Another Mess

GREAT UNCLE OWEN WILSON

THE VIEW THIS MORNING FROM THE HILL

This is the view I see each morning from my perch at the computer. Since it was 43 degrees and raining this morning, I thought I needed to take this photo from the safety of inside. When the weather permits, I love to sit in the white rocker and just sit and have coffee or wine and enjoy the peaceful setting.

I thought this morning I would start a series to be continued whenever called "Reminiscences of Uncle Owen" Most of these are taken from his remembrances that were written in the 1950.

First Chapter

I was born in 1870 only five years after the Civil War in re-construction days. My father had been reared as a rich man. His mother, dying in 1863, had willed away a million dollars but most of it was a large cotton plantation in Yazoo County, Mississippi. The 200 Negroes walked off and taxes under reconstruction were increased 1400 per cent. There was nothing to do but to abandon it. My father bought a 500 acre farm in Sumner County for $7000.00 where we were raised. It is still called the Wilson Farm, now owned by Mr. Comer.

I was sent to school with my elder brother when I was five years old because there were two later arrivals and baby sitters had not been invented. My brother who was two years older and I rode a bay mare (old Fanny) to the school two miles away. Old Fanny had been ridden to Ohio by on of Morgan's Confederate raiders. Next year she broke her leg and had to be killed. Then we took my father's wartime Calvary horse.

Notes
Thomas B who is my MIL father is the two year old brother. Their father Thomas B Sr. was a Captain in the Confederate Calvary. The farm is still referred to as the Wilson Farm and has been much in the news lately . Some want to conserve it and others wish to keep building buildings. We hope for the first to happen. My MIL was the last Wilson to be raised on the farm and reads all the stories about her home place with anxiety.

The Kitty Justice is that I hope you enjoyed a little of the family history on this wonderful rainy day. Peace to all.