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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 266
the leg resulting from clotting and inflammation of the great saphenous or femoral veins, occurring sometimes in women after childbirth. Source: Dr. Kaylene Hughes, History Office, Redstone Arsenal.] Lizzie Ward said that her grandmother [Luisa] had lived in the same house on the Timmons plantation that she had lived in while a Timmons slave. The house had three rooms. Two were used for bedrooms and one for a kitchen. She said the fireplace “was double-backed,” “came up through the center of the house,” and “had an empty space behind it.” In essence the house had a front porch and two bedrooms in the front with the fireplace shared on the inside wall between them. The back room was a kitchen. The house was about a half-mile from the plantation house. She differentiated between two kinds of houses. She mentioned “slab over” houses, and said that a shingle house was good. That was what they had. Other people had ones made from boughs cut from trees. They were not as good.” Lizzie stated, “There wasn't no good house. Land flooded some places. Everybody had to move out of their houses. The first time they had school in the schoolhouse, the water swelled the floor.” At the time Lizzie was speaking, the researcher thought she said, “That was Hardin School,” but since no one else mentioned a Hardin School, she concluded that Lizzie must have been saying Horton and not Hardin. The Horton School was the one attended by Black children in that area. When asked about getting water, Lizzie said, “We had to tote water, sometimes a half mile. There was a well on the Timmons place [near the plantation house]. We'd put a bucket on our head and carry another one in our hand.” When asked about food, Lizzie said they raised hogs, cows, chickens, and corn and vegetables. They also raised some cotton. Lizzie's Grandmother Luisa cooked in the fireplace. Lizzie said: She [her Grandma Luisa] would heap coals on the oven. She made ash cakes. [How do you make ash cakes?] You take hot water and corn meal. You can pour soda in it. Baking powder makes it dry. You can use milk [instead of water] if you have it. You sweep the ashes back before you put it to cook so no grits be in it. Lizzie said, “We swept the floor with a sage broom. Some folks had dirt floors. You get a croaker sack of ashes. Pound them on the floor, and then use a sage grass broom.” She said, “It was smelling good when you did this in the spring.” Lizzie said that after World War I, her brothers (Claudie and Percy) bought some Timmons land. It wasn't far from the “big house.” [At this point, the researcher asked Mrs. Ward if she was getting tired, and Mrs. Ward said she was, so the interview was ended.] 266 - (4299)