The Tracings, Volume 20, Number 01, May 2002 Page: 14
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light puffy batt. Then spinning it into thread. I don't remember if they dyed it as thread or after it
was woven into cloth, but it was dyed with red oak bark, which was chopped off the trees while
green then boiled in a huge iron wash pot. It made a brown dye. The material was then soaked
in the boiling dye for so long. They finally got him a suit made. Before they got the suit made
he would wear a dress and a big floppy bonnet when he dared go outside. The wood was getting
scarce. He would go out and chop wood. He looked so funny to them; Sabra was always
jingling and making up her own ballads they would sing him. He was constantly on the hide out.
The confederate army had men back in all the communities, which Sabra said were called
patrollers. They called them patty rollers. They hunted down deserters, and they were
constantly calling on the families to see if they could catch some of the men folks on the hide
out. The dress her brother-in-law wore was very long and full. The wind blowing very hard
caught into the skirt and made it pop. They would sing to him; Keep your coattail a popping,
while you keep on a chopping. Keep the patrollers hopping, while you keep on a chopping.
One day some soldiers came around taking all the horses they could find for the army. My
grandma Sabra wasn't home. One of the horses they took was a small pessel tail Sabra claimed
as hers.
She got home soon after they left. She followed them to the next farm, went up, and grabbed the
rope out of a soldier's hand, and said if I had a gun I would shoot you. One soldier started to
hand her his gun and another grabbed it and said, don't give her that gun, she will shoot you. He
knew Sabra Jane. She said she was so mad she would have too. There were no men folks or
boys big enough to kill hogs, so Sabra and her sister and neighbors did the slaughtering. It was
usual to knock them in the head with an ax. The women couldn't do it; Sabra tried, almost
cutting her leg off. Finally they found one old gun but no bullets; they had a little powder and
chunk of lead. Also some unginned cotton still in the seed, which they picked out. They melted
the lead in a regular lead ladle then poured it in cold water. It turned to small slugs when it hit
the water. Then they used cotton for wadding and gunpowder put into the gun with the lead. It
made bullets. Sabra shot the hogs in the head. She was the best shot so she did all the shooting.
String or wire weren't available to most farms, so bear grass blades were slit and interlocked into
another blade. Thus the meat was strung to hang and smoke. After the hogs were shot they were
pulled upon a scaffold with rope around their hind legs. They had to be bleed and dressed. Then
scalded to remove the hair. It took five or six to lift it in and out of the wash kettle. They
couldn't slaughter the large hogs; just the small ones called shoats. Sausage was made, hams and
bacon smoked. Everyone had a smokehouse; the cracks all daubed with dobbie clay. It had small
poles about a foot apart across the ceiling. The meet was hung to smoke on these. The smoke
was made of hickory and a bit of sassafras. It was burned to coals, then green wood was added.
It would make a thick smoke. They rendered the fat by cutting into small chunks and cooking by
a slow fire it was fried out. When it was done the meat left would be very crisp. It was called
cracklings, and was prized to make cracklin bread. (corn bread with the cracklings added).
The patrollers knew he had deserted by now so her brother-in-law had to keep on the hide out
after he was well enough he camped out in the woods a couple of miles from the house. The
women would take food to him. Sabra started to take food to him. He was staying near a
gristmill where corn was ground for meal and grits. She had the food in sack with a grinding of
corn. It slung across the saddle. She saw a patrol up the road. She crossed her eyes and pulled
her upper lip up off her teeth, which were inclined to protrude. When they stopped her she just
made an idiotic grin. They ask her where she was going. She replied I'm gonna get us some
Sadra Jane Steadman 14. C:\My Documents\My documents from Ibm\PARKER.doc
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Anderson County Genealogical Society. The Tracings, Volume 20, Number 01, May 2002, periodical, May 2002; Palestine, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth37942/m1/19/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Anderson County Genealogical Society.