03709_0112: E. J. and Mattie Marshall, Overseer of Tenants

Another version of "E. J. and Mattie Marshall, Overseer of Tenants," entitled "E. J. Marshall, Overseer of Tenants," can be found on pages 13304-13319.

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FL-15 Carbon Copy

STATE EDITORIAL IDENTIFICATION FORM 751

STATE:_____FLORIDA_____

RECEIVED FROM STATE OFFICE _____JACKSONVILLE_____

MS ___E.J. AND MATTIE MARSHALL___ WORDS ___4,664___ QUOTA_____

STATE GUIDE ______LOCAL GUIDE ______NON-GUIDE ___YES___

TABLE OF CONTENTS DIVISION ___LIFE HISTORY: OVERSEER OF TENANTS___

COMPLETE FOR THIS SECTION? _____ WHAT PERCENTAGE REMAINS_____

PREFINAL REVISE NO.__________ WASHINGTON CRITICISM__________

PREFINAL REVISE NO.__________ WASHINGTON CRITICISM__________

PREFINAL REVISE NO.__________ WASHINGTON CRITICISM__________

PREFINAL REVISE NO.__________ WASHINGTON CRITICISM__________

PREFINAL NEW: _____YES_____

VOLUNTEER CONSULTANT: Name____________

Position__________

Address__________ _________________

By ___Carita Dogget Corse___

Position___State Director___

DATE:____March 7, 1939____

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4,664 words

February 15, 1939 E. J. and Mattie Marshall (Negro) Alabama and Maryland Streets Plant City, Florida Overseer of Tenants Paul Diggs, writer (Negro) Veronica E. Huss, and Evelyn Werner, revisers.

E. J. AND MATTIE MARSHALL, OVERSEER OF TENANTS

E. J. and Mattie Marshall live in a two-story house at the corner of Alabama and Maryland Streets in Cork, a suburb of Plant City, Florida. A granddaughter, Eddie Mercedes Marshall lives with them. Their six-room home is constructed of unpainted weatherboard and has a shingle roof, mossy with age. Outside, next to a dilapidated car shed where farm implements are stored, is a shack which houses E. J's mule, Beck.

At one end of the front porch is a pile of cut wood covered with a granary sack, a bushel basket, a sack of corn, and a cloth bag that hangs on the wall by the door. At the other end is an old table with a water bucket and a few pots and pans on it. Buckets of flowers are ranged against the wall.On a side porch are four wash tubs which serve the alternate purpose of wash tub and bath tub.

The lawn needs trimming, and the yard is full of overgrown shrubbery. Toward the rear of the lot, I see two large can bushes which are taller than the house; these supply the Marshalls and their neighbors with finishing poles.

Mattie and E. J. are both on the porch when I come up. E. J. is checking his books. He is an overseer who leases land for the Swift Company, to tenant farmers and does some farming for himself. He wears a tan straw hat with holes in it to keep his head cool. His shirt is dark gray and his trousers blue, bright yellow suspenders hold up the latter. Dangling from a trouser pocket to his watch pocket is a ponderous gold chain. His shoes

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are heavy brogans.

He politely invites me to come up on the porch, where he introduces me to his wife Mattie. Her complexion is much lighter than his and she has straight black hair. She greets me pleasantly and keeps looking at me over the tops of her glasses which she wears far down on her nose. She has a clean white apron over her red and white dotted gingham, and bedroom slippers on her feet: "They's fer comfort," she says apologetically.

I no sooner seat myself when two white men drive up in a new Ford. E. J. greets them heartily and excuses himself saying, "That oldest man has charge of the Swift Company's bizness. He's come fer all the money what I'se collected on the leases. "I controls 150 acres here. These is leased to 21 tenants. The 'mount of lan let out to each tenant, ranges from 1 to 20 acres, all accordin to the number of acres he kin farm. Now and agin one of them tries his bestus to beat us outten some money by runnin away at the end of the season. We charges them around $15 a year fer one acre."

While E. J. goes down to talk the the men, Mattie shows me her home and I ask her where she comes from, "I was borned in Tamper, Florida most 62 years ago. My folks was Josh and 'Lizabeth Belton. I had six sisters and six brudders, eight of them is still alivin. They's all in South Caroliney, ceptin one sis what lives in Tamper.

"I was de fifth chile in the fambly. As fer school, well, I went plum through de ninth grade. I has one chile, Josie Lee Johnson, Her man operates a bizness on Laura Street."

While we chat we go through the house. The clean kitchen, with its linoleum covered floor comes first. There is a large cook stove, two small tables with oilcloth covers, and an old clothes closet where the dishes are

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kept. Next to the kitchen was a pantry room where odds and ends are stored.

In the good-sized middle room, which is sometimes used as a dining room, there is a large table near the steps leading to the second floor, a china closet and a silent clock. An old-fashioned clothes tree is laden with hats, coats and other articles of wearing apparel. The walls of the room are covered with picturs, and a framed print of the Ten Commandments. The front room is clean and well furnished.

By this time E. J. is almost through, so Mattie and I sit down to wait. She has already told me that the five-acre tract across the road from them is owned by Mack Wadsworth, a Negro who also has a business on Laura Street.

I watch the Negroes picking strawberries in the Wadsworth field across the road. They are talking and laughing. One is heard complaining: "Nothin-- aint doin nothin!" Another adds: "No siree, ain't doin a God's thing." A foreman walks up and down the rows, his tray in hand, picking up the baskets of berries and quickly as they are filled. At the far side of the field there is a large building constructed of galvanized sheeting, where the berries are being graded and packed.

E. J. returns to the porch, settles himself in a can bottom chair and when I tell him what I want, comments, "This will shore carry me way back yonder."

"I was borned in Edgefield, South Caroliney, November 16, 1869. My ma and pa was Edward and Frances Marshall; they's daid now. They was slaves. Their master, his name was 'Crafts," and his was considered aristocrat folks. They was well knowed in South Caroliney.

"My pa brought $30,000 from Newberry to Aiken, South Caroliney fer them one time. It was to pay fer a large plantation what the Crafts broughten.

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