BY HARRIET PARKS MILLER “The primitive order with its picturesque types, has passed with the days that are dust. The mirthful banjo is mute, and the laughter, songs, and shouts of the old plantation quarters no longer float out on the evening air.” CLARKSVILLE, TENN. W. P. TITUS, PRINTER AND BINDER —1911—...

In the busy rush of life, the virtues of single individuals too often escape notice, or make but slight impression on the minds of their contemporaries. It is in after years, when the actors are dead and gone, that their virtues shine forth, and speak from the silence, through the pen of some one who catches them before it is too late. No history is richer, or more beautiful, than that written of lives led by wisdom, and goodness. The writing of this little book is inspired by a desire to perpet

“THEY HAVE GONE FROM OUR MORTAL VISION, BUT IN MEMORIES SWEET, THEY ABIDE WITH US.” The people whom you will meet in this little book did not live in fancy. They were humble instruments through whom God sent a message clear, and strong, that will go on, and on, through the coming years. Realizing the rapidity with which the good old colored types were passing away, I went one September afternoon, 1901, to see Aunt Kitty Carr, for the purpose of obtaining some interesting facts concerning herself

“MARK THE PERFECT MAN, AND BEHOLD THE UPRIGHT, FOR THE END OF THAT MAN IS PEACE.” Having given my opening chapter to an interview with Aunt Kitty, I will now tell of her husband, Rev. Horace Carr, who was born on the Aquilla Johnson farm, on Spring Creek, in District No. 1, Montgomery county, Tenn., 1812. By way of explanation, I will state that white children, in antebellum times, were taught by their parents, to call middle aged colored people Aunt, and Uncle; hence “Aunt Kitty,” and “Uncle Ho

“IN TRAVELING FROM THIS WORLD TO THE NEXT, THE ROAD IS NO WIDER FOR THE PRINCE, THAN THE PEASANT.”— Sancho Panza. In that period of our country’s history known as “slave time,” the white people encouraged the colored race to serve God, and received its converts into their own churches, and worshipped with them. In most of the meeting houses, there were galleries, or separate apartments, in which the colored members sat, and listened to the Gospel preached by white ministers. Their membership was

“WHO OF US CAN SAY, WHICH IS FAIRER, THE VISIONS OF HOPE, OR MEMORY? THE ONE MAKES ALL THINGS POSSIBLE, THE OTHER MAKES ALL THINGS REAL.” In the holy hush of that September afternoon, Aunt Kitty told me of a vision that she had, during the middle 60’s. It was my last talk with her, and she seemed so impressed with the memory of it, that she laid aside her peach peeling, and gave her mind, and soul, to the subject so dear to her heart. She said: “Some people call them dreams, but I call them visi

“THE MAN WHO SPEAKS, MAY, IF HIS MESSAGE IS GREAT ENOUGH, AND GREATLY DELIVERED, RANK ABOVE THE RULERS OF HIS TIME.” It seems that a love for the ministry, was inherent in the Carr family, and it is also a noticeable fact, that few, if any of them, have departed from the Baptist faith; beginning with Uncle Horace, and descending to his two sons, Altheus and William, on down to his grandson, Rev. Thomas Carr, of Kansas, son of the late Calvin Carr, of Cheatham county. Altheus, the fourth son of U

“HE HAD AN EAR THAT CAUGHT, AND A MEMORY THAT KEPT.” Uncle Horace was spending several days in our neighborhood, filling a whitewashing contract. Red River was past fording; he worked till late, and did not wish to risk the ferry after dark, so he “took time about,” as he called it, staying among the neighbors at night. The night he spent on my father’s premises, I went after supper to Aunt Lucy’s house in the back yard, and asked him to tell me of a corn shucking before the war. He drew his cha

“IT’S A GRAND THING TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE LIFE GOD HATH GIVEN US, BUT IT IS GRANDER STILL, TO REACH THE GREAT END OVER GREAT DIFFICULTIES.” James William Carr, the twelfth, and next to the youngest child of Uncle Horace, and Aunt Kitty, attained distinction both as a lecturer and a minister. A Tennessean by birth, and a Georgian by Providence, he died in the midst of his usefulness at Savannah, Ga., August 25, 1907. In his youth, he professed religion and joined Mount Zion during his fath

“THE ONLY PERMANENT BASIS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IS THE BROTHERHOOD OF SOULS.” In the preparation of this little book, it has been my earnest desire to secure my information from reliable sources, and so far, I think I have succeeded in doing so. After writing the preceding chapters, it occurred to me that I would like to read them to some member of the Carr family, before giving them to the public. So Rev. Luke Fort, of Guthrie, Ky., came to my home, May 13, 1911, and spent a good portion of the day

“RECOLLECTION IS THE ONLY PARADISE FROM WHICH WE CANNOT BE TURNED OUT.” To the aged, it is a delightful refuge. I found this especially true in the case of Aunt Gaines Williams, whom I visited May 16, 1911. She was living with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Sarah Northington, on Esq. James H. Achey’s farm. Not until I began, several years ago, to interview these faithful old colored representatives of antebellum times, did I know how their minds were stored with rich recollections. I was anxious to

“TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND, IS NOT TO DIE.” Before pronouncing the benediction in this pleasant meeting with old familiar faces, I must not fail to say more of the kind old master who was as respectful to his dusky body servant as to his proudest peer, and who could penetrate color, poverty, and untutored speech, and find where a true heart lodged. Eppa Lawson Fort was born at “Riverside,” a picturesque homestead on Red River, three miles southeast of Port Royal, Tennessee, August, 1802.

“THERE IS NO DEATH, WHAT SEEMS SO, IS TRANSITION. THIS LIFE OF MORTAL BREATH, IS BUT A SUBURB OF THE LIFE ELYSIAN, WHOSE PORTAL WE CALL DEATH.” Of the four most prominent members of the Carr family, mentioned in the foregoing chapters, it is a fact worthy of note that each passed from earth from as many different States. Uncle Horace, the first to go, died near Port Royal, at his humble home on the Weatherford farm, September, 1877. Rev. Altheus Carr died, after a short illness from fever, at To