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college buildings &c &c. In those days I picked blackberries
in the summer, & hunted rabbits & robins in the winter over
this ground.
Father & mother established the Locust Dell Female
Academy here, and for a number of years maintained a flourishing,
and widely patronized school. Scholars came from Northern
Alabama & Mississippi, Tennessee-; Texas &c &c. There were
generally about 25 to 30 boarders, & over 100 day scholars-;
many boarded in other families. Some pretty rude specimens
were sent to the school, to be polished up. I remember one
very hard case-; a wild Texas girl, by the name of Jane Taylor
who was sent to be trained into something like propriety &
lady like manners-; at her first dinner at our table, she
astonished everyone by her voracity and uncouth behavior-;
she wrung the meat from a large chicken drum stick at one
bite-; called out to father "Mister Hentz -- shove the taters"-;
and within a few days after her initiation into the school,
she had a fight with one of the boarders name Elizabeth
Weyman, which left long, bloody gouges from her finger nails
across Miss W's hands.
A few boy pupils were allowed in the school. I and
brother Thaddy of course-; there were Bill Coffee & Joshua
Coffee; sons of Mrs. Gen. Coffee,- whose husband had been
Genl. Jackson's right hand man at the battle of New Orleans-;
the Coffee family lived on a grand old plantation 2 miles
north of Florence-; a large, roomy, fine old dwelling house,
with great wide piazzas around it-; with avenues of shade trees
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