but now eonsign-
ed to the isolation of full dress, and
his shirts and ample cravats of many
folds were of the finest and wbitest