PAGE TWO continued Autobiography of Wm. M. Guice, MD


~~ Such was the past play on the stage in the Woodstock Academy & the curtain fell. That little play occurred in the year 1841. Sometimes during the Summer. In the Fall of the year my parents thought it best to go West amid the wilds of Louisiana to rear a family of sons & daughters, 3 or 4 of each, in February we halted and rented a place on Bayou Bartholomew. Some 6 or 7 miles from its mouth, and a mile below our uncle Johnnie Smith, one of the old settlers of the Country. He had also a large family and they {__________________} Smith family. The two old people were much older than my parents. They were good people working people some peculiarity among the boys, most all grown one I remember was considered a good hunter. He wore buckskin clothes hunted much, was called Nimrod because of his hunting {_proclivities___}. Another grown son was seemingly the manager of the few slaves and the farm. Then came Hiram & Peter & Oliver. It was with those three, that I as well as my brother were mostly with, we all belonged to the field during the day and after plowing hard all day we would get together after night & fish for trout with a hand {saw?}or a three pronged gig & with a good torch and walking along the bank we could see and strike the fish. In the morning we were at our posts between the plow handles, in two years of our life was spent there making cotton, we counted three hands in the field, and we gathered 30 bales of cotton and corn plenty, the third year we purchased a plantation with 7 or 8 negroes a large stock of cattle and hogs and horses to work the plow to pay 80 B/C a year until it was paid for. It might seem strange how a man without any resources save a reputation for being a good farmer to purchase a plantation and make such payments, but I have been told the circumstances that caused Judge Ephraim K. Wilson to think of selling his upper place to anyone, were these, he & family were considered high livers and the Judge occupying a high social position wanted more money at times than it was handy to get, and he told old Uncle Johhnie Shith that he wanted to sell his upper place and if he could find a man that could pay for it he would be glad. At once he spoke up and said sell to Major Guise, he is the man, the Judge{_remarked___} that he would like to sell to a man that had more money, and would likely make him good payment every year. Judge, the old man Smith said, he has a barrell of money silver, I saw it. The Judge believed Uncle Johnnie, because his reputation for veracity was good, and perhaps the Judge believed Major Guise had money, never thought of the B/C. The consequence was my father bought the place, and in 1844 we moved up and took possession and we went to work to pay the 80 bales a year, which was done for several years, and Wilson came to my father and told him if he would pay him up the entire debt, he would discount. My father told him he could not but he might borrow the amount. Then the Judge told him that Uncle Johnnie Smith told him that he had a barrell of money and it was that that first made him think of selling to him, that Uncle Johnnie Smith saw the money, and relates the circumstance of his coming in the house one Sunday evening and found my father and mother counting the money and threw a towel over the head of the barrell. Well the facts were, they were counting money some 200 dollars in 50 ct pieces, the money the crop of cotton sold for the year or that spring previous, had it in small money box and was counting it on an empty flour barrell bottom up & when the old people{___________} by threw a towel over it. it had the appearance of a full barrell of silver, however my father went to old man Pargoud and borrowed the money and paid him over one thousand dollars more than he should have done, this before the war and I think old man Pargoud died ar any rate my father after the war gathered up the papers and went {_to see_} the son{____} Pargoud and after he became satisfied that my father had paid his father more than he should have done, he gave him a check for the amount paid over.

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C. Preston Guice

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