after a while it was pure drudgery, and all I wanted was to come home, hug Maw and sit down for one of her home-cooked meals and maybe steal a kiss from sweet Sally.”
At the mention of Sally, Leroy remembered the news Doc Browning had shared. “Johnny, Sally married that detestable Walt Simpson, and she’s in the throes of labor right now givin’ birth to their first youngun, so I doubt you’ll be gittin’ any kisses from her. And, Johnny, Maw’s not well. She’s taken to her bed, and I hate to tell you, but we have precious little food. Thangs are truly dire.”
John frowned and looked toward the front door. He immediately bounded up the steps with Leroy right behind as John began calling, “Maw, Maw, I’m home; I’m home.”
There was a moan from the front bedroom, and John ran in. “Maw, Maw, it’s me, John.” He gathered her in his arms and carried her to the front room and laid her on the faded red velvet settee. She managed a faint smile, and with her withered hand reached out to touch his bearded cheek. Samuel and Mary Jane came running in to greet their older brother.
After some tears and hugs, John spoke with disdain, “How come you didn’t take better care of her? You knowed she was delicate. You knowed she couldn’t fend for herself after Paw died. That was yore job, the three of you, just take care of Maw. How hard could that be? Huh, answer me. How hard could that be?”
Samuel was the first to speak. “We tried, Johnny; truly we did. She was holdin’ up until this past May when she started downhill. Hidin’ out in the woods when the Yanks came through shore didn’t help her none. We did all we knew to do, and Doc Browning has been checkin’ on her, but it seems lately we can hardly git her to eat or sit up for more than a minute or two. We’re runnin’ outta food, and she’s as thin as a stick. Johnny, I’m so glad yore here. Maybe you can help her. We don’t know what to do.”
John bit his lip and assessed the situation wondering what in tarnation he could do. The farm was a wreck; the house was mostly deserted without servants to help these kids. And they were still kids.
“Let me do some thankin’ on it. I spect Willy and James should be coming in soon, and we’ll try to figure out what can be done.”
Leroy let out a yelp, “Yes sir! I cain’t believe our big brothers are gonna be here to help out. I am so happy, so thankful to the Good Lord!”
“You cain’t spect much outta Willy. He had a hole blowed through one leg and had to leave the bottom half at Stones River. He’s gotta crutch, but he needs a peg leg. And James is no better. He’s in one piece alright, but the war has addled his brain a bit. Poor James spent 18 months in a Yankee prison in Delaware and darn-near starved to death and lost most of his teeth due to scurvy.”
The following week both Willy and James came home. The greeting was bittersweet as they saw the sad condition of their mother and the wilted farm. It wasn’t just the fault of General Sherman’s Yankees; even Confederate marauders had taken what they wanted and left the Stockards high and dry.
After much debate, the older brothers decided there was not much left upon which to build, and they were in no shape to get things up and running again. Leroy became increasingly worried when he heard them talking about Texas.
“Yore jest gonna high-tail it to Texas and leave Maw and us kids here to fend fur ourselves?”
John replied gruffly, “Look, Leroy, we can git land in Texas and git a fresh start. We can then send fur y’all, includin’ Maw, if you can git her nursed back to health. Besides, the war didn’t tear up Texas the way it did Tennessee, and there’s land to be had fur cheap. Railroads are headin’ that way, and thangs will git goin’ fast when they start shippin’. That’s the best we can do. Now don’t fret. We’ll send fur y’all when we git settled.”
There was no use arguing with them. They were dead-set on going, and nothing Leroy, Samuel or Mary Jane could do or say to persuade them otherwise. The day they left, Leroy hung his head in frustration and anger. Mary Jane put her arm around him in comfort, but Leroy couldn’t let her see his tears, so he turned and headed for the barn to stroke Molly who consoled him more than Mary Jane ever could. As he hugged Molly’s neck, he broke loose with deep sobs and poured out his heart, “I thought they’d come home and help us. They don’t care ‘bout me, Samuel or Mary Jane. I don’t even thank they care about Maw, those good-for-nothin’ brothers.”
Days, weeks, months passed, and the three of them managed to keep some food on the table. Samuel had found work on a farm that had lost all its slaves to emancipation. His pay was mostly in kind, food and an occasional pig or chicken. Things looked somewhat better, and their maw rallied for a spell. Doc Browning had given her a concoction that kept her more alert, but sometimes she talked out of her head. The kids came to accept the fact that she would never be the same mother who had run a shipshape household with servants and kids ordered around to do all the necessary work. Surprisingly, that fell mostly to Leroy as he had a head for managing things. Besides, Samuel and Mary Jane found work from time to time and readily left the household duties to him.
Once in a blue moon, they would get a letter from one of their big brothers, usually John. “Life is good here in Texas, but we can’t send for you just yet. We have a stake in some land in West Texas, but it looks like we might end up in some different county given the land prices. We are trying to determine where the rail line will be built, so we can get land that will be close by and make transporting cattle easier. That’s the plan, so just be patient. We have high hopes.” Sometimes there would be a couple of Yankee dollars in the letter.
3
What to Do
Four years passed with the three kids eking out a living and tending to their maw, but she continued to deteriorate and finally refused to eat. Leroy was beside himself as he tried desperately to care for her, but she sank lower and lower, and inevitably on December 4, 1869, she took her last breath. It was a fair-to-middling funeral. The town folk and the country folk came to pay their respects as she lay washed and shriveled in her nicest white lace gown. Even though her skin was stretched tight and her cheek bones protruded, her expression was one of profound peace. The preacher, Reverend Farnsworth, said some words and read from the Good Book about how the “Dead in Christ will rise first.” Then they buried her in the local graveyard next to their paw’s resting place, and Samuel, who had some skill in chiseling, picked out a nice big stone from the farm and engraved it with “Loving Mother Eliza Jane Stockard” and on the next line “Feb 17, 1813-Dec 4, 1869.” The letters were somewhat crooked, but at least they were legible.
The older brothers did not come to the funeral, but John sent a letter from Texas weeks later expressing his sorrow for his dear departed maw and thanked the younger ones for taking such good care of her until her death. Leroy read the letter and then wadded it up and threw it in the fire with a curse, “Dad-gum-it! They couldn’t even come home for our maw’s funeral. Even if they’d a showed up late, it woulda been a comfort to us all, but no!”
Their mother’s death was actually a relief for Mary Jane, Samuel and Leroy. It had been a terrible burden to care for her and stay shackled to the farm when they were hankering to move on. Mary Jane had fallen for a returning soldier, Henry Beckham, and soon after the funeral they married. She and Henry decided to keep the farm and had begun planning their future. Samuel had moved to Nashville where things were slowly beginning to flourish once again. He had high hopes of finding a railroad job. That left Leroy wondering what to do.
Leroy had grown considerably during the four years. His hair was still blonde, but not as light, more like the color of hay, and he now had a bit of fuzz on his upper lip. He struggled to keep his voice on the right note. He would
