this turf by using seven yoke of oxen, so dense was the sod. It made a fine cotton crop the first year with but little work. My memory is that a great deal of it was not worked after planting. There were a thousand acres in this home tract. Pa bought several other tracts. Just before the war he owned about two thousand acres of good black land.

Bois d'Arc Hedge

A furrow was plowed all around that part of the home tract that lay north of the Mill Creek road, and bois d'arc seed were planted to serve as a hedge. Parts of this hedge are still standing.

A Guide for Crockett

About the center of this field, on the highest prairie for miles around, stood the three blackjack trees that John Stiles, Sr., pointed out to David Crockett in 1835 as one of the landmarks that would enable him to go straight across the prairie to the home of William Becknall, nine miles west of Clarksville [see map]. The spot where these trees grew can be identified yet as a very small streak of light gray or yellow soil surrounded on all sides by deep black waxy land.

New Slaves from Missouri

In a year or two Pa returned to Missouri to buy more Negroes. He left in the spring, for I remember that the evening before he left, Ma sent