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Came across this in the Tennessee Veterans Questionnaires.
Jeptha Marion Fuston
16th Tennessee Infantry, Co.E
McMinnville, Warren County, TN.
15. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe and did other kinds of similar work:
I was in the field dropping corn when I shed my first two teeth April before I was six in November. I hoed but little except to garden and my little trunk patch, taking my turn at the plow at 8 years of age. My mother said I could have had a home at 4 for my services. I was her main gardener.
16. State Clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember-that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.:
Before I was larage enough to plow, Father did the plowing, stocked plows and made ox yokes, axe handles, etc. I remember his plowing with one arm in a sling on account of a dislocated shoulder. Mother and elder sister cook, washed clothes. (I helped). Carded spun and wove coverlets. They wove woolen blankets, carding in the loom and made overcoats as well as shoulder blankets.
17. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?
No, we boys took our turn in the kitchen, as well as bed making, sweeping, etc. I spun spolled, filled quills and carded bats.
18. How was honest toil-as plowing, hauling, and other sorts of honest work of this class-regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable?
Highly so; we boys competed with our neighbors in laying by (as we called it) the corn crop. We finished in June and they by the first Sunday in July, the Baptist Annual foot washing at Old Concord Church. We broke the corn land twice or thrice. Father said "easier cultivating before planting than afterwards."
Jeptha Marion Fuston
16th Tennessee Infantry, Co.E
McMinnville, Warren County, TN.
15. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe and did other kinds of similar work:
I was in the field dropping corn when I shed my first two teeth April before I was six in November. I hoed but little except to garden and my little trunk patch, taking my turn at the plow at 8 years of age. My mother said I could have had a home at 4 for my services. I was her main gardener.
16. State Clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember-that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.:
Before I was larage enough to plow, Father did the plowing, stocked plows and made ox yokes, axe handles, etc. I remember his plowing with one arm in a sling on account of a dislocated shoulder. Mother and elder sister cook, washed clothes. (I helped). Carded spun and wove coverlets. They wove woolen blankets, carding in the loom and made overcoats as well as shoulder blankets.
17. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?
No, we boys took our turn in the kitchen, as well as bed making, sweeping, etc. I spun spolled, filled quills and carded bats.
18. How was honest toil-as plowing, hauling, and other sorts of honest work of this class-regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable?
Highly so; we boys competed with our neighbors in laying by (as we called it) the corn crop. We finished in June and they by the first Sunday in July, the Baptist Annual foot washing at Old Concord Church. We broke the corn land twice or thrice. Father said "easier cultivating before planting than afterwards."
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