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20 Cecil Hamilton Terry I am Cecil Hamilton Terry, daughter of Charlie and Dana Hamilton. I grew up, kind of, and married Stewart L.Terry.We had seven children. Our firstborn were a set of twins and they lived only a few hours. They were jaundiced . The other five children are grown now and have families and homes of their own. As I sit here this day, talking to you, the interviewer, it is the year 1997 and I am seventy-seven years old. Trying to answer your questions while remembering back over a period of my lifetime,some of my memories may sound like I’m jumping around as I view my life in my looking glass of memory.To begin with, I’ve never understood why I, a female, was christened with the name, Cecil. I’ve never really questioned why, so we’ll skip that one. We lived in a tenant house on the James River until I was in my early teens and then we moved to Bedford County.We attended school in Elon,Virginia.We Indian kids went to night school and the white kids went to day school.The reason for that was not because of prejudice against Indians, but because our Monacan parents were tenant farmers and tenant farmers’ kids had to help their parents in the orchards and fields of various crops. One task I remember vividly was chopping out rows and rows of growing corn in fields of such long rows one couldn’t see from one end of a row to the other end.Sweat would run down our faces and bodies in salty rivers. When my brother and I were still young, one of our chores was to row our boat across the James River to gather driftwood to stockpile for our winter heat and for Mama’s cookstove year ‘round.A loaded boat is difficult to row with oars at any age, but especially for two children. We also hauled passengers across the river on Saturday mornings and back at dusk. The passengers were going to visit relatives on the other side of the James or to catch a train to Lynchburg for whatever reasons. Each passenger paid Cecil Hamilton Terry / 123 us fifteen cents round-trip fare. My brother and I thought we were making big money. When I started dating Stewart Terry, I was only thirteen years old. Mama would not allow us to go anywhere alone. She always sent one of my sisters with us. When I was fifteen years old and Stewart was twenty years old,we decided to put an end to the threesome dating.We decided to get married. My daddy and mama gave us their blessing and accompanied us to Preacher Ray’s house. Preacher Ray was unmarried and lived alone, without a housekeeper . When we arrived that afternoon, Preacher Ray was coming out of his barn, dressed in bib overalls.When we told him we wanted him to perform the marriage ceremony for us,he smiled and said he really ought to get dressed up in his black dress suit for such a happy occasion. He took us inside his kitchen.We saw the table was laden with dirty dishes. He looked at the laden table and down at the dusty floor. He shrugged and said he’d decided against changing clothes. He picked up his Bible from a sideboard and standing on one side of the laden table he motioned for us to stand on the other side with my parents behind me, and in moments Stewart and I were pronounced married. We walked back to my parents’ house where some neighbors had gathered to wish Stewart and me a long life together. One of Mama’s friends asked Mama, “What are you serving for their wedding supper?” My mama replied,“We have a big fat duck on the pond and I’m going to cook that duck!” Stewart and I lived with my parents for several years.When we finally moved out on our own, we moved to the Rutger place and lived there the next forty- five years.In fact,we lived there until recently in this year of 1997.We still didn’t have running water or bathroom facilities and Stewart was still cutting our firewood . In early spring, Stewart had a heart attack. Our children put their heads together and decided that their daddy couldn’t keep on with such hard work of keeping...

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