American
Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
Nimrod
Ross
Personal History
of Information
DATE:
December 15, 1938
SUBJECT:
American Folk-lore
NAME AND ADDRESS
OF INFORMANT:
Nimrod Ross
2124 Q St.
1. Ancestry
Negro
2. Place and
date of birth [Rutherford?] County, Tennessee. 1863
3. Family Two
4. Place lived
in, with dates Morgan, [Mo.?], 20 years; Lincoln, 40 years.
5. Education,
with dates Elementary school
6. Occupations
and accomplishments, with dates Policeman [at?] Lincoln, Nebr., 1902-05. Turnkey
at County jail, 1908-[1910?]. Caretaker for twenty-five years, to present.
7. Special
skills and interests. Writing an historical data concerning the negro.
8. Community
and religious activities Baptist Church
9. Description
of informant Tall raw-boned, copper collored individual, with a trace of Indian
blood showing in his features.
10. Other points
gained in interview. Very interested in politics and strongly [decrys?] the
fact that so many of his race, (the Negroes) have went in such large majorities
to the [Cemocratic?] parties.
Interview
"I was just
born in slavery, so I don't remember anything about it only what I've been
told. I do recall that my mother told me that my great grandmother was an
Indian and my great grandfather was a German.
She was the
daughter of a slave-holder. I know nothing of my father.
After the war
we lived in a little log cabin in Rutherford County and farmed. I remember
that the year before we left Tennessee, the boll-wevil and a two year drouth
ruined the cotton crop and every other kind of gardening for that matter.
It was so dry, that we boys and some of the men were sent out into the woods
to kill snakes which we would hang on a line with their bellies facing the
sun because it was believed that this would cause it to rain, "Hah, hah,"
I don't think doing this ever [rought?] rain, but it didn't keep the old timers
from continuing to do this, even after we moved to [Missouri?].
I came to Lincoln
over forty years ago when it was just a little burg. But things were a whole
lot better for the colored folks then than they are now. I [was?] a city [policeman?]
here for awhile and also a
deputy sheriff at the County jail.
I was able
to give my boy a good education and he was one of the few Negroes to play
on the University of Nebraska football team.
He's [practicing?]
law now in Los Angeles. This job I'm now on as caretaker is really not a job
at all because it was given to me as kind of a pension for life with little
or no duties.
Church work
now takes up most of my spare time, although I am [pretty?] much interested
in [politics?].
Information
about SGML version of this document.
