FORMER SLAVE TELLS PIONEER TALES - Oakland Tribune - 29 Nov 1933, Wed - Page 12

FORMER SLAVE, NOW 96, TELLS PIONEER TALES Wed, Nov 29, 1933 – Page 12 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Alameda, California, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

FORMER SLAVE TELLS PIONEER TALES 

Mrs. Katherine Smith Came To California in Early '50s; Has Lived Here Many Years 

Mrs. Katherine Smith, 96, Negro resident of Oakland, who recalls the days when she was a slave. Mrs. Smith came to California with her owner in the Gold Rush Days. - Tribune photo

Slave days on a plantation near Jackson, Mississippi, where she was born In 1837, and the pioneer era in California during the '50's are highlights in the life of Mrs. Katherine Smith, Negro, 98, of 2123 Chestnut Street. [Note, that familysearch.org link is a guess. - MF]

Nearing the century mark, Mrs. Smith still vividly recalls incidents of her early life. As a young girl she was brought by her owner to New Orleans, to be sold on the slave block in the historic Traders' Yard. The stigma of going on the block, however, was spared her, for according to her account, she was bought in the yard proper, without being auctioned. A sister, from whom she never heard again, was sold at the same time.

A wealthy New Orleans man was the purchaser of the young girl slave, choosing her from many to be a nursegirl for his young grandchild. Within a short time the family, and the little Negro girl, embarked on a ship, California-bound.

CROSSED ISTHMUS 

The first leg of the journey was to the Isthmus of Panama, where the party trekked across the tropic wilderness to board the Steamer Oregon, crowded with passengers lured by the tales of California gold.

Arriving at San Francisco the ship anchored in the bay - but a portion of the bay, long since filled to provide the commercial district of Montgomery Street and its environs. Passengers were landed by small boats, which on steamer days plied back and forth from shore to ship, unloading cargoes of men, women, children, precious Eastern mail and merchandise.

Life with the family did not prove happy for the little slave, and according to her account she became so desperate that she planned to escape. She was assisted by friends and was secretly taken away to the hillside tent of a Negro washerwoman, with whom she stayed many months.

TAKEN INTO HOME 

Because she was an escaped slave, she dared not appear in public After a period she was taken in the employ of a Mrs. Cyrus Jones, who, because of her abolitionist convictions, was willing to harbor the young girl. In order to escape detection, Kitty, as the young slave was known, dressed in boy's clothes for more than a year.

An opportunity for a position as a nurse girl in Nevada City, came in 1854. Here she was in the employ of Horace R. Ferre, general agent of the Adams Express Company. She was nurse for his young daughter, Ida, and stayed in the Ferre family for many years. Her association with her young charge has been constant, and today. Mrs. Ida Ferre Pattianni, wife of A. W. Pattianni, 1059 Manthey Street, San Leandro, keens a watchful care over her former nurse. The Pattiannis are a pioneer East bay family. Oakland has been Mrs. Smith's home for the past 30 years. For a long period before that she lived in Carson City, where she was married to William Bayley. Following his death, she married Irwin Smith, and is again widowed.

Mrs. Smith owns her home here, and assumes most of its care, assisted by a young woman companion who lives with her. Church activities occupy much of her attention. Current events have a keen fascination for this 96-year-old woman whose mind is undimmed by the passage of years.