me lumber was
manufactured in crude sawmills in which was used what was known as a
"slash saw". This was something like the crosscut saws of today and was
operated by a crank that gave the saw an alternating up and down motion.
Wheat was ground into flour and corn into meal in mills with stone burrs
similar to those used in the rural districts today, and power for this
operation was obtained through the use of a treadmill that was given
its motion by horses or mules walking on an inclined, endless belt
constructed of heavy wooden slats.

Candles for lighting purposes were made of animal fats combined with
beeswax. Plows, harrows and cultivating implements were made on the
plantation by those Negroes who had been trained in carpentry and
blacksmithing. Plows for breaking the land were sometimes constructed
with a metal point and a wooden moldboard and harrows made of heavy
timbers with large, sharpened wooden pegs for teeth. Hats of straw and
corn shucks were woven by hand.

Small, crude cotton gins were powered by horses or mules hitched to a
beam fastened to an upright shaft around which they traveled in a circle
and to which was attached large cogwheels that multiplied the animal's
power enormously and transmitted it by means of belt to the separating
machinery where the lint was torn from the seed. No metal ties were
available during this period and ropes of cotton were used to bind
the bales of lint. About three bales was the daily capacity of a
horse-powered plantation gin.

It was often difficult to obtain the services of a competent doctor and
except in cases of serious illness home remedies were administered.

Churches were established in different communities throughout the
County and the Negro slaves were allowed the privilege of attending the
services, certain pews being set apart for them, and the same minister
that attended the spiritual needs of the master and his family rendered
like assistant to his slaves.

No undertaking establishments existed here at this time and on the death
of a person burial was made in crude caskets built of rough cypress
planks unless the deceased was a member of a family financially able to
afford the expensive metal caskets that were available no nearer than
Memphis. "Uncle" Henry Turner recalls the death of Dan Wilborn's little
six-year-old boy, Abby, who was accidentally killed when crushed by a
heavy gate on which he was playing, and his burial in what "Uncle" Henry
d