Historic Black Berea- Oral Transcripts- Farris

Interview of Jennett Farris

Faith: Well, Hello. I'm Faith, like she said and I'm her student…
Jennett: Y'all have to talk a little louder, 'cause I don't hear to good.
Faith: Okay. My name is Faith and I'm a student in her class. And we want to learn about Berea's history. Can you tell me when your family moved to Berea?
Jennett: Can you sit over here? I had my ears washed out last week and it still didn't help.
Faith: Okay, I just want to know when your family moved to Berea?
Jennett: Now, what do you mean? My mother and father?
Faith: Yes, did your mother and father come originally from Berea?
Jennett: Or their mother and father?
Faith: Who was in Berea first?
Jennett: My grandparents.
Faith: Your mother and father?
Jennett: Well, do you know anything about Farristown?
Faith: Mm huh, we visited Farristown, Middletown…
Jennett: (Unable to understand what she's saying)
Faith: What year was this? What year was this that your parents lived there in Farristown?
Jennett: ____ Pike. You know where that sharp curve is. _____ trailer sitting there.
Faith: Right when you come into Farristown?
Jennett: Mm huh. I lived there.
Faith: How long ago was that?
Jennett: _________, I told a tale! About twenty-one years ago. 'Cause I moved there to Farristown after my mother died in Berea. And I thought I was doing something good coming to Richmond.
Faith: And you've been here for twenty years?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Faith: Where did your parents come from before they moved to Farristown? Where did your grandparents come from?
Jennett: I don’t know, ‘cause they (her grandparents) was slaves.
Faith: What kind of work did your parents do?
Jennett: Daddy worked on a farm and Mama raised babies.
Faith: Raised babies?
Jackie: How many babies did she raise?
Faith: How many children did she raise?
Jennett: Six. Three boys and three girls. And all of them dead, I’m the oldest.
Faith: You’re the oldest?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Faith: What are the names of your brothers and sisters?
Jennett: My sister after me was Cornela.
Faith: How do you spell that?
Jennett: Cornela. C…O…R…N…E…L…A. Then after Cornela was Elizabeth. She died about four years ago.
Faith: What are your brothers’ names?
Jennett: Edward, Moss, then Joe…
Faith: What was the second one?
Jennett: Moss, the second one, then Joe the baby.
Faith: What were the names of the communities or neighborhoods around? Were they all still Farristown, Middletown, the only ones…?
Jennett: You just talk so low.
Faith: I’m sorry.
Jennett: I hate to keep asking you what did you say. Now, what did you say?
Faith: I was asking what were the names of the communities around Farristown when you lived there?
Jennett: I don’t know of any but Middletown.
Faith: Middletown, Berea?
Jennett: Mm huh. See everybody down there now left, moved to Berea. At one time there was a crowd of people in Farristown. Especially children. They had a little school building built down there so many years ago.
Jackie: Did it have a special name? The school building?
Faith: Did the school have a name?
Jennett: And then they moved the school in Farristown from back down there.
Jackie: Which school building did you go to class in?
Jennett: I went to school so I wouldn’t have to work! __________________________
_____________________ and my brother and father __________________________
___________________ and I was raised here in Kentucky. But after I grew up I went back to Cincinnati.
Faith: You went back to Cincinnati?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Jackie: About what years were those? How old were you?
Faith: How old were you? When you came back to Kentucky from Cincinnati?
Jennett: I was thirty years old.
Faith: Is that when you went back to Cincinnati? How old were you when you came back to Kentucky?
Jennett: My mother bring me when I was little, she said I was two years old. My sister was just a baby.
Faith: What schools did your family attend? Did your brothers and sisters go to school?
Jennett: Well, I had one sister that graduated out here…Are you taking my picture?
Jackie: Just for a moment.
Faith: So Elizabeth graduated?
Jennett: Yeah, she graduated and my sister next to me, I think she like one year from finishing high school. She got married.
Faith: Was that Cornela?
Jennett: Yeah…
Faith: So you never went to school? Did you go to school?
Jennett: I went to the fifth grade.
Faith: How did you like school?
Jennett: I liked it all right. ‘Cause if I stayed home I’d have to work.
Faith: Keep you from working!
Jennett: They either worked or go to school.
Faith: Did any community events go on while you were in school? Anything that went on with Berea or Middletown?
Jennett: Not that I know. I know not in my school. I don’t know anything about others.
Faith: So was your school in Farristown?
Jackie: Where was the building located?
Jennett: Right out there behind the church. You know where that trailer sets?
Jackie: Yes Ma’am.
Jennett: Below the church…
Jackie: As you’re going from Middletown, the trailer, then the church is on the left.
Jennett: Well, what I’m trying to tell you, the trailer is just down below the church on the same side.
Faith: So that’s where your school was?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Jackie: Across the railroad tracks, where does your house sit in Farristown in relation to the church?
Jennett: Where I lived? I just told you right on the side of the road.
Faith: When you come in around the curve.
Jennett: Did you know where Alonzo Ballard lived?
Jackie: Yes Ma’am.
Jennett: I lived the second house from him.
Jackie: On the same side? Coming back from the bridge?
Faith: What was the name of your church?
Jennett: Farristown Baptist Church.
Faith: What kinds of activities did you do with your church? How did people get together at the church?
Jennett: I go (to church) right over here. ‘Cause I don’t have no way to Farristown.
Faith: Was that the only church you attended while you were there?
Jennett: No, I went to Middletown.
Faith: Did you ever go to Union Church?
Jennett: No. It’s seems that I was up there for something….
Faith: Where are the old cemeteries around in Farristown?
Jennett: The back of the church.
Faith: The back of the church?
Jennett: Uh huh. Somebody told me that somebody had went over there with a tractor and tore down all the markers. And now there’s people who had lived away for years and have come in looking for their mothers’ and fathers’ markers. I think that’s awful!
Faith: It is awful. Did you have any family or relatives over there in Farristown?
Jackie: Where did your father and mother get buried?
Faith: Where were they buried?
Jennett: Out in Farristown.
Faith: Where your brothers and sisters buried there too?
Jennett: I have a brother buried out there. But, my baby brother is buried in Chicago and my other brother is buried out here in the Holy Garden. They scattered everywhere.
Faith: What about your sisters?
Jennett: She’s buried there.
Faith: In Berea too, in Farristown?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Faith: What do you know about Berea College?
Jennett: I don’t know anything at all.
Faith: Have you heard anything?
Jennett: I always heard that children been to there. Always heard it was a nice place.
Faith: Did you know any black people that went there? Did they have the opportunity to go? What did they say about it?
Jennett: They just said it was a nice school.
Faith: What kinds of things did you do for recreation or fun?
Jennett: I told you I couldn’t hear very good.
Faith: I’m sorry.
Jennett: Now what did you say?
Faith: When you were younger what did you do for fun?
Jennett: I really don’t know.
Faith: What was your week like in Farristown, a week?
Jennett: What do you mean? What was I doing?
Faith: Yes. What did you do for the day?
Jennett: Working in the garden, washing and ironing and cooking. I used to ask my mother to let me go somewhere and play and she would say, "Uh um! ___________
________________________". And I didn’t say nothing back!
Faith: Is that what she did to your younger brothers and sisters? Wouldn’t let them go anywhere?
Jennett: All the boys were younger__________________________________________.
Faith: So did the boys in your family do more work or most of the work, than the girls?
Jennett: No actually they got drawn. And my baby brother went to the Army. And my second brother he got married_____________________________________________
Worked on a farm, raised calves hogs _______________________________________
If y’all come here to Farristown you pass right by where he farmed. Do y’all know Kenneth Farris?
Jackie: I’ve heard the name, but I don’t know him. He one of your relatives?
Jennett: My nephew. He’s a preacher.
Jackie: Does he have a nickname? Best Buddy. Real name’s Kenneth. Yes I know him.
Jennett: Everybody knows him.
Jackie: He pastors a church down in, um, not in Berea, but another church somewhere else that he’s a pastor of. And his sister is Margie (?).
Jennett: She and I talk last night till after twelve o’clock. I said, "Get off this phone girl and go to bed!"
Jackie: And she’s a good one. I like Margie. Now are they children of your brother or sister? Kenneth and Margie are they related on your mom or brother’s side?
Jennett: What did you say? You going to have to move closer. What did she say?
Faith: She said are they close to your mother and father?
Jackie: Kenneth and Margie, are they your brother’s children or your sister’s children?
Jennett: Margie is my brother Moss’ daughter. Kenneth and Margie are sister and brother. I don’t have nothing but nieces and nephews and I got so many of them. And they all over the United States!
(Jennett talks about a niece that lives in Cincinnati, her name is Jackie and she has many pictures of Jackie. Another picture she shows us is of her mother Mary Jenkins Farris)
Faith: Are there any other special memories of Farristown?
Jennett: I don’t know. Just like it is in Berea. These people here_________________
__________________ that’s what I do. (points to her crocheting piece she’s working on)
Faith: What is that crocheting?
Jennett: (Nods yes and shows us her piece)
Faith: When was the last time you went to Farristown? How long ago was it?
Jennett: Last Saturday.
Faith: What did you do? Were you visiting family and friends?
Jennett: Just friends.
(Dr. Burnside asks Jennett about a picture she sees on the wall)
Jennett: Now that’s my grandmother there. She was part Indian.
Jackie: What’s her name?
Jennett: What’s her name? Well, you know back then everyone said Plina. But now you call somebody Plina it’s a disgrace.
Faith: How do you spell that?
Jennett: Plina. P..L..I..N..A. She said that they put her on a block and sold her. She was a slave. My grandpa he was a slave.
Faith: Now is that your mother’s mother or your father’s mother?
Jennett: My mother’s. I never did know (her grandmother) on my dad’s side, she died.
Faith: Do you know anything about the Day Law at Berea College? A law saying they didn’t want blacks going to Berea College.
Jennett: Uh um.
- ( Here Jennett is talking about more picture she has. One is of her brother Moss’ son, Morris. Jennett raised Morris and another nephew Archie Farris)
Faith: When you went to Farristown, has a lot of things changed?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Faith: Not that many people out there.
Jennett: Well, no ain’t nobody out there hardly. Not like it used to be.
Faith: How many families were out there when you lived there?
Jennett: I could never start naming! And every one of them had five or six children!
Faith: Yeah we went to visit and there wasn’t too many house out there.
Jennett: Mm um. Now that girl that was buried Saturday, her mother and father lived across the road from my mother. They moved to Lexington when that child was about twelve years old.
Jackie: Her name was Delfinas(?), Delfina.
Jennett: Don’t very many people live out in the country. I wonder why?
Jackie: That’s a good question.
Faith: They think they’re missing something.
Jennett: Well, I’d rather live in the country. If I had a decent house and a car. Than to live in town, ‘cause town, I don’t know, there’s just something going on all the time.
Faith: Is that why you like Berea better than Richmond?
Jennett: Yes. Breaking in people’s houses. Now there’s was a man whose mother lived right down yonder from me. And he was telling me about going over here to the drugstore one night and two men robbed him and broke his arm.
Faith: That’s sad, that’s how people are getting nowadays.
Jennett: And they let some many strangers in the door down there, that you don’t know what you’re gonna run into in the hall!
Faith: So have you ever been married?
Jennett: (Nods yes)
Faith: How many times have you been married?
Jennett: (Puts one finger up)
Faith: Just once?
Jennett: That was enough for me Honey!
Faith: How long were you married?
Jennett: Well, we stayed together ten years.
Faith: And what was his name?
Jennett: Albert Harris. And I never did know what happened. He worked with the horses. When he left he said, "When I find a place to live I’m gonna come back and get you." When I heard from him, he called me, didn’t say how you, nothing, "I’m gone and you do the best you can!"
Faith: What year was this?
Jennett: I don’t remember. We were living in Danville.
Faith: How long did you live in Danville?
Jennett: Twelve years, I think.
Faith: Do you like Danville? Danville is a pretty nice city.
Jennett: Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t stay down there.
Faith: You just don’t like Richmond at all do you?
Jennett: (Nods no) Well, you see I was younger then and I could you know work. My eyesight’s so bad and then the doctor told me about a month ago, my heart’s gone bad.
Jackie: What year were you born? What’s your birth date? Do you tell it?
Jennett: No, I’m just gonna let you guess. No, I’m a really let you guess!
Jackie: Okay. Faith?
Faith: I’m not good a guessing. You guess you go ahead!
Jackie: Umm, ninety-four? Is that a good guess?
Jennett: Ninety-five.
Jackie: Ninety-five!
Jennett: Ninety-five New Year’s Day.
Jackie: Your birthday’s New Year’s Day? Happy birthday!
Faith: What was your mother’s maiden name?
Jennett: My mother was a Jenkins and my father a Farris. But my grandmother and grandfather they didn’t know who their parents was. ‘Cause my Granddaddy was part Irishmen. What is Irishmen?
Jackie: From Ireland. Across the ocean near England.
Jennett: I have wondered about that and I’ve asked. Well, Grandpa was part Irishmen and I don’t know what else.
Faith: What was his name?
Jennett: Ed.
Faith: Ed?
Jennett: Ed Jenkins. And Grandma, her mother or father one was…what’s these dark-skinned white folks name…Indian! Grandma’s part Indian and Grandpa part Irishmen.
Faith: What was your grandmother’s name?
Jennett: Plina. You know children’s been messed up so bad it’s right pitiful.
(Jennett starts talking about her twenty-three year old niece in many pictures on her wall and how her niece wants to know who her father is and her mother will not tell her.)
Jackie: Do you know how your grandparents met each other?
Jennett: (Nods no) Well, grandma said when she was put on a block and sold she was twelve years old.
Jackie: Did she remember where she was, where she lived? Was it in Kentucky or some other place?
Jennett: Somewhere else.
Jackie: Did she remember the name of the man who bought her?
Jennett: Um umm. I don’t think she know. I don’t think. I never did hear her say it and she married Grandpa and had two or three children before she ever had a pair of shoes on her feet! You know you think about that, that’s pitiful!
Jackie: Did you hear how Farristown got its name?
Jennett: On yes, I heard old people say that Farris was in slaves. The name’s after them.
Jackie: Do you remember when you were living there…who were some of the leaders of the…
Jennett: Leaders where?
Jackie: In Farristown, when you were growing up in Farristown?
Jennett: Who done what?
Jackie: Who were some of the people who were leading in the community? Real active in trying to help…
Jennett: Like the deacons?
Jackie: Right.
Jennett: Let’s see, one…two…three. My uncle was one, Albert Farris, Ed Bennett, Bill White…let’s see, seems like there’s another name…I can’t think of the other.
Jackie: How about among the women? Which of the women were real active in the church and the school?
Jennett: They had a club of their own. And they called it Merry Workers and my mother was supervisor of it.
Jackie: Do you know where the name Mary Walker come from?
Jennett: What?
Jackie: Mary Walker, the name of the club.
Jennett: No, MERRY WORKER!
Jackie: Oh, Merry Worker! Okay!
Jennett: I have a picture of them.
(Jennett goes into her bedroom to retrieve the photograph of the Merry Workers. Her mother, Mary Farris is included in the picture along with other women and the reverend of the Farristown Baptist Church and talks briefly about the Merry Workers.)
Jennett: They were all neighbors and friends, they could get together and laugh…
Jackie: What kinds of projects did they work on? Do you remember?
Jennett: Naw I don’t. They usually made fun of one another! The club met once a month at each member’s house and they would piece quilts, crochet, and brooder…
(Jennett then starts talking about her crocheting, she shows a piece that she has been working on. Then she shows us a nine-patch quilt that she made.)
Jennett: She’s taking pictures of all the monkeys!
Jackie: Okay, I’ll turn it off if you want. Want me to turn it off? I can turn it off.
Jennett: Naw. I take bad pictures.
Jackie: This might make you look ten years younger!
Jennett: I hope it does! People tell me, "You don’t look your age!" I tell them y’all all just making me feel good!
Jackie: You do look very good for ninety-four, ninety-five!
Faith: You do!
Jennett: I don’t think so. Look all down here, this long neck! All my hairs’ done come out.
(Jennett talks about how when she was younger the doctor told her she had too much hair and that it took her strength. Then she tells how she used to go to the beauty parlor and that’s what made her hair fall out.)
Jackie: Well, what we want to do, hope to do, is put together a little map to show people where the black people used to live in Berea, Middletown, and Farristown. Is there any particular landmark or anything you like them, us to have on our map?
Jennett: I don’t know.
Faith: Probably the school that you said was by the church, the Farristown school…
Jennett: Down below the church.
Faith: The trailer. And then the cemetery was there too.
Jackie: How about any stores or business? No other businesses in Farristown? Was there a gristmill or anything like that?
Jennett: Before the Baxter’s ________________________ where Margie lives there’s a store setting on the bank, right where Margie turns to go in her yard.
Jackie: Who owned that store?
Jennett: This woman named…Rebecca Todd.
Jackie: Was she a black woman?
Jennett: Uh huh, and she died and they tore it down.

(Jennett carried on with many conversations about her past and some things she’s down in the present time. She vividly talk to us about many things. At the end of our interview we explained the reason for the interview and Jennett and I signed the release form for the Berea College Library’s Special Collections.)

Interview of Jennett Farris
By Faith L. Calhoun And Dr. Jackie Burnside
Richmond, Kentucky
January 20, 2000