The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-02
Good Old Slaves and Days.

NUWA UAA FJA=A w e-----
The discussion about the condition ol
4he negro is reviving many pleasalI
recollecti0ns among the people Wy
knew the negro as no one IN the no. "a
ever knew him or ever could know mn nm
I'm the home of a southern family nv
ing i'm New York is a room en- one W.
of which hang the portraits on tAlse
generations. on the opposite wan uails
The sortraits of some of ine nanny .
old slaves and their children
There is a portrait OF the head % t-.7
family a physician who Went 20 ~et-
fornia in the FIRST year Of the gold 1eNel.
The portrait opposite is that oL Ala So-s
servant who went with hH- ,rt
The trin was made overland no
phvsician nrosDered. Then DE slckeneu
and died among strange people, ana was
buried by his faithful servant Wli'i l-stt
ing attended TO the last iltea, luosA etiS
wealth OF his master and returned Ply
long and circuit9us route, gong py
way of Cape Horn. thence TO New Aoi r..
and thence to the home of his widowed
mistress. p 600 miles from mere ana laiq
al her feet the wealth his master mad
The story If this faithful servant APP
peared in the sun two years ago. IL
was told in that story how the mistress
died "A year later, and how the Old SER
want nursed her when she had cholera.
when no one else was there to minister
TO her wants. all her family having been
Guaranteed. The next day the old
slave died. and he and his mistress were
buried side by side. There the story
printed in the Sun ended
The third generation of that old physi-
clans family have since the moved to
New York. What followed the death oE
the mistress and her slave is now print
ed with the permission Of the family in
this city
The family of the old physician con-
sisted Of four chudren-tWO boys, two
girls. and the negro nanny" wife of
the faithful body servant of the doctor
who died in California She had three
children
The family removed to Tennessee. The
Civil war found them on one plantation
one of the sons who had become a
physician enlisted in the army OF Cen
eral Leonidas Polk the fighting bishop
of the Confederacy. The other w@s a
chaplain
Each was accompanied by a son of
the old nanny" The physician and
the chaplain died before the war was
over Their body servants returned to
Tennessee, where the sisters of the dead
Confederates were still living with the
old nanny" and her daughter. al
though they might have come north.
The sisters of the dead COnfederates
were married and each had children
When the war was over the married
Sisters We're dead, the old negro mann
my was dead. They are buried in the
same family lot i'm Tennessee ceme-
terry.
When the children Of the sisters grew
up, they married The three children Of
the negro nanny lived with them
through the DAYS of Reconstruction. and
More than once these children Of FOR
mer slaves were forced to leave the old
home, by people who thought they knew
more about the happiness and welfare
Of the negroes than the negroes them
selves. But as often as they We're forced
10 60 away as often did they return to
them chillun - These negroes finally died
on the old plantation and their bodies
are buried ira the family lot i'm the Ten
nessee cemetery. They left children
The children OF the sisters who were
the daughters of the old physician and
his wife. came to New York, and are
the heads of two families living beneath
~ae same roof. Their servants are the
children of the children Of the old negro
nanny" whose faithful husband went
to California with Mars John"
here is q retired merchant in New
York who was raised by negro
nanny An arrangement separated
him from his mother. 1T was sad
AFFAIR
The mother. bereft Of nearly all she
had Possessed from her husband. re-
tired 90 "a farm. Her old servant. the
nanny of her boy. had gone away 10
another state and had accumulated
what 10 her was small fortune. She
returned to her "ole missus" and re-