Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1915-09-09
OLD UNCLE ABE'S
MEMORY COVERS
HUNDRED YEARS
Aged Negro at Lafayette, Ga,
Is 10 Years Old.
He Knew Chief Ross and Saw
Andrew Jackson.
ReCOuntS Events of 80 Years
As If of Yesterday.

For La t6yette, Ga, can be sal
+ what cannot be said of many places
At Lafayette now lives an old negr
called "Uncle Abe. He is INCL
Abe Coulter. He was born at Jasper
Tenn, Jan. Z, 1905.
Everybody knows Uncle Abe. TIL,
old negro seems to walk as one of few
er years and possesses good stock O.
vitality. He speaks in the antebelluu
dialect, is not much bent forward an6
does not tremble much in his walk
He uses stick, but could walk fairly
we'll without it.
Uncle. Abe speaks of occurrences
eighty and ninety years ago as though
of yesterday. He once saw Gen. An.
drew jackson and his army.
He helped cut the forest AMI cleared
the site for the first courthouse in La
fayette about 1888. He chopped with
his own AK many of the roads through
the county.
He saw the Indians corralled, :or, as
he puts it, 'forted." at "Big Spring.
at Lafayette in 1887, where now stands
the electric dynamo. where the cur
rent to supply Lafayette is generated.
He tells weird stories of happenings
when the Indians were in this section,
and of the bear, wolf, deer, wild tur-
key, 'possum, raccoon, etc, and how
he came home before late hours to
keep down the fright he had when the
wolf and an occasional panther would
howl and make Uncle Abe's hair stand
up like full grown grain ready FOR
harvest.
He tells of the Indian legend con-
corning the "Rouvd pond" a pond
very deep. and covering an area Of
many acres. An Indian who put pot
on his head, thinking the pot would
keep water out of his face, decided to
sound its depths and went down and
since that day, in 1898, be has not
come back.
Uncle Abe speaks Of where largest
deer roamed, where the eagles nestled
under the brow of Pigeon mountain,
of how the wolves once infested Look ]
gut mountain and how Chickamauga
creek got its name.
Uncle Abe's memory gives him the
happenings like turning to the index
IN history. He now has no wife, his |
irst leaving him fifty years ago and
The other going from bin three years
'go. He speaks of his eight children,
old snd taken from him, and some
# them, as he puts it, carried to
"MasSipay." and he never heard from
hem again, and he now supposes them
o be long ago dead. He tells of his
our to go to bed and when he gets
p, and his food, and that he loans a
little money and los5 some notes wien
is house was burned. He was.
hoUgh in joke. LaFayette's FIRST
lecsed mayor. Uncle Abe was elect
and reported to, take the OATH but
ids't serve.
Uncle Abe says he tries to do right,
nd when being interviewed and asked
be went to church, with glistening
yes, moistened with tears, turned his
Jouded face to heaven and replied:
I want to go up tbesh." The old
IAN is nearing the end of his long
nd useful carser, but says he "specs
. ha,h GALol hafot 1nnra - HE 1
10 years are as a hook. and he can re-
j from memory, as if fropO printed
ages. the events, of hundred years
go fresh upon his mind. |,
Below are his words and answers 10
q interview:
"Abe Coulter WAS Dawn Jau. Z, 1905,
Jasper, Tenn.
81 cum to Lafayette when I was a.
nut II years ole.
II was bawn at Standifer' s, and
hen l was years old, ole MIR. Coul- +,
b, Alex Coultah, bought me for
90. was neber in Jail. ] was neb-
up for nothin. I wouldn't fight,
} white folks will tell yah dis.
81 remember harein' de white folks
Tx of de wah of 1912
81 knows when de Indian was drove
way dey torted dem ovah heah at de
g spring, whar dis 'lectric house is ,
DIV.
~ cum heah fob de Indians lef' an
seed ole Chief Pigeon and Chief !
oss up near Chattanooga, what used t
r be 'Ross's Landin. Aud | know t
ole Chief Walden.
''De Indians used ter say dis Round /
nd out heah had no bottom. an one G
y An Indian put pot on his head I
d div down an said he would see (
W deep it was, and dat Indian went (
wn and sumpin' KEEP him down
b, for he amt cum back to dis
,wnin'. l used to heah all desc In q
IN tales what seemed scary, an Abe
red to heah UNI, but was scared OF