* * Pearl Waldo Jones Testimony - 1959* *
Court case to prove relationship to Miss Ada Miller, Deceased 1940. Complainants Emory Dallas Miller and Benjamin A. Leach vs. Defendant Dr I. P. Carr, Nephew of Deceased.Reprinted from Roy Whitehead May 2001
Pearl W. Jones, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
BY MR. HALE:
Q. Would you state your name, please maam - what is your name?
A. Well, the way I sign, Pearl W. Jones - that is the way it is signed.
Q. How old are you?
A. Eighty-one, will be in March.
Q. Where do you live now?
A. I live in Covington, Tennessee.
Q. Tell us whether or not you ever lived in Mississippi.
A. Yes, sir, I lived there - I was born and raised and married and partly raised my family there.
Q. Do you recall what year you moved from there to Arkansas?
A. I moved to Tennessee from Mississippi and moved from Tennessee to Arkansas in '24.
Q. I will ask you whether or not you know or did know Carolina Susanna Miller?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did you know her?
A. Close to Cherry Creek and Oak Hill - lived around in Pontotoc and Lee County, both.
Q. Did you ever know Lawrence Miller?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know what his middle name or middle initial was?
A. Well, I don't think I do.
Q. All right, do you know who Carolina Susanna Miller was married to - who was she married to?
A. She was first married to Lawrence Miller and then after he died, several years after, she married my uncle, Jim Waldo.
Q. Do you know whether or not Carolina Susanna and Lawrence had any children?
A. Yes, sir, they had four - a boy and three girls.
Q. What was the boy called?
A. Bud.
Q. Bud Miller?
A. Bud Miller.
Q. And do you know what the other children were?
A. They was girls, He had a twin.
Q. Bud had a twin?
A. And her name was Susan, and one of the girls was named Mattie and one was named Donnie.
MR. MAULDIN; Dona?
A. Donnie.
Q. How, was Donnie Miller the same as - who did she marry, do you know that?
A. She married Andrew Leach. One of her boys was supposed to be here but I have not seen him yet.
Q. What is his name?
A. Arnold.
Q. Now, did you know Lawrence and Carolina Susanna while they were married and living together?
A. Yes, sir, I remember them mighty well.
Q. Where were they living at that time, do you recall that?
A. Living in pretty close to Pontotoc, kinda between Pontotoc and Cherry Creek, back in there - around Pontotoc and Tupelo.
Q. Now, you say they were living between Cherry Creek and Pontotoc?
A. Yes, sir, I don't know just where. If I was ever at the place I don't remember ever being there. We used to always meet at Uncle Jim's for all the holidays after him and Aunt Susan married. It was back there somewhere between Cherry Creek and Pontotoc.
MR MAUDLIN: We want to interpose objection to all this proof. Please show that attorney for Dr. Carr et al. interpose objection to all this proof of Mrs. Pearl W. Jones.
Q. You said Lawrence died?
A. Yes, sir, I heard that he died. I didn't live right close to them. He had been dead some time before I heard it.
Q. Do you know when he died?
A. No, I don't know when.
Q. Subsequent to his death, did you see Carolina Susanna any more?
A. After his death?
Q. Yes, maam.
A. Yes, I seen her lots after that.
Q. Do you know whether or not she ever remarried - did she ever re-marry?
A. Yes, sir, she married my uncle, Jim Waldo.
Q. Was she living in Arkansas or Mississippi at that time?
A. Living in Mississippi at that time. Now, after they all left and come to Arkansas I seen Uncle Jim one more time and I seen one of the boys once and never did see any of them any more after that. When I come to Arkansas practically all of them was done dead. Uncle Jim's children had T.B. and all died young and I never did see them any more after they come to Arkansas.
Q. Miss Pearl, did you ever know Ada Miller?
A. Yes, sir, I know him.
Q. You say you know him, Ada Miller?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did you know him?
A. Right in there with the rest of them. He hardly ever did go away from home but once in a while I seen him.
Q. Did you know a woman by the name of Ada Miller?
A. No, I don't know none. If I did I don't remember that.
Q. Did you know any of Lawrence Miller's brothers or sisters?
A. Yes, I know he had a sister. Her name was Lizzie but I don't know what ever become of her. I don't know where she went and lost track of her but I have seen her. She left out of there before they left the state and I don't know where she went to.
Q. Did you ever see any of Lawrence and Carolina Susanna's children after Lawrence died and Carolina Susanna remarried?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you ever have any conversation with any of them?
A. I knowed them but we just - we was all young and just played and romped and raced around and didn't have no conversation about nothing, only just playing.
Q. Did any of them ever refer to their Daddy?
A. Yes, lots of times they made remark if Daddy Lawrence had lived they could have had so and so, and that is how I know at the time he was dead but I don't know just when he died. They would talk about him but I don't know rightly when he died.
Q. Did you ever visit the Miller place there in Pontotoc County?
A. Well, I have been there but I do not remember much about the place. I remember once when we all went fishing and come back by there and stopped and stayed a while. That was - I don't know how long it was before Uncle Jim and Susan married but it wasn't so very long.
Q. Did Carolina Susanna ever tell you -
MR. MAULDIN: We object to hearsay testimony.
Q. Ever tell you anything about her Indian blood or descent?
MR. MAULDIN: We want the record to show we do object to that testimony as being hearsay testimony.
Q. What was your answer now - did she ever talk to you about that?
A. No, they didn't have to talk to you about it - if you have ever seen one you knowed it anyway. Her grandmother - no, her mother - was pure Indian. If you ever have seen one, she was one of them.
MR. HALE: I think that is all.
MR. MAULDIN: I will ask her a few questions, not many.
CROSS EXAMINATION
BY MR. MAULDIN:
Q. You say Susanna's grandmother was a pure Indian?
A. Yes, she was an Indian. You didn't have to ask nobody. If you have ever seen one you could tell it.
Q. Miss Pearl, did you ever know her mother?
A. Aunt Susan's mother?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes, I knowed her. She is the one I am talking about being a pure Indian. She looked just like them, was made up like them, dressed like them and all.
Q. What was her name?
A. Carolina Susanna - she and Aunt Susan had the same name - she had her mother's full name, Aunt Susan did.
Q. Did you know her husband, Carolina Susanna's husband?
A. Well, I don't know if I knowed her husband or not.
Q. Do you remember his name?
A. What was it? Was it Lawrence? I know Lawrence's grandmother and grandfather was Erskine and Clementine.
Q. You didn't know Erskine or Clementine, did you?
A. Yes, I seen her. She was another one of them that looked like an Indian.
Q. Where did they live?
A. They lived in there where all the rest of them all lived. They was all around in there together, towards Pontotoc, some of them towards Cherry Creek and some towards Pontotoc.
Q. Erskine and Clementine lived between Cherry Creek and Pontotoc?
A. Yes, sir, they was all in there together.
Q. Now, you said you knew Lawrence Miller - did you know any of his brothers or sisters?
A. Yes, I knowed George.
Q. George?
A. And Ben, and I reckon that is all of them I know.
Q. Did you know Hibernia Miller?
A. Who?
Q. Hibernia Miller?
A. No, sir, I never knowed them.
Q. Did you know Samuel E. Miller?
A. Yes, sir, I seen him a few times. I wasn't around his as much as the rest of them but I have seen him.
Q. How, did you ever know Clementine Miller, who married a Carr?
A. I guess I have saw her.
Q. Did you ever know Annie Miller, who married a Bramlette?
A. Well, I knowed Annie Bramlette when I lived in there close to Pontotoc, I lived neighbor to her but I never did ask her what her first name was. He name was Annie Bramlette but I never did ask whether or not she was the same one or not.
Q. Did you know Tom Brown.
A. No, I never did know Tom Brown. I knowed lots of Browns but never knowed Tom.
Q. He was not any kin to Tom Miller, was he?
A. No, not that I know of.
Q. This gentleman here is Dr. Carr. Dr. Ike Carr. Does he look like the Lawrence Miller you knew? Do you see any resemblance in his face?
A. Not much, if any.
Q. When did you leave Pontotoc County, Mississippi?
A. I don't remember when I left there.
Q. How old was Lawrence Miller when you knew him?
A. He looked like he might have been thirty or thirty-five years old, something like that.
Q. And I believe you stated you did not know his father but did know his mother and she looked like and Indian?
A. Yes, she was an Indian.
Q. A fullblood Indian?
A. She dressed like them and all.
Q. When you left Mississippi you went to Covington, Tennessee, is that right?
A. Well, when I left Mississippi and came to Tennessee we got off the train at Covington but lived in Hatcher River Bottom.
Q. What year was that?
A. '21, I think. I left and made two crops in Tennessee and then I left and went to Arkansas - no, made three crops in Tennessee.
Q. Did you come to Arkansas then?
A. Yes, come to Arkansas and been here ever since until two year ago moved back to Tennessee.
Q. You said Lawrence Miller was thirty or thirty-fine years old when you knew him, is that right?
A. Yes, sir, that is as near as I can get at it.
Q. And about what year did you know him?
A. I imagine it was in '80 somewhere when I knowed him.
Q. Somewhere between '80 and '90 - did you ever know what became of him?
A. Lawrence?
Q. Yes.
A. Well, I heard he died.
Q. Did you ever hear of him being in the Civil War?
A. No, sir.
Q. He wasn't old enough to go to the Civil War, was he?
A. I don't think he was - I don't know.
MR. MAULDIN: That is all.
RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. HALE:
Q. One further question - now, you referred to Bud Miller as being the son of Carolina Susanna and Lawrence Miller?
A. Yes.
Q. Was that Bud Miller the same as Henry Lonzo Miller do you know what his real name was? Just say yes or no.
A. No, I don't know.
RE-CROSS EXAMINATION
BY MR. MAULDIN:
Q. You spoke of Lawrence having a brother named Jim?
A. No, I didn't speak of Lawrence having a brother named Jim.
Q. You had an uncle named Jim?
A. I had an uncle named Jim and that is all I know. If there was a Jim Miller I don't know him.
RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. HALE:
Q. You spoke of George Miller - who was he kin to, do you know?
A. Yes, old Susanna Caroline - he was her brother and he was Indian, too, but I do not know where none of them is at. I do not know where he is.
Q. And the only brother or sister Lawrence had that you know of was Lizzie, is that right?
A. Yes, the only one.
Q. And when you referred to Jim and George you were talking about Carolina Susanna's brothers, is that right?
A. Well, George and Ben, that was two of her brothers but I do not know any named Jim.
MR. HALE: I think that is all.
MR. MAULDIN: We thank you, Mrs. Jones.
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