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Personal History of Informant
NAME OF WORKER Albert BurksADDRESS 239 So. 20th DATE December 2, 1938SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Mrs. Sarah K. Rosier 2245 T Street Lincoln, Nebraska
1 Ancestry. German and Negro. Mother born in Prue German; Father born in Richmond Va.
2 Place and date of birth. Born in Kenosha Wis. 1858.
3 Family. None. Place lived in Kenosha until 1888; moved to Lincoln and made that her home to present.
4 Place and date of birth.
5 Education, with dates. Common school
6 Occupations and accomplishments, with dates. House-wife
7 Special skills and interests. Making cane-bottom chairs; and gardening.
8 Community and religious activities. Westminister Presp, now attends Newman Methodist.
9 Description of informant. Small frail mulatto, movements very nervous.
10 Other points gained in interview. Mentally alert.
NAME OF WORKER Albert BurksADDRESS 239 So. 20th DATE December 2, 1938SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Mrs. Sarah K. Rosier, 2245 T Street Lincoln, Nebraska
"My mother was born in Prue Germany, and my dad was a slave in Richmond Va. His master was his father and his mother was a slave. My father was fair in complexion and I am not sure whether the folks in Kenesha knew at first whether he had Negro blood in him or not, any how in those days when I was a child we didn't have very much to do with the white folks or the colored either, we just lived to our selves.
When I was about ten my mother taught me how to make cane bottoms for chairs also for the backs of them. My daddy had taught her. He said when he was down on the plantation they used to go in the swamps and collect this cane. When I was at home we sent to some firm in the south and bought it at a rate of about seventy cents a bunch. Although it was cured in the factory we cured it again by letting it soak a couple of days in rain-water or ice water to make it still tougher. One bunch of cane would make four bottoms for common chair and tow rockers.
In making these bottoms we would cut out the worn cane bottom or back and then put wooden pegs in each of the four sides. Then we would start with one strand of cane and make six crossings, this was called the warp; then we would weave in and out working designs or just plain; this we used to call the woof. When we finished we would twist the ends and tie them. The heavier a person was that sat on these cane bottoms the tighter the know would draw. There was never any danger of anybody falling thorugh. I made good money in the early days of Lincoln selling cane bottoms and backs. My eye-sight is too bad now, and cane is not used so much in chairs. I never believed in doing business on Friday because that day always seemed to be a jinx for me. I guess that seems funny, but someone was telling me the other day that they seen in the paper where a moving picture director refused to start a picture on a Saturday, so maybe we all have got some days that we are glad to see go by."
NAME OF WORKER Albert Burks ADDRESS 239 S. 20th DATE December 15, 1938 SUBJECT American Folklore NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Nimrod Ross 2124 Q St."
