This story was written down by Samantha's youngest daughter, Irma Eddie, as her mother told it. It is a heartwarming account of the struggles and hardships of life in the late 1800's and early 1900's, and how it was held together by a large and loving family. Samantha and Joseph Edgar (Ed) had a very large family of 15 children. A listing of their children will be shown at the end of this page. Charlotte Ramsey's husband is a grandchild of Samantha.

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I, Samantha Azlee Altom, was born June 16, 1881 to Mary Jane MORGAN Ross Adams Altom and William "Bill" Altom at Batesville, Arkansas. In 1895 Joseph Edgar BROWN of Paris, Illinois, came to Batesville, Ar., Independence County, to visit his brother, John Arthur BROWN, who was married to my half-sister, Hattie Luvenia ROSS Brown. Also another brother Charles Robert BROWN, who married my 1st cousin, Nettie Frances ROGERS. We met and fell in love and were married December 1, 1896. Ed was 22 yrs 2mo 8dys old and I was 15 yrs 5mo 16dys, so here we go on our wild goose chase.

We lived in two rooms at my parent's home for three months. Ed wanted to take me to Paris, Illi-nois, in Edgar County, to meet his people. We went to his parents (George Washington BROWN and Athalinda ARTHUR Brown) home in March of 1897. We stayed with them a month. Then Ed went to work for a brother-in-law for $18.00 a month and our room and board. Their names were William Harvey MORRIS and Ida Mae BROWN Morris.

Things were fine for a while, then Ida and I had a little trouble. I felt she was imposing on me with the work. I was 7 months pregnant in September 1897 and it didn't set so well with me. I guess she figured because I was a little Arkansas girl she could do me any way. But she didn't know me very well. I did not mind helping with the work and I did, but we had a handwasher, so I worked it. She had two children, both wearing diapers. She did not put that job on me for a while, but she finally did, I had to wash out a tub of diapers and then put them in the washer to run. Well, I did, 3 times, and I saw she did not respect me. I did not mind the job, but it was not in the deal for me to be the servant, just because I came from Arkansas. When I had all I could take, I told Ed I was not being Ida's servant any more. He said you don't have to be a servant to anyone. That was Sunday, so Monday morning came, and that was wash day, so she gave me my orders of what to do, and that was when I let her know I was white and free bound, so she told me if I did not do it, I could get me another place to stay, so I stopped running the clothes right there, I didn't wash the dishes either. I went to the field were Ed was working and told him what had happened, he told me to go back to a family house and stay there till he came in at dinner. So I did. When he got in, Ida tried to make him think I was in the fault, but he told her that he knew how things had been going. So, we packed up our things and went back to Ed's folks for a month. Then Ed went to work for another brother-in-law, (? William K EASTER and Ada Viola (Brown)EASTER) they had a little house for us to live in. We were very happy there until his sister got sick and went to the hospital. They asked Ed and I to move in with them so I could take care of his sister and their little boy.

While we were there my first baby was born, November 9th, 1897. We named her Mary Azlee BROWN. As soon as I was able, we went back to Ed's mother for a short time. We moved into Paris for a while, then we got home sick for Arkansas.

Mary was six weeks old in December 1897, when we came back to Arkansas by train. At Batesville, on the mountain, we set up housekeeping on my fathers place for a while. Then moved to another place. From there we moved to the old Adle place. There my second child was born, a son, Courtley Edward BROWN, on December 6th, 1899.

We moved to Storm Springs and lived there several months. There our baby boy got sick and died, August 20th, 1900. He was eight and a half months old. Then we moved to the old Farley place. We bought it and lived there three years.

Our third child, Ora Lee BROWN, was born September 28th, 1901, and eleven months and ten days later, the fourth baby came, Bertha Ellen BROWN, on September 13th, 1902.

Well, here we go getting ready to move again. We sold out and bought the old Massey place. We were happy here for a while, but Ed was beginning to get home sick for his folks. It had been over two years since he had been home. So, we sold out again, on October 20th, 1902,(in land records) except what we needed to make the trip. We sold 13 head of cattle and a team of mules. We kept one team of mules and a riding horse. We fixed our wagon with springs on top of the wagon, and put our bed on them. We took our clothes, and pots and pans to cook in on our way. So with me six months pregnant and with the three little girls, Mary Azlee, Ora Lee, and Bertha Ellen, and my brother Elcer Altom, we started out. Elcer went to ride our horse. We were 21 days on the road and enjoyed every minute of the trip.

One day I remember, we all got so thirsty and we were out of water on the wagon. Soon Ed saw a beautiful clear stream. Oh, water at last. We all ran to get a drink, but it was too good to be true. Alum Water. It puckered our mouths so we couldn't talk for a short time, but it quenched our thirst. We drove on until night. We found a real pretty place to camp, with good water. There were two men nearby fishing. They had caught a lot, so they said they had more fish than they would need, if we would take some, so Ed said yes, we like fish. After a long day's ride the little girls and I were very tired, so I went to bed with them. We were out of feed for the mules and horse, so Ed had stopped at a big farm and asked an old man if he would sell him feed for them, but he told him he didn't have any to sell. We could see that he had plenty. When it got dark, Ed told Elcer to hold the mules and not to let them bray. He was going to ride the horse back to the old man's corn field. He took a toe sack and went to the back of the field and got a sack full. Every time the mules started to bray, Elcer would hit them with the whip. They fed them corn and they were fine again. By that time the mosquitoes were so bad they had almost eaten me and the girls up. Ed got his old pipe lit up to smoke them out of the wagon. He puffed and puffed until the wagon was so full of smoke we could hardly breathe. I don't know which was worse, the mosquitoes or the smoke. By then it was 12 o'clock and we were getting hungry and decided to punch up the fire and fry the fish the good men had given us. They cleaned the fish and fried them. Oh My! the mosquitoes were getting thicker all the time. We were all eaten up and so were the horsees. The fish were fried so nice, but they were all bones and we couldn't eat them. I know those men had a big laugh about those suckers. Ed said we might as well get hitched up and leave that mosquito hollow. We ate our lunch meat and went on our way rejoicing.

We finally got to Paris, Illinois. Ed's folks seemed proud to see us, but I could see where we had made a bad mistake selling our place. Ed went to work for his Dad shucking corn. We rented a house in Paris, but it took more to pay rent and buy coal and food than he made and we were looking for our fifth child, Daisy Luevenia BROWN, who was born December 23rd, 1903, so that was another mouth to feed. Ed got up at 4 a.m. to go to work, drove 4 miles in a hack and didn't get home until after dark. This went on for 5 months.

Ed began to see he had it easier in Arkansas, and I was wanting to go back home so bad. I had enough of Illinois, after six months, but I knew we were down to nothing again so I didn't say much about coming back until Mary was 6 years old and was ready to start to school.((personal notes)) So Ed was ready to come back too, but we had nothing to come back to. We had sold the horse and team of mules. All we had was four little girls and our-selves. Ed went to his Dad and told him he had decided to go back to Arkansas if he would let him have the money. Pa told him he would let him have the money if he would sign over to him his rights and share of his Mother's estate that he was going to get at her death. There was nothing else for Ed to do but sign.

We got what little we had together and came back to Arkansas on a train in the spring of 1904. The children took the whooping cough on the way and had it bad for six weeks. We got back to my Dad's, in Floral, Arkansas and rented a farm to make a crop. Ed got a job for fifty cents a day, and took it in meat and any thing to eat. My Pap gave us a cow to milk, so we did not go hungry. Ed bought a little team of oxen from my uncle on credit. Ed broke them to work, to pull a wagon and to ride and plow. We kept them two years and made two crops with them. By the end of that year and a half, another baby was on its way.

This time our sixth child, a son, was born on September 6th, 1905, Ollie Burton BROWN. We were so happy to have a son. That winter I kept the school teacher. Mary was going to school there(Enterprise School-near Jamestown, out of Batesville) her first school year. (1903?)

We were getting along fine now. People didn't have to have so much to live in those days. Ed and my Dad (Bill ALTOM) bought a shingle and stave mill and did right well with it. A lot of time they took cattle or most anything we could use, for pay. We soon got on our feet and Ed took up 160 acres of land to homestead. That was known as our old home place. (The Clem House. Ed tore the house down and built the home place).

Ed's Pa and Ma BROWN came to visit at the homeplace between 1905-1914. After they went home to Illinois, they sent a buggy and a hack back to us and a barrel of clothes.

While we lived on this place 3 more baby girls were born to us. The seventh child was Bee Bell BROWN, born April 25th, 1907, the eighth, Eva Linda BROWN, born January 1st, 1909, and the ninth, Earnestine BROWN, born December 12, 1910.

By this time Ed and Dad had cut most of the timber around the mill, so they moved it to a new location. This time it was just a saw mill. Ed built us a saw mill house. Two or three years went by and it was time to move the saw mill again.

Before we left the home place, Mary Azlee got married to William THOMAS, April 2nd, 1913 in Floral, AR. They moved with us to Wolf Bayou, and set the mill up there. Ed built us a house and one for Mary and one for a hired hand(George & Lizzie PUCKETT).

By this time our tenth child, another little girl was here, Maggie Mae BROWN, born January 28, 1914. We stayed here a year, that was when we went broke again, and lost everything but our little bunch of kids.

At Hiram, in the summer of 1914, we rented a house from Mr. Luther Floyd. We had to buy food on a credit. We went to picking cotton for 50 cents a hundred, so we made $2.50 a day all together. Soon we had enough to pay for our groceries and buy more.

In the spring of 1915, Ed rented farm land on Red River,(between Pangburn & Hiram) from Mr. SLATEN. He and our son Ollie made a crop of cotton and corn. I took the 7 girls and went to Judsonia to pick strawberries. We made good that spring (in 1915). I took $75.00 home with us. That put us on our feet and our garden was ready. We bought a buggy and a horse for me to take the vegetables to a saw mill camp(Doniphan) to sell. I peddled all summer and carried the mail, and kept up all the expenses, while the rest of the family made a big good crop.

That fall of 1915 we bought us another place at Hiram (Cleburne County). We lived there (a total of) 5 years. While we were there two more little girls came to live with us, the eleventh child, was Irma Eddie BROWN, born October 30th, 1916 and October 12th, 1918, the twelfth child and last girl was born Elouise Vivian BROWN. In October 1917 Ora Lee married John Henry JACKSON. Now we had eleven living children with 2 girls married. That left 8 girls and 1 boy at home. A lot of mouths to feed. But everyone worked and did their part.

Ed had heard how good farming land was at England, so here we go again, selling out(we were rich again) and getting ready to move to England in the spring of 1919 to raise cotton. Ed made four share crops for Mr. J.D. SCROGGIN (J.H. Cragen) then Ed was made overseer for two years.

While we were there, two sons were born, our thirteenth child, Elcer Rennold BROWN, born November 14th, 1920, and our fourteenth John Henry BROWN, born December 30th, 1922.

We were making pretty good but it took everything to keep such a big family. Then all the little children took measles and whooping cough, then we lost little Elcer on July 10, 1923, two and a half years old and were lucky not to lose more, they were so sick. That tore us up again. (Ora lost her son, Paul Odell Jackson on March 14th, 1923 two and a half months old and Mary lost her son, William Allen THOMAS in August 1923 at 8 months old. They were all buried in Mulberry Cemetery in England).

Another girl, Bertha Ellen, Married while we were there, to Charlie Thomas BETHEL on February 26th, 1920.

In the fall of 1923, Ed wanted to leave the farm and move to Little Rock. So he went to Little Rock and found a house on West 10th Street and a job with Reaf's Lumber Company as a carpenter. We had enough to pay the rent and to move us. So, we made the move, and all the older children got out and found work. I stayed home and kept the house and the little ones. We lived there 16 months. Then Ed bought a lot from Reaf's Lumber to build a 7-room house at 517 Pine Street, so we moved again.

Another girl married, Daisy Luevenia married William Herbert ADAMS on December 29th, 1923.

On November 20th, 1925, our fifteenth and last child was born, a son, Joseph Edgar BROWN, Jr. I was 44 then. We lived in Little Rock 2 yrs. Ed's health began to fail, so we decided to buy a small truck farm. A neighbor of ours on Pine Street had such a farm out Arch Street Pike, (20 acres) 12 miles out. We bought it from Mattie BURTON. Ed tore down the old house on it and built us a 7 room house. We moved in 1925. We raised chickens, pigs, and vegetables for the curb market that was on 17th and Main. The first time we went we didn't know just what to do. We got up real early, loaded the truck with our produce and headed for town. When we got there, I got out of the truck and asked a lady, (Grandma WHITAKER) that had a stand what we were to do. She told us to just pick out a stand and the fee would be $1.50 per week. So we picked a stand and for the next 18 years we made our living raising and selling anything eatable.

The year we moved out Arch Street Pike, Eva Linda got married November 27, 1925 to Clyde Delbert BLAYLOCK. In 1926 Ollie married a Texas girl named Elsie VRACKCOFF. Bee married William Haskell TUBB June 9th, 1927. Earnestine married Dalton Joe 'Tobe' WOODSON in 1928. After the older ones married off, we had 3 girls and 2 boys at home, who helped run the truck farm.

Things went along fine for a few years, until July 30th, 1935, while we were at the market, our home caught on fire. It started from an oil cook stove. Well, again we were wiped out--didn't save a thing. We were thankful that none of our children burned up. All we had left was the land, and it was mortgaged. We had a little three room house on the place, so we moved into that. With the help of our good neighbors and children, we had enough furniture and clothing to start again. We went on to the market for a time.

Maggie Mae got married to Henry Mack HALE on April 29th, 1933. Elouise Vivian married Thomas Andrew WILLIAMS July 3rd, 1935. Irma Eddie married John Lewis RAMSEY on October 24th, 1936. Now all we had at home with us was our two youngest boys, John Henry and Joseph Edgar Jr. Ed wanted to get away from the farm. He wasn't able to work so hard any more. Neither was I.

Ed built a small store on the highway. He tried it a while, didn't do any good and gave it up and rented Dixon's Dairy for a year. By then the boys were out working. The youngest, J. E. Jr., went into the service(Army). So now we were alone. We came back to the store and did pretty good. In the meantime, John Henry married Nita Margaret SAWYER on August 15, 1942. Things were fine until 1945 Ed crossed the highway to go to the mail box, when he started back, he was hit by a fast moving car and hurt seriously, a leg broken in two places. They had to put a plate(in hip) in it, he never recovered fully from that. So we just drifted along after that. J. E. Jr. married Marilyn Grace KIRKINDALL on June 16th, 1951.

But the Lord has been good to us all our lives. We have caused all our bad luck ourselves - not using good sense. I am thankful that we have lived to raise our family. I have tried to raise them right and teach them that they would have to answer for their sins. I obeyed the will of Christ when I was 18 years old. I was the mother of three babys and had lost one. I have tried to live a Christian life so far as I could. I have not been perfect, but God knows everything. I am proud he does.

This is some of my life -- just the high lights, not all I went through. There are so many more things that have happened. Ed and I lived together 60 years 5 months and 1 day. December 2, 1956 was our last anniversary. Our lives together ended on March 2, 1957. Ed left this world - I hope to go to a better home. He was 82 years 5 months and 1 week old. I am left to tread the road alone. But God is with me, and I have 12 wonderful children living. We lost Earnestine on September 20th, 1952, with cancer. I have 9 girls and 3 boys, 37 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. I have always had good neighbors any place I lived.

This is some of my life.

Mrs. J. E. Brown
(Samantha Azlee ALTOM)
Started: 1955
Finished: Tues., May 13, 1958

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NOTE BY HER DAUGHTER: What a wonderful inspiration Mama's life has been to all of her family and friends, because of the faith she had in Christ our Lord as her guide. On December 8th, 1858, Mama had a stroke and lay helpless for 10 days. On December 18, 1958, the Lord took her home in Glory where he had prepared a beautiful mansion for her. There she and Dad will be waiting until we can all be united together again.

Irma Eddie BROWN Ramsey

THE BROWN FAMILY