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1 Ancestry - Negro, Indian, Caucasian
2 Place and date of birth - Huntesville, Missouri 1864
3 Family - Three
4 Places lived in, with dates - Atchinson until 1888 came to Lincoln and resided to present.
5 Education, with dates - Self-educated
6 Occupations and accomplishments, with dates - Housewife
7 Special skills and interests - Church work
8 Community and religious activities - Methodist
9 Description of informant - Tall, white-haired, very fair complexioned
10 Other points gained in interview - Informant very mentally alert despite her seventy-four years.
NAME OF WORKER Albert Burks ADDRESS 239 S. 20th DATE Dec. 23, 1938 SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Mrs. James O'Donnel 623 C St. Lincoln Neb.
"I am seventy-five years old and have been in Lincoln fifty years but I don't consider myself as old, I of course was born when slavery was breaking up so I don't remember only what my mother told me. My mother was half Sioux Indian and my father was the son of his master. He was good to my father and when the War was over he brought him to Leavenworth, Kansas and give him some money to start with. I forgot to mention that mother wasn't what you would call a slave after she married my father because she stayed at her cabin and just took care of the needs of my father; he was what you call an overseer. She said that her and father both hated to leave the master.
We joined a bunch of settlers from Tennessee and moved to Atchinson. I came to Lincoln in 1886 and have been here since.
Lincoln was little more that a village, but during the early days we had much better opportunities than we've got today. We used to dance at the "Old City Hall", and both white and colored danced together that is, each with his race as partners. Only some time in square dances we would all get mixed together. The young folks today aren't like the young folks of my day, there is not enough church and home life.
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