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A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

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The men that were brought over from England by Mr. Flowers soon became independent <strong>of</strong> him andpurchased land for themselves, leaving the land he had expected to sell them on his hands. Mr. Flowersand his wife died in poverty, while the men he brought over nearly all became quite well <strong>of</strong>f by the timewe reached the settlement.Although our destination was Albion, Ill., father remained in New Orleans several days investigatingwhat the opportunities were in his line <strong>of</strong> business. He found there were several establishments makingvery good furniture, the most important one and employing the largest number <strong>of</strong> workmen was a Negro.We all went to see the market place where the slaves were sold. We found it in the basement <strong>of</strong> theold St. Charles’ Hotel. There were perhaps five hundred <strong>of</strong> them, male and female, in every shade <strong>of</strong>color, between the black African and others so white it took an expert to determine whether there was anycolored blood in them or not, where there was the slightest vestige <strong>of</strong> it made them by law the samefooting as one entirely black and all Negro. This state <strong>of</strong> things no doubt influenced father most adverselyto remaining in New Orleans. It was different to what it is today, there were as many black as whitepeople, the whites were mostly French or French descent to which were added quite a lot <strong>of</strong> Spaniards,there were perhaps less Americans than French. The houses in the old town were built in the old Frenchstyle <strong>of</strong> architecture with iron bars across all the lower windows and doors, and courtyards in the center,with galleries all around looking into the courtyards. Many <strong>of</strong> the better houses had extensive gardensattached, even on the business streets, it was quite a foreign looking city...As soon as father decided not to remain he engaged passage on the first steamboat bound for the<strong>Ohio</strong> River, taking passage for Mt. Vernon, Indiana, which was as near to Albion, Ill., as any other townon the River. Evansville, Ind. was about the same distance but it was understood the roads were not sogood. The name <strong>of</strong> the steamboat was the Queen <strong>of</strong> the South, one <strong>of</strong> the best boats on the river. She hada load <strong>of</strong> sugar molasses and c<strong>of</strong>fee, which was destined for the various towns and cities along the river,Cincinnati being the most important. While on the boat a Negro stow-away broke into some <strong>of</strong> our boxesand took out shoes, which he had on when he was taken prisoner. He was a runaway slave. They wantedto flog him but mother interceded and persuaded the <strong>of</strong>ficers <strong>of</strong> the boat not to do so. The incident inconnection with this poor slave quite reconciled father and mother to having declined to remain in NewOrleans.We reached Mt. Vernon in five days, it was but a village <strong>of</strong> about two hundred people. We madeimmediate arrangements for the journey to Albion. The distance was sixty miles, all <strong>of</strong> the way mudroads. It took two wagons to carry the family and the most necessary part <strong>of</strong> our luggage, the balancecoming afterwards. One <strong>of</strong> the wagons was drawn by a pair <strong>of</strong> oxen, the other by horses. The wagonssunk into the mud up to the axles at very frequent intervals and had to be pried out. We made very slowprogress, taking between five and six days to make the distance. We had to seek the hospitality <strong>of</strong> farmersfor meals and sleeping accommodations. The charges were very reasonable, would be consideredridiculously so at this time. As an example, the first night out we put up at one <strong>of</strong> the best farm houses inthe country, we were seven children, father and mother, they had to cook supper for us which consisted <strong>of</strong>yellow corn bread which gave the appearance <strong>of</strong> pound cake and all <strong>of</strong> us children thought we were in fora grand feast, never having eaten or heard <strong>of</strong> corn bread, but we were dreadfully disappointed. The firstmouthful was enough for us, we could not swallow it and watched for a chance to slip it out <strong>of</strong> ourmouths (we afterwards became quite fond <strong>of</strong> it). They also gave us fried salt pork, what is known as sidemeat, with pickles only salted with vinegar, this also we could not manage to eat so we had to go to bedvery hungry, having eaten nothing. Our hosts discovered we could we could not eat the food they gave us,although it was their regular food and in fact all they ever wanted, and determined we should havesomething different for breakfast, so long before breakfast we heard a great noise among the chickens,and for breakfast we had fried chickens and mighty nice they were. They sent to a neighbors for wheatflour, making fine hot biscuits which with plenty <strong>of</strong> eggs and c<strong>of</strong>fee we finished one <strong>of</strong> the best breakfastswe had ever sat down to and we remembered it long afterwards. All they charged us for the whole lay out,supper, beds and breakfast for nine <strong>of</strong> us and the two drivers was ten dollars. Father thought the chargewas too small and after much persuasion got them to accept fifteen dollars. The news <strong>of</strong> our greenness or161

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