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I was born on the 30th of March 1842 in the State of Alabama, Benton Co. (now Calhoun) six miles east of the town of Oxford. My father owned a farm on Choculuck (Choccalocco) Creek. his residence was on the east side of this stream at the foot of the hills. It was there I spent my childhood days and from my earliest recollection my brother two years younger than myself was my almost constant companion and as years passed by when we were not in school we spent our time roaming over the hills with our dogs in search of game or wild fruits and nuts and often spending a whole day fishing in Chockoluck a very dangerous place for little children as it was a deep stream and I must confess we invariably went without the knowledge or consent of our Parents which was very wrong yet no serious accident ever befel us. I remember on one occasion we caught three trout weighing about three pounds each we started home in great glee with our fish but before we reached home we remembered that mother had forbade us going there fishing. So we were now in distress we could not bear the idea of throwing our fish away. So after stopping for some time we suddenly remembered that Mother was particularly fond of trout and that the fish might save us from the punishment we were sure to get so we marched boldly to mother and presented our fish and got off with a little scolding. I think I was then about nine years old. My father sold his farm in 1856 and on the 18th day of November 1856 we started for Navarro County Texas in company with my uncle and his family. There was about sixty of us negroes included. It was a cold wet autumn and we had to come the whole distance by private conveyance. We were well prepared for traveling but the incessant rains made the roads almost impassible and the next day after we crossed the Miss. River we began to get sick with flue and after two or three weeks typhoid pneumonia set up. On Christmas Day we passed through Harrisburg La. I was that day stricken down with the flue. We traveled on until we reached a little town called Woodville in Jackson Parish. My father had relatives here and as I had by this time become
Handwritten notes written by Cornelia Garner describing what she remembers of moving to Texas as a child, living on a farm in Navarro County, managing a ranch and making cloth during the Civil War, and various other details that she remembered. There are sketches at the end that appear to be properties, labeled with names.
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