Anna Huggins
From:
Arkansas
Interviewer: Mary D. Hudgins
Person Interviewed: Mrs. Anna Huggins
Home: Pleasant at John Street.
"Miss Huggins? (pronounced hew--gins) Yes, ma'am she lives here. Oh Miss
Huggins, Miss Huggins. They's somebody to see you."
The interviewer had approached an open door of an "L" kitchen attached
to a "shot gun house". Thru the dining room and a bed room she was
conducted to the front bedroom. This was furnished simply but with a
good deal of elaboration. The bed was gay with brightly colored pillows.
Most of them had petal pillow tops made from brilliant crepe paper
touched with silver and guilt. The room was evidently not occupied by
Mrs. Huggins herself for late in the interview a colored girl entered
the room. "Do you want your room now?" Mrs. Huggins inquired. "No
indeed, there's lots of time," the girl replied politely. But the
interviewer managed to terminate the interview quickly.
"So you knew Fanny McCarty. Well, well, so you knew Fanny. I don't know
when I've heard anybody speak about her. She's not so much on looks, but
Fanny is a good little woman, a mighty good little woman. She's up in
Michigan. You know she worked at one of the big hotels here--the Eastman
it was. When they closed in the summer they sent her up to the big hotel
on Mackinac. For a while she was here in the winter and up there for the
summer season. Then she stayed on up there.
"You say she worked for you when you were a little girl? Before the fire
of 1913? Now, I remember, you were just a little girl and you used to
come over to my house sometimes with her. I remember." (A delighted
smile.) "Now I remember.
"No, I don't remember very much about the war. It is mostly what I heard
the older ones say. My grandmother used to tell me a lot about it. I was
just a little thing in my mother's arms when the war was over. Guess I
was about four years old. We lived in St. Francis County and as soon as
we were free pappa sent for us. He sent for us to come by boat to where
he was. We went to Helena. I remember they were all lined up--the
colored soldiers were. But I knew pappa. They all wondered how, hadn't
seen him in a long time. But I picked him out of all the line of men and
I said, 'There's my pappa.' Yes, my pappa was a soldier in the war. He
was gone from home most of the time. I only saw him once in a while.
"My grandmother told me lots of things about slavery. She was born a free
girl. But when she was just a little girl somebody stole her and brought
her to Arkansas and sold her. No, from the things they told
me--especially grandmother--they weren't very good to them. Lots of
times I've gone down on my knees to my grandmother to hear her tell
about how mean they were to them.
"I'd say to her, 'Grandmother, why didn't you fight back?' 'You couldn't
fight back,' she said, 'you just had to take it.' 'I wouldn't,' I said,
'I wouldn't take it.' Guess there's too much Indian blood in me. A white
person never struck me but once. I was a girl--not so very big and I was
taking care of a white lady's little girl. She and a friend of hers were
talking and I sneaked up to the door and tried to listen to what they
were saying. She caught me and she scolded me--she struck at me with her
fan--it was just a light tap, but it made me mad. I fought her and I ran
off home, she came to get me too. I never would have gone back
otherways. She said she never did see a girl better with children.
"I remember my grandmother telling about once when she was cooking in the
kitchen, her back was turned and an old hound dog got in and started to
take the chicken which was on the table. He had even got part of it in
his mouth. But she turned and saw him--she choked the dog--and choked
him until she choked the chicken out of him. You can see she must have
been pretty scared to be afraid to let them know the chicken had been
tampered with. Then we always thought my mother's death was caused by
her being beat by an overseer--she caused that overseer's death, she got
him while he was beating her. They had to hide her out to save her
life--but a long time afterwards she died--we always laid it to that
hard beating.
"We lived in Helena after the war. My father was the marrying kind. He
was a wild marrying man. He had lots of wives. But Mother and
grandmother wouldn't let us call them Mother--she made us call them
Aunt. It really was my grandmother who reared me. She was a good cook,
had good jobs all the time.
"When I grew up I married. Mr. Huggins was a bar tender in a saloon. He
made good money. We had a good home and I took care of the home. I had
it mighty easy. Then one day he fell in the floor paralyzed. I brought
him to Hot Springs. That was back in 1905. We stayed on and he lived for
18 years.
"I got a house there and I kept roomers. That was where Fanny stayed with
me. It was at 311 Pleasant. You remember the place, tho. When I was
young, I had it easy. But now I'm old and I don't have it so well. A few
years ago I was out in California on a visit. There was a man shining up
to me and I wrote my niece 'What would you think if your aunty married?'
'Law,' she wrote back to me, 'you've lived by yourself so long now, you
couldn't stand a man.' Maybe she was right."
(At this point the girl passed into the room.) "Look Maggie! three
pretty handkerchiefs. Miss Hudgins brought them. And I was just writing
to my sister--my half sister today, I didn't even expect to much as a
handkerchief for Christmas. And my initials embroidered on them two. One
with A on it and two with H. I'm really proud of them.
"I'm going to write to Fanny to tell her about your coming to see me.
She'll be so glad to know about you. I'll tell her about the
handkerchiefs. You know, for a while Fanny had it pretty hard while she
was here. She stayed at my house and I kept her for a long time without
pay. I knew Fanny was a good girl and that when she got work she would
pay me back. Do you know what Fanny has done? When she heard I was hard
up she wrote me and told me to come up to Michigan to her and she would
take care of me just as I had taken care of her. But I didn't want to
go. Wasn't it nice of her, though?
"Yes, when I was young I had it easy. I had my home and took care of it.
If I needed more money, I mortgaged my home and paid it back. Then I'd
mortgage it and pay it back. But I mortgaged it once too often. That
time I couldn't pay it back. I lost it.
"Well, I'm so glad you came to see me. I remember the pretty little girl
who used to come to my house with Fanny. Be sure to write to her, she'll
appreciate it, and thank you for the handkerchiefs."
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Margret Hulm
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Louvenia Huff
