ex-slave Milliken Frazier pottery jug found in old trunk

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• published: 16 Apr 2013
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My mom is over 90 years old, and is telling the story of the "salt jar" that has been in our family for well over 100 years.. She has a cancerous growth on her head that is penetrating into her brain, that is affecting her memory, and although she is correct on most of the things she is saying here, she is also confused about a couple of others.. She has the part about the Eagleton Farm time period mixed up, which was a little later after they moved there from the Mim's Chapel area.. Our grandmother told us the story herself many times, before she died in 1969.. According to her, our family was VERY poor back then, as most family's were in that area, and a lot of the time they were moving from house to house "share-cropping" or renting their houses.. The "whites" were not much better off than the "blacks" if at all, and all grew up together.. In an oral interview taken from Sam Frazier in 1974, describing his ex-slave father's pottery mill, he states, "My mother died when I was about 8 years old, and my father died when I was 13. After the death of my father, I worked for the Wimberley's, a white family that lived in the area, and they treated me good, and were like my own family" The Wimberly's were my grandmother's grandparents, and they all lived in and around the Mims Chapel community. The story goes that when the black family that owned this "salt jar", was ran out of their home by their landlord, they had to leave all their possessions behind. And according to my grandmother, the neighbors went into the house and took everything that they left. Sounds pretty cruel, but that was the way it was, My grandmother was young then, when she went over to the house, and she said about the only thing left was this old pottery jug, which she took home with her. I guess it wasn't taken by the others, as it was probably just a common for that area, old crudely made piece that had no value.. Anyway, I don't see how my family had anything to do with the black family being ran out of their home, as they were all poor, and just trying to survive, and we can only speculate on the reason the black family was run off in the first place. We never knew who actually made the "salt jar", but we always wondered. Anyway, back about 10 years ago, my mom, myself, and three of my kids all went on a trip together, back to where our family used to live. Visiting Mims Chapel, Jefferson, Smyrna, Diana, Morton, Harleton and other places. While we were in Jefferson, we decided to visit the museum there. It was during that visit, that I saw the pottery that Sam Frazier had donated to the museum in 1974, and the history of it. I knew immediately then the story of who made the piece we had. It was a very good and informative trip we had. We also found out that Milligan Frazier was the ex-slave of J.S. Nash, who owned the Nash Iron Works in Mims Chapel, Texas.. Nash made cannon balls, and probably even guns during the Civil War. Miligan set up him his pottery mill next to the iron works, after the war ended, selling pottery, that he had learned how to make, while he was a slave.