The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-11
l1JOme11 and Society.

'slave-trader" resides on a small plan tation in Greene County, Ala, just out of Eutaw, and has given her little home the significant nams Dixie Cabin" The small farm was an inheritance. Mrs. Ward is q grand daughter of Judge Turner Reavis, who resided at Gaines vile, Ala. She is also descended from Governor Caswell, one of North Caro- lina's first Colonial Chief Magistrates Churchill Cooke, implies, Is a. decsend- ant of the Churchills who proudly claim descent from the famous Duke of Marlborough.
 When the wheel of fortune turned the wrong way for her she decided to teach school. This she did until 1891, when she was married. Soon after her mar | riage her husband became an invalid which necessitated their removal to the little country home where 1t was hoped his health would improve. But as the months passed he continued a sufferer, so the management of the farm largely fell to Mrs. Ward. The acres sur rounding Dixie Cabin" originally in- cluded the site of the old town of Springfield, Ala. More than sixty years ago Springfield was a prosperous vil- lage in that section boosting a brick hotel, row of stores and brick church. Dixie Cabin" an unpreten- tiouS cottage, is all that remains of the once ambitious village. The small | home has withstood the ravages of age It is situated in the heart of a cotton field and until a few years ago was un- inhabited. In thai part of the country were no white inhabitants. The ne- groes held sway. For so long they had been undisturbed by the owners of the soil that when the Wards returned to | claim their own they were looked upon as trespassers and considered invaders by their former tenants Resenting the appearance of "dese white folks | 'mongst 'em," from the first, 1t was diff hcult for the mistress of the demense to hire sufficient hands to plant the crops. If she succeeded in getting them planted. 1t was well-nigh impos- sibIe to get them worked. Gathering" time seemed the signal for the negroes | to seek 'greener fields and pastures new" To Mrs. Ward planting proved an uphill business and she had to re- sort to all sorts of schemes and de- vices to make ends meet.
 One year she raised a quantity of cotton but could not get the negroes to pick 1t for love nor money. Her woman's wit was put to the test to save her crop. In order to do sd she de- cided to give a series" of cotton pick ings offering a prize to the man or wo- man who picked the greatest number of pounds. Thus she managed to have the cotton gathered. Unfortunately, that year there were no Cotton King Browns" in existence to send prices skyward. and her hard-earned feecy staple was sacrificed for 12 cents per pound. After this bitter experi- ence the brave-hearted woman tried to be prepared for other rainy days by | trying poultry raising to again meet with losses. Her husbands health con- tinued too delicate for him to assume | the management of the place. only per hitting him now and then to go into the fields which ever needed the eye of the master. The negroes continued refusing to hire, hoping to boycott the land owner and force her to return to Eutaw in order that they might re-rent the land for the proverbial song <" Back of Dixie Cabin Is an old negro church of Zion from whose misused sacred desk every Sunday ignorant ne- gro Btble-bangers preached Thy brud- ders and sisters. work fur yo' own col or" thus appealing to race prejudice. taroused passions which. few years later forced whites to accept the chal- llenge and draw the color-line in poI- itics as the negro did in their puIpits.
 Mrs. Ward was driven to do her Icooktng. house eleaninG. etc. in addi-