Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: Mary Allen Darrow, Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: 74


"I was born at Monticello, Arkansas at the last of the Cibil (Civil)
War. My parents' names was Richard and Ann Allen. They had thirteen
children. Mother was a house girl and papa a blacksmith and farmer.

"My great-grandma and grandpa was killed in Indian Nation (Alabama) by
Sam and Will Allen. They was coming west long 'fo'e the war from one of
the Carolinas. I disremembers which they told me. Great-grandpa was a
chief. They was shot and all the children run but they caught my Grandma
Evaline and put her in the wagon and brought her to Monticello,
Arkansas. They fixed her so she couldn't get loose from them. She was a
little full-blood Indian girl then. They got her fer my great-grandpa a
wife. He seen her and thought she was so pretty.

"She was wild. She wouldn't eat much else but meat and raw at that. She
had a child 'fo'e ever she'd eat bread. They tamed her. Grandpa's pa
that wanted the Indian wife was full-blood African. Mama was little
lighter than 'gingercake' color.

"My Indian grandma was mean. I was feard of 'er. She run us down and
ketch us and whoop us. She was tall slender woman. She was mean as she
could be. She'd cut a cat's head off fer no cause er tall. Grandpa was
kind. He'd bring me candy back if he went off. I cried after him. I
played with his girl. We was about the same size. Her name was Annie
Mathis. He was a Mathis. He was a blacksmith too at Monticello and later