Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-01-08
a aEaHEss VITA 4 mrsroRY.
Death OF Old ssAune Eye.'-shav-
ing Martin Van Hsaren aaa De
witt Clinton.
NSW AUfh liuss.

tAk 1A1Eeth ' tAn H4uFeH ana -
witt Clinton.
: New York Times
! A famous old colored woma
! | named Eve" who for three gel
+ eTations has been cook, housekeel
er, barber and general family sci
! want To the Vanderpoels, of Colum
! bia county, died on the Schumake
+ farm, near Poelsburg, fourtee
miles south of Albany, on Saturda
last. The farm is the property of th
Hon. John G. Schumacher, eX-con
gresham of Brooklyn, who is
grandson of old Sheriff Nanderpoel
Ewes former master, and who fo
twenty years has provided the oil,
woman with comfortable hom
and support BETTING her station
Eva, in addition to her other do
mestic accomplishments, was nursl
to whole generations of Wander
poels and Schumakers, and knew
the family histories and pedigree.
of all the Knickerbockers of Colum
bia county by heart. She was borr
a slave on the farm of Barent Van
derpoel in 1882. Her parents Were
/ Guinean negroes, who had origin
ally been brought over from Africa
by the Dutch West India Company,
and who still spoke the Guinea dia-
lect of their ancestors. Eve also
spoke this language, in addition to
English and Dutch, and conversed
in all three with fiuency. She was
an excellent cook, was skilled In
making the numerous savory dishes
with which the tables of the rich
old Dutch farmers were loaded, and
which Washington Irving has de
scribed. She was also prudent and
thrifty housewife, and an excellent
nurse. In her younger days she
nursed the Hon. Isaac Vanderp0el,
afterward treasurer of the state of
New York. Eve had one great an
tipathy. 1t was for Yankee school
masters. The Massachusetts border
was only twenty miles off, and
Yankee pedagogues about as long
legged, nasal tongued, inquisitive,
and meddlesome as Ichabod Crane
himself, used to swarm over the
borders in great numbers to teach
the youth of the Dutch settlers. 1t
used to be charged against them
that they cOaxed the lazy and shift
less slaves over into Massachusetts,
which they depicted as a land flow
ing with milk and honey, but which
the negroes were apt to find exceed
ingly bleak and inhospitable. In
the course of a few weeks the tex
odusters" generally found their way
back, hungry and humiliated, to
their old masters, and begged to be
taken in again. Prospective free
dom and the lightness of the yoke
had already reduced the price of a
s'likely nigger" to $3.50, and some
of the farmers positively refused to
take them back on any terms. Eve,
however, never deserted her old
master, but, on the contrary, stuck
by him after the emancipation acts
of 1918 and 1924, which made
slavery in New York thing of the
past. She said she never cared for
freedom, and preferred to live and
die in sole Massa" Vanderpoel's |
service.
Ewes greatest talent, however,
was for shaving and cutting hair, /
and in this she acquired a reputa- /
ton that exceeded that of any pro- /
fessional barber in the state. Among |
the celebrities shaved by her were
President Martin Van Buren,, his
son, Prince John, Dewitt Clinton,
the great governor; Isaac Denison, /
of Albany; Daniel d. Tompkins,
and other prominent statesmen and
politicians of the period. Her touch
was wonderfully soft and delicate,
and she had knack of drawing the
razor so gently and smoothly over
the face that the patient would
go to sleep in the chair,
Or imagine that she was not shaw
ing him at all. Judge Aaron Van-
1erpoel, a famous local politician of
Columbia county, known in his
.ime as the "Kinderhook Roarer,"
used to travel miles to get one of
Aunt Ewes shaves. The old lady
never exercised her talent for
nones, and confined her barbering
% members of the Vanderpoel
amily and their guests. She shaved
he old sheriff, her former master,
or thirty years, and then unac-
refused probably through
to shave him after
leath. The way in which she pick
ID up the accomplishment was
'qualIy yextraordinary Derrick Van
'fyck, a substantial Dutch land
'wner, happened to be passing a
eW days at the VanderpOel man.
ion, One evening after dining gen.
rOusly, and drinking his hosts
nolfb xroryaTnt1- ht1r1oray.c of ~, |
Id apple brandy, he got razor,
lot water and soap sudS, and essay
d to shave himself. His cries at
racted Eve, who, plying his bleed !
ng face, said: 'fUncle Derrick, why
ont you let me shave you?" Der
ick consented, and Eve, improvis- S
ng barber's chair by means of a ]
ommon chair and a hroom-sti0k, {
0Ok the razor and shaved old Der ]
lexis face as smooth as a Dutch {
heese. The fame of her skill got |
broad, and for many years after
eP services aa a barber were in con- I
Lant request In other respects g
I've was dellsely ignorant. She |
Onld neither read, write nor re- '
lember figures. She couldn't tell 5
five dollar bill when she saw one. q
he was IMMENSELY fond of colored I
and bandanas, and T
Lr. Schumacher, in his trips TO Z
Europe, has been accustomed to buy i
dantities Of gayiy colored hand !
erchiefs and neck-clOths for her at .
nuremberg and Stuttgart, The last
atch of these was sent her at POels-
urg two years ago, and she con-
nued wearing them up to the day
her death. Notwithstanding her
reat age, she retained her faculties
p to the last, and only a month q
go talked laughingly with Mr..
and several other men, o
ers of the family about shaving Q
[artin Van Buren, fifty years ago. U
he had an excellent memory, and ;,
ill conversed in the Guinea and Z
utch dialects when requested to do g
}, as in her younger days. News of U
er death reached Mr., Schumaker
his home in Brooklyn ON Satur- =
ay last, and he at once telegraph U
! to have her buried in a manner
an old and faithful servant. 0
In person Eve was a handsome,
Drtly negress, tall, with quick, IN a
'lligent eyes and pleasant features, u
Inky hair and retrousse nose. In Il
er younger days she was married :,
J "Dick" Van Alstyne, the slave u
an adjoining farmer, and by .
hom she had two children, y