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(deceased)
Lonoks County, Arkansas
Age 106
She imigrated with her owner, L. W. C. Waddille, to Lonoks County in 1851, coming to Hickory Plains and then to
Brownsville. They moved from Hayburn, Georgia in a covered wagon drawn by oxen.
She lived with a great-granddaughter, Mrs. John High, seven miles north of Lonoke, until 1932, when she died. She
had nursed six generations of the Waddille family. She was born a deaf-nute but her hearing and speech were
restored many years ago when lightening struck a tree under which she was standing.
Emmeline told of how they would stop for the night on the rough journey, and while the men fed the stock, the
women and slaves would cook the evening meal of hoecake, fried venison, and coffee. The women slept in the
wagons and the men would sleep on the creek watching for wild life. With other pioneers, they suffered all the
hardships and dangers incident to the settling of the new country more than three-fourths of a contury ago.
Emmeline always had good cars. She worked hard and faithfully and was amply rewarded.
(FORM A)
STATE-- Arkansas
NAME OF WORKER-- Blanche Edwards
ADDRESS-- Lonoke, Arkansas
DATE-- October 20, 1938
SUBJECT-- An Old Slave
1. Name and address of informant-- Mrs. John G. High, living nine miles north of Lonoke, Arkansas.
2. Date and time of interview-- October 20, 1958
3. Place of interview-- At the home of Mrs. John G. High, nine miles north of Lonoke.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant--
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you--
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Emiline Waddell, a former slave of the L. W. Waddell family, lived to be 100 years old, and was active up to her
death.
She was born a slave in 1826 at Raben county, Georgia, a slave of Claybourne Waddell, who emigrated to
Brownsville, in 1851, in covered wagons, oxen drawn.
Her "white folks" were three weeks making the trip from the farry across the Mississippi to old Brownsville; after
traveling all day through the bad and boggy woods, at the end of their rough journey at eventide, the movers
dismounted and began hasty preparations for the night. While the men were feeding the stock and providing
temporary quarters, the women assisted the slaves in preparing the evening meal, of hoe-cake, fried venison and
coffee. Then the women and children could sleep in the wagons while the men kept watch for wild life.
Mammy Emiline was a faithful old black mammy, true to life and traditions, and refused her freedom, at the close of
the war, as wanted to stay and raise "Old Massa's chilluns," which she did, for she was nursing her sixth generation
in the Weddell family at the time of her death. Even to that generation there was a close tie between the southern
child and his or her black mammy. A strange almost unbelievable thing happened to Emiline; she was born a deaf
muts, but her hearing and speech was restored many years before her death, when lightening struck a tree under
which she was standing.
Superstitious beliefs were strong in her and her tales of "hants" were to "her little white chilluns", really true but
hair-raising. Then she would talk and live again the "days that are no more", telling them of the happy prosperous,
sunny land, in her negro dialect, and them tell of the ruin and desolation behind the Yankees; the hard times my
white folks had in the reconstruction days - negro and carpetbag rule; then give them glimpses of good - much
courage, some heart and human feeling; perhaps ending with an outburst of the negro spiritual, her favorite being,
"Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home."
After a faithful service of 106 years, Emiline died in 1932 at the home of Mrs. John G. High, a great-granddaughter
of L. W. C. Waddell living nine miles north of Lonoke, and the grown up great-great-grandchildren still miss
Mammy.
Interviewer Samiel S. Taylor"
