Federal Writers' Project
Lake County--District #1
Gary, Indiana

EX-SLAVES
JOHN EUBANKS & FAMILY
Gary, Indiana


Gary's only surviving Civil War veteran was born a slave in Barren
County, Kentucky, June 6, 1836. His father was a mulatto and a free
negro. His mother was a slave on the Everrett plantation and his
grandparents ware full-blooded African negroes. As a child he began work
as soon as possible and was put to work hoeing and picking cotton and
any other odd jobs that would keep him busy. He was one of a family of
several children, and is the sole survivor, a brother living in
Indianapolis, having died there in 1935.

Following the custom of the south, when the children of the Everrett
family grew up, they married and slaves were given them for wedding
presents. John was given to a daughter who married a man of the name of
Eubanks, hence his name, John Eubanks. John was one of the more
fortunate slaves in that his mistress and master were kind and they were
in a state divided on the question of slavery. They favored the north.
The rest of the children were given to other members of the Everrett
family upon their marriage or sold down the river and never saw one
another until after the close of the Civil War.

Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, when the north seemed to
be losing, someone conceived the idea of forming negro regiments and as