in the
direction of restoring the soil to its once high state of fertilization.
Owning this farm, we had the "Big House" where the master once lived,
and several of the slave cabins, which still remain, where the slaves
resided. Hundreds of slaves, I have been told, tilled this soil in the
days long ago, when its productive power was greater than that of any
estate in this whole section.

It is a remarkable and significant fact that where the master once lived
is a recitation building for colored boys and girls, and where the
slaves once huddled around the flickering light of a pine-knot young
Negro students are quartered daily, preparing for the duties of the
morrow.

In building up the school to its present position, five persons, almost
from the very beginning, have figured most prominently, viz.: E. A. Long
and his wife, Miss Willie Mae Griffin, the writer and his wife--all
Tuskegee graduates. It is needless that I remark here that the burdens
borne by the men have been in no sense heavier than those borne by these
faithful women. The road along which we have traveled has not been, by
any means, a smooth one. We all had been toilers at Tuskegee and knew
well how to face the duties of life. This was decidedly in our favor. I
was the oldest of the company and perhaps had seen more of hardship than
the others; it therefore fell to my lot to give courage to the others
when hope was all but gone.

Some time previous to our taking possession of the farm, some of the
occupants had sown about half an acre in a kind of radish commonly known
hereabout as "pig radish." It must be remembered that each year, after
the eight months' academic work was over, we received no money from any
source whatever. Paying the salaries of teachers who were to leave for
the summer and meeting other demands of the institution always exhausted
the school's treasury before the summer season began. With a "cropping"
season of four months ahead, no money, no source from which any could be
expected, the nice tender "pig radish," year after year, became our
food-supply for the early part of the summer at least. Thus, while
pushing the operations of the farm, rebuilding the soil by means of
turning under green crops, fertilizers, etc., "pig-radish" greens,
western side meat, and corn-meal constituted our chief diet. Beef came
to us as a luxury twice a week. The work was divided so that E. A. Long,
our treasurer, was gardener, I was farmer, our wive