Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1948-02-12

We are indebted to our friend,
William Aud of the Assessment
Office, for this tale about Uncle
Watty and President Lincoln -
true story with the scene laid at
Poolesville. The nucleus of the
story was written years ago by Ed
win Higgins, son of a Poolesville
stroekeeper during the War Be-
tween The States.
Poolesville was a large slave
holding community. 1t was a pleas
ing and cherished custom among
the colored people during the Holt
days and on Sundays, after meet
ing, to exchange greetings on the
porches of the village stores. In
their best clothes, clean and bright,
free from the cares and burdens of
every day life, they merrily chat
tered like flocks of happy birds.
Among the characters Of Che time
and place was Watty Owens, a
worthy old colored man, with
lame leg, along up in the sixties, of
whom everybody was fond, for he
was kind and obliging to everyone.
Uncle Watty regularly appeared
among the gatherings of his
friends upon the store porches with
large square basket, with folding
lids, filled with tempting cakes,
fresh from the hands of his help
full wife.
When the war began, the village,
by reason of its relative position
to Washington city and the several
ferries on the Potomac, naturally,
emerged from it's seclusion into all
important point for the defense of
the national capital and became a
center for army operations.
The presence of soldiers singing
John Browns Body" really gave
the colored people of the neighbor-
hood their freedom some time be-
fore the Emancipation Proclama-
ton was issued. In this abrupt
change in their social condition the
colored people had to rely upon
their own resources.
Uncle Watty's amateur calling,
by the stress of circumstances, be-
came the means of support for
himself and his wife, Aunt Polly.
Every day the honest, struggling
old man could be seen busy with
his basket of cakes in the camps.
Uncle Watty's business soon out
grew his basket and his lame leg.
Fortunately for him, at this time,
several condemned government
horses were turned loose to die by
passing squad of troopers. He
appropriated one of them. 1t had
been the victim of rough service
and was apparently on its last legs,
and followed with difficulty its de-
lighted captor, who with rope in
hand introduced it to Aunt Polly:
'1f he was mare we ought to call
it 'Pokyhontas,' but when l think
it has been fighting in the war and
of its condition let's call it for the
present, 'Bonypart.' If we make a
genuine success of it we can call it
Flying Cloud, after Marse Fenton
Aud's racer, which beat Mermaid
in the old field last fall" ("Marse
Fenton" was Mr.. Will Aud's
uncle.)
BY the kind and careful nursing
of the old man and his wife, the
horse became a useful animal.
Uncle Watty obtained an old
shackly wagon, and equipping the
horse with harness as variegated
in materials as the crops he raised
in his truck patch, he and the iron
grey carried business into the
camps along the river. 1t was
never quiet along the Potomac
when he was on the road, for
snatches of songs and hymns filled
in any interlude and sometimes
even rose above the clatter of his
original outfit, the outgrowth of
necessity and poverty, ingenuity
and perseverance,. Uncle Watty
and Aunt Polly toiled bravely on.
He became the soldiers favorite,
and he prospered.
In writing this story for the
county paper long after the war,
Mr.. Higgins said:
about this time I left the viii
lage, and did not return until my
vacation the followino simmer