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A - Adeline Rose Lennox - Ex-Slave
1400 South Sixth Street
Elkhart, Indiana
(Albert Strope, Field Worker, Federal Writers' Project, St. Joseph County - District #; 1, Mishawaka, Indiana)
Adeline Rose Lennox was born of slave parents at Middle - sometimes known as Paris - Tennessee, October 25, 1849. She lived with her parents in slave quarters on the plantation of a Mr. Rose for whom her parents worked. These quarters were log houses, a distance from the master's mansion.
At the age of seven years, Adeline was taken from her parents to work at the home or a son of Mr. Rose who had recently been married. She remembers well being taken away, for she said she cried, but her new mistress said she was going to have a new home so she had to go with her.
At the age of fourteen years she did the work of a man in the field, driving a team, plowing, harrowing and seeding. "We all thought a great deal of Mr. Rose," said Mrs. Lennox, "for he was good to us." She said that they were well fed, having plenty of corn, peas, beans, and pork to eat, more pork then than now.
As Adeline Rose, the subject of this sketch was married to Mr. Steward, after' she was given her freedom at the close of the Civil War. At this time she was living with her parents who stayed with Mr. Rose for about five years after the war. To the Steward family was born one son, Johnny. Mr. Steward died early in life, and his widow married a second time, this time to one George Lennox whose name she now bears.
Johnny married young and died young, leaving her alone in the world with the exception of her daughter-in-law. After her second husband's death she remained near Middle, Tennessee, until 1924, when she removed to Eikhart to spend the remainder of her life living with her daughter-in-law, who had remarried and is now living at 1400 South Sixth Street, Elkhart, Indiana.
In the neighborhood she is known only as "Granny." While I was having this interview, a colored lady passed and this conversation followed:
"Good morning Granny, how are you this morning?"
"Only tolerable, thank you," replied Granny.
The health of Mrs. Lennox has been failing for the past three years but he gets around quite well for a lady who will be eight-eight years old the twenty-fifth day of this October. She gets an old age pension of about thirteen dollars per month.
A peculiar thing about Mrs. Lenno's life is that she says that she never knew that she was a slave until she was set free. Her mistress then told her that she was free and could go back to her father's home which she did rather reluctantly.
Mrs. Lennox smokes, enjoys corn bread and boiled potatoes as food, but does not enjoy automobiles as "they are too bumpy and they gather too much air," she says. "I do not eat sweets," she remarks "my one ambition in life is to live so that I may claim Heaven as my home when I die."
There is a newspaper picture in the office along with an article published by the Elkhart Truth. This is being sent to Indianapolis today.
(Monroe County, District #; 11, 4 October 1937, Submitted by:, Estella R. Dodson, Bloomington, Ind.)
Lennox, Adeline -- Additional Interview
Adeline Rose Lennox, eighty-seven year old Elkhart colored woman, of 610 Wagner Avenue, doesn't know how to read or write, she's never talked over a telephone, and she's never seen a motion picture show, but, she says, "I've seen and done a lot of things that most folks have missed."
Born on a tobacco and cotton plantation near Paris, Tennessee, on October 25, 1849, the daughter of slave parents, Mrs. Lennox spent the first sixteen years of her life as a slave.
She remembers the Civil War as "The War of the Secession," but admits that at the time, "I didn't know what it was about, and it must have been months after the end of the war before I was freed."
She recalls hearing the distant roar of cannons "when they were fighting up near Shiloh, Tennessee, and Beauregard was the leader of the southern army."
Mrs. Lennox was "treated tol'able" well when she was a slave and, she adds:
"I've worked a heap harder since I was freed, that I did before. I had plenty to eat as a slave. We lived in little cabins, but we were comfortable, and I never saw one of us black 'uns whipped."
Mrs. Lennox makes no apologies for her inability to read and write, because she said "none of us slaves was given any education."
The plantation on which she was born was owned by Reuben Rose, and she said she remained with her parents there until she was seven years old, when "I was carried away from my parents to the farm of the master's son, Henry Rose, and there I stayed until after the war."
She explained that her parents took the name of Rose, and that that was her last name until she was married, because it was the custom of slaves to assume the names of their owners.
"Our quarters, both on the Reuben Rose plantation and then later on the Henry Rose place, were in log cabins," Mrs. Lennox said. "The floors were dirt, and there were fireplaces, built of mud and sticks."
"I was put to work when I was six years old, just like other slave children. We were never worked hard, because of our age. We worked in the fields and in the houses."
"I never knew much about the war, for of course, our owners didn't tell us what it was about. I remember soldiers drilling in a field on the Henry Rose farm, and then later Henry's two sons, Dick and Ken, went away to war."
She declared that "Dick went into southern army and Ken fought for the North." She said her owner, Henry Rose, had "laid out in the woods for several days one time when southern soldiers were looking for him, and then returned when he signed a pledge of allegiance."
She recalled that on many occasions southern soldiers had come to the farm with wagons and carried off all the foodstuffs they could find to feed the southern soldiers.
"I remember Mrs. Rose and how she attempted to prevent the soldiers from carrying away all we had," Mrs. Lennox said.
"The war ended and Dick and Ken Rose came home, both uninjured," Mrs. Lennox said. "It must have been months afterward that I was told my father was going to send for me. I remember that Mr. Rose said he wouldn't let me leave, and then Mrs. Rose interrupted, telling me, "You're just as free as we are, and you can go."
A short time later she was taken to the home of her parents near Union City, Tennessee, and resided in that vicinity until twelve years ago when she came to Elkhart to live with Mrs. Richard Bailey, whose first husband was John Steward, a son of Mrs. Lennox. He died twenty or more years ago in Tennessee.
As for motion picture shows, Mrs. Lennox told why she has no desire to attend one.
"I used to attend circuses, but I quit going years ago," she said. "That was just after a circus came to town, down in Tennessee, and brought measles along. After that everybody for miles around had the measles.
The Bailey home, where Mrs. Lennox lives, is 610 Wagner Avenue.
Lewis, Mrs. Edwin Jefferson County, Indiana (Grace Monroe)
