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Negro Fisherman AL - 7
Eufaula, Alabama January 11, 1939 G.C. [Gertha Couric]
SAM LYNN, FISHERMAN AND RIVER RAT Famous For Fish
Sam Lynn lives on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in a little four-room cottage, high up and with concrete steps leading to it.
Sam has five children, all living and all married but the youngest boy. He married Hattie Wright about twenty-five years ago. She is an expert laundress.
Hattie has never had any children of her own. She tells her story in this way:
"Sam just heired his children. All five of them are bastards, but Sam gave them his name; ain't none got the same ma. But Sam has been mighty good to all of them.
"Sam has been a fisherman all of his life. He started when he was just a little boy. Me and Sam been married nigh unto twenty-five years. His youngest child was just two years old when I married him. His ma was dead and he and Sam was living down here all by themselves. He had a 'oman that cooked and looked after little Sam for him, and his other chillun was living with their mas. Sam always took care of them. I mean he supported them, clothed them and fed them. The two oldest boys are fishermen with him. He pays them just like he does his other help. His two girls live up North.
"Little Sam lives with us; he railroads. I loves him just like he is my own and he sho is a smart and good boy. He ain't married; hope he won't; nigger gals is so trifling these days. Ain't got no morals a-tall.
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"Sam says the best he can recollect is he was about ten years old when he first started to fishing. He is sixty now. So that means he's been fishing fifty years. The way he started was this. Ransom Lynn, Sam's pa, owned this place on the river. I'll tell you about Ransom later on. He owned this house we live in now, only we have added two rooms and a porch and a lots of other things.
"Mr. George Vaughn had a little one-room house further down on the river. You'member him? He's been dead now 'bout twenty years. Well he is the man that learnt Sam to fish and swim. At first Sam said he used to follow him about just like a little puppy; would get up before day and go with him in his batteau a-fishing. In them days they used to seine in the Chewalla Creek; it's ag'in' the law now. Mr. Vaughn learnt him how to set out traps and lines; he learnt him everything there is about fishing. He makes good money at it. Mr. Vaughn learnt all the older white men in Eufaula to swim and Sam learnt all the niggers. Whenever anybody ever fell in the river or jumped in to kill themselves Sam and Mr. Vaughn would always do the diving to find the bodies. Since Mr. Vaughn has been dead, Sam's been doing it and many a body has he found. Folks don't drown themselves like they used to, though, I am glad to say.
"In Sam's young days -- he don't do it now -- he used to swim across the Chattahoochee right here at the wharf four and five times without stopping, and they says its third to the swiftest river in the world; and its terrible wide. They call him the 'river rat.' When he was a young man he lived on the river, slept in a tent, camped there. I thought it was awful but he would do it. Now, he is not
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well, his heart is bad, he works too hard. Gets up at four in the morning. I get up and cook his breakfast. He goes all day without food and when he comes home at night he eats too much. Yes'um, he is a fisherman right. In the days when the steam boats was a-running, them was the days for Sam. The 'Kelly' and the 'Bradley' and the 'City of Eufaula'; he never missed a boat. He could hear her miles long 'fore he could see the smoke.
"When Sam gets through in the day, you know the winter days are so short, he puts his lines out at four o'clock in the afternoon, then comes home. I always have a good hot meal for him with plenty of coffee. He won't eat fish except now and then. He smells 'em so much he turns ag'in 'em. He likes his collard greens and beef steak.
"Now he goes hack at eight and gets his fish off his lines and puts 'em in the fish boxes all along the sides of the river. That keeps 'em alive. The boxes have a wire top that lets the water in. He has four and five men that work for him. He owns twelve batteaus. He has his fish boxes miles up and down the river and creeks on both sides. He changes 'em every now and then. He fishes mostly in the Chattahoochee River, but he works the Chewalla, the White Oak and Barbour Creeks. His average catch a day is about two hundred pounds; sometimes a hundred and fifty and again two hundred and fifty. He don't fish on Saturday and Sunday. He's got religion. He wouldn't fish on Sunday for nothing!
"Sam couldn't get along without his little 'nip' when he is working; its so damp and foggy and wet on the banks. He would die with pneumonia sho' if he didn't have it. But I ain't never seen
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him drunk in his life. He knows how to take it. It's a pity these other nigger men and white gentlemens too don't know how. Sam is honest too. That's his religion. He would cut off his right hand before he would sell a fish that wasn't all right. His fish are all breathing and wiggling on his lines. He works every day and night from January 'til June, then stops off in June. In the Summer months he has his fish frys. Don't sell fish in the Summer because it's too hot to keep them. When he has his fish frys, the fish are still alive; that's why they are so good.
"Sam is famous for his fish. He puts out his nets (he don't seine) from January the first 'till the fifteenth of March. Then after that he just hooks and lines. In September he starts back to work. He don't work in the Christmas month though.
"He has certain days to sell his fish in different places. He sells four lines 25c, 50c, 75c, and $1.00 depending on how many and the kind of fish. He has better luck 'catching' at night than he does in the day. The best time is in the full moon. He catches channel cat fish, bream, perch and carp. These are his best sellers, but sucker fish, rock fish, mud cat, eels and any fish that runs in the stream he she' gets 'em. He sho' is lucky and they calls him a expert. If he comes across a tamted fish he gives 'em to the niggers. They hangs around him like 'Grant around Richmond.' The stronger a fish smells the better a nigger likes 'em.
"He has made good money too. He has a car; 'tain't much of a car, just a fish car. He sells his fish in Eufaula Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thursdays and Fridays he goes out of town. He don't go hisself though; he sends one of his men. They peddle Georgia
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Thursday; Cuthbert, Dawson, Albany and little places. Then Friday they peddle Alabama; Clayton, Comer, Midway and Union Springs. He has regular customers and always sells out. Saturdays he sells 'cut fish' to niggers. 'Cut fish' is the big red fish he cuts in small pieces. The red fish he catches weighs from eight to twelve pounds and more. All the red fish he gets in the week time, he puts in his fish boxes and keeps 'live 'till Saturday morning. Then 'bout four o'clock he gets up and with one or two of his men he gathers 'em up and cuts 'em in small pieces; puts 'em in push carts, takes 'em up town and before nine o'clock he is sold plum out to niggers and poor white folks. Then Sam comes back home and has a day of rest. He sho' needs it, cause he is sho' over-worked. There is a lot of folks right here in Eufaula been living here all their lives, ain't got no idea what a big business the fish "business is right here.
"He has had some narrow escapes too. Fell in the river lots. Course he is a fine swimmer, but this last time his clothes and boots was so heavy it was hard to swim and the current was swift. He lost his gun and his batteau. The batteau was over-loaded; that's what made it sink.
"He is a good "batteau maker too. He makes his own boats. He also makes boats for sale. They are row boats.
"Fish bite better when the moon is full. He has a camp on the mouth of White Oak Creek, on the banks of the Chattahoochee River.
"He uses spring lizards and stump grubs to bait his hooks and trot lines. A trot line goes from one side of the river to the other
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