Edith "Eady" Elvena Jackson

Added by Edwin R Jackson 06/20/2024

Eady swofford Jackson/BF Jackson

One of my prized possessions. My g-grandmothers memory of life in the frontier.

Transcription of personal recollections of Eady Swafford Jackson dated February 15, 1926.  Eady was the daughter John Hoyle Swafford and Eady Prewitt Swafford.  She was the granddaughter of Spencer Prewitt and Sarah Stockton Prewitt. She was born in 1848 in North Carolina and died in Texas in 1934 at the age of 86. In cases where I could not read her handwriting, I typed blank spaces. I included some punctuation, capitalization, and some spelling corrections for ease of reading.  

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Lometa Tex  Feb 15—1926.  
A few things about my life & some changes since pioneer days.  I was born in Cleveland Co, N.C. July 9—1848.  About Dec 20, 1849 I with my parents arrived in Marion Co Ark.  That was a new country at that time.  No churches except Methodist.  We always went.  My first S.S. All the neighbors within several miles went early took our lunch.  Studied until noon.  Then ate lunch & rested an hour.  Then studied until about 4.  All sang a song, marched out & went home.  Those who could studied the Bible.  We little tots spelling, reading, and learning their letters.  That was a great S.S. & I’ve loved S.S. ever since.  We had few conveniences but were

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mostly well & happy except mother.  The climate did not suit her.  We had all kinds of vegetables, wild grapes, plums, persimmons.  All kinds of berries even wild strawberries & nuts too.  The apple orchards were too young to bear much then, but peaches & cherries were the finest I ever saw in abundance.  But we had no conveniences.  Our cotton for quilts & spinning we ginned on a little hand gin much like a clothes ringer except it was all wood & homemade.  We always tried to keep fire.  I think I saw the first box of matches when I was 9 years old.  I saw no well or cistern there but any __________ of the finest springs.  Plenty of good cold water all the year round.  No need for ice.  We had snows

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there every winter but the largest I saw was Jan 1857.  It was 18 inches deep & stayed on the ground 6 weeks.  On the 8th of October 1857 we started to move to Tex. In 2 wagons drawn by horses.  I thought it would be fun but Father took typhoid fever & was sick the whole trip.  Then when we came to a mountain 4 miles up and 4 down & 1 level on top & had to carry a _______
up that hill to _________ the wagon & couldn’t ride any that day.  I found it was not all fun.  We crossed the Ark river in a flat boat at Vanburen thence by Ft. Smith.  Thence through the Indian territory for 2 weeks.  Cherokees, Choctaws, & Chickasaws.  

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That was a hard trip, Father being so sick.  Only mother & to some extent the older children knew how hard.  We were afraid of those Indians.  On November 1st we crossed Red River at Colberts ferry on 2 flat boats rowed across by hand.  We were in a new country here but very different.  16 miles south of Sherman, Father (now up) bought a home.  This at that time was nearly all raw prairie.  Hard to _____ in cultivation.  The first plowing cost 5 or 6 dollars per acre.  Then it had to lie about 1 year for the turf to rot before they plowed it any more.  It took from 4 to 6 yoke of oxen to pull the plows.  Some advantages of the pioneer free grass yes plenty of it all summer & when

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fall came, the cows had to live or die as they could on dead grass.  After cows were raised, an average cow & calf would bring $8 to $10 when one could find a buyer.  A fat cow from $8 to $10.  A big fat steer 10 to 12 when you could sell one.  Most everybody had plenty & there was little salt at any price but people could eat plenty of beef at 2 cent per lb. Game there was some deer, plenty squirrels, lots prairie chickens, opossums, some coons & foxes.  Any amount of rabbits, wolves & skunks.  Cheap land yes one could buy good raw land for $5 to $10 but there was no way to get the $5.  
Churches there was a small Baptist

There was a small Baptist church in our
community without any place of worship except at the homes.  They were all log houses of 1 or 2 rooms.  Our nearest mill was 30 miles.  (Mostly dirt floors)  By 1859 the church had a house & ____.  60 stood in it.  Conveniences began to come.  At 10 I saw the 1st cook stove.  In 1860 Father & 1 other man in our community bought reapers, the first I ever saw.  They didn’t bind the grain.  Early in 1860 my parents bought a cook stove.  Then came the Civil war with all its horrors & we got nothing except what we made at home.  No schools.  Not even any beans for the busy girls but they didn’t have time for any ______.  We had to just work on & wait till the war was over.  A few married widowers over 45.

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In the fall after ‘65 I went to a good school.  It was with teachers part of the time.  We walked 4 miles.  March 8 1866 I was married to B.F. Jackson, a Confederate soldier.  I could tell funny things of our shy courtship but that is too sacred now.  He was a good Christian man & we lived happily together for 46 years.  We worked hard but had time to read some of God’s word & pray ever night.  This was a great help to us in many ways & we were poor but happy.  About ‘67 people got sausage mills.  About 1869 I saw the first sewing machine.  In 1873 my husband bought one for me.  Oh I felt loved.  About 1870 we saw our first concentrated lye.  We made & burned our own lye.

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About 50 or 60 years ago the first coal oil well was drilled in Penn but for several years we were afraid of it.  Elect lights were not dreamed of.  Then flying machines were talked of nearly 40 years ago but as a myth.  About 30 years ago we heard of the cars.  A little later the phone.  Now the radio with lots of other things.  Between great changes in medicine & surgery, but I am glad that God & his word is the same yesterday, today, & forever.  The best & most wonderful thing in the whole universe is this.  John 3:16  for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.  

E.E. Jackson

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