21 - Digital Archives · 2012. 6. 27. · GREENE: Miss Freddie Craft. She was the owner. COLLUM: That's right. Freddie Craft lived in Fayette, and Miss Freddie Craft took my wife

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Washington.Avenue way back. When that Chinaman died, hestarted for himself, and he had a horse that he would let -he was crazy about that horse, and he would let that horsecome in the store. After he opened up on Nelson Street,right where that whiskey house is right now, that's where hisplace was. I don't know why I didn't know him very much, butI knew him when I was a small boy when he was working for theChinaman.

GREENE: What did you say about the horse comingin the store?

COLL~~: Oh, he would let that horse come in thestore, keep him in there, let him eat apples and everything.A horse likes apples. And he just loved that horse.

GREENE: He didn't mess the floor up?COLLUM: Oh, no. He would let him come in the

store and walk around. He was a stud. He raised horses offhim •. '

GREENE: Well, there was another colored groceryman,C. H. Garrett, Claude Garrett.

COLL~1: Garrett was on Nelson Street. NOW, ClaudeGarrett was a porter way back when I was just a little tot.He was a porter on Washington Avenue for a big mercantilegrocery store at that time, and after they went out of busi-ness, he bought a place on Nelson Street, a three-storybuilding, on Nelson and Persimmon.

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GREENE: I know where it is.COLLUM: Well, that's it.GREENE: That is where his store was?COLLm~: That's where his store was, and after he

passed Dr. Sisson bought that and put that building up there.GREENE: There was another black gro ceryman, Henry

Royal.COLLUM: I didn't know very much about Henry, but

I knew of him. I didn't know much about him because he wasalways on the south end, and I didn't know about him.

GREENE: What about Dr. Brown? I don't know hisfirst name. The first black doctor here.

COLLUM:. Dr. I. W. Brown? Was that it?GREENE: E. P. Brown, I think. I. W. Brown was

a younger doctor. Did you know E. P. Brown?COLLUM: No, I didn't know him.GREENE: He must have been much older than you.COLLUM: Yes.GREENE: Did you know anything about Dr. Miller?COU.UM: Was that your daddy?GREENE: Jim Miller, yes.COU.1Th~: I just knew him as a doctor, but I never

associated with him, and wasn't ever in a conversation with him.GREENE: Mr. Collum, you are living in a mixed neigh-

borhood. This is colored on this side of the street, and justNOTICE

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to the north of you we have white people.COLLUlvl: Yes.GREENE: How did you get·along in this mixed neigh-

borhood?COLLUlvr: At that time?GREENE: Yes.COLLut1: I got along fine, right in this vicinity,

in this mixed neighborhood right here. The fact about it,most of those people traded with me, and when you get asatisfied customer, give him service and treat him right,that customer will get you more customers, and, for thatreason, I got along fine with them right in the neighborhood.It was the outside neighborhood that I didn't get along with,but I had to stay·with it.

GREENE: You told me that you were one of the firstto join Reverend Foster's Church - Reverend S. W. Foster.

COLLUM: I'm the first man.GREENE: Now, how did you meet Reverend Foster?COLLUM: Well, St. Matthew's Church - my wife be-

longed to it at that particular time - and they were carryingon revivals here, and I didn't belong ~o any church. She askedme to go to church with her· and carry her to church because theyhad on a revival, and I went, and the Preacher - I don't knowhis name - was calling for people out of the benches to comeup and let them be prayed for, and I didn't go, and they kept

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on insisting for me to come up there. I started to get up,and my wife pulled me back down.

I'm glad I didn't, because I learned now that theBible says '~arden not your heart." All right, I didn't go.All right, I didn't go. I stayed there with my wife and stuckit out, and that man jumped on me bad. He said, ffIfyou don'tcome up here and be prayed for, you're going to haV9bad luck."I still sat there. So I met Foster. He was here from Vicksburgto help this man carryon the revival, and I met Reverend Foster,and he, at that time, was a Methodist.

GREENE: I remember that.COLLmd: You remember that?GREENE: That he was a Methodist at first.COLLUM: I'm glad you did.GREENE: And that's how you met Reverend Foster?COLLUM: Yes, that's how I met him. Well, anyway,

I'm the first man; after he took over the Episcopal Church,I'm the first man to join it.

GREENE: That's the Church of the Holy Redeemer.And you are still a member of that Church?

COLLUM: I'm still a member -of that church.GREENE: ~~at did you tell me about your liking

the 13th so? It had something to do with your donations tothe church.

COLLUM: Well, that's a long story. I started myNOTICE



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store on Poplar Street - the tirst one - on September 13th,on a Friday in 1913, and everybody that I meet right todayand then said that was a bad luck day, but I take it theoPPosite way. I think it is my good luck day. I even changedmy money tor my church, and now I give them thirteen dollarsinstead ot twelve.

GREENE: Mr. Collum, do you remember anything aboutthe "Red Light District" here in Greenville?

COLLUM: Well, I've heard about it, but I was tooyoung to know anything about it. It was up there on BlantonStreet, I believe, or somewhere there.

GREENE: Have you ever seen any lynchings inGreenville?

COLLUM: Lynchings? No.GREENE: You don't live too tar trom Senator Leroy

Percy's home.COLLUM: He was right up there on the next corner.GREENE: Did you know him?COLLUM: I heard or him. I wouldn't know him it

I'd see him. I was young. Practically everybody knew abouthim.

GREENE:COLLUM :GREENE:

Yes, he was a prominent tigure.Yes.Do you remember when the colored Kings

Daughters opened?

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COLLm~: No, I don't.GREENE: Didn't your wife work at the Idle Hour

Floral Company?COLL111'1:·She worked for those people.GREENE: Miss Freddie Craft. She was the owner.COLLUM: That's right. Freddie Craft lived in

Fayette, and Miss Freddie Craft took my wife when she wasa little tot and raised those two girls together, and mywife was raised up in the house there with those girls, andthat's the reason why she came here with the Craft family.

GREENE: And that's where you met her in Greenville?COLLUM: Yes.GREENE: Now, your wife, Mrs. Lenora Collum, was

reared by this white family in Fayette, Mississippi?COLLUM: That's right.GREENE:: When they moved to Greenville, they brought

her and her sister?COLLUM: That's right.GREENE: Where is her sister?COLL1Th~: Her sister is dead. All are dead except

Lenora, and she is the last one - no sisters or brothers. Shehad two brothers and two or three sisters. One of her sistersdied on the operating table in Vicksburg.

GREENE: Mr. Collum, do you vote?COLLUM: Yes, ma 'am.

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GREENS: Do you remember when you first started toregister years ago? Did they give you much trouble with regis-tering?

COLLUM: NOt they didn't give me very much trouble,but I will tell you what did happen here in town. You mayremember this. They were going to have a Mayor's electionhere. And I went up there. I didn't know. There was a gangof people - you know how they advertise for their man - andthey were standing out there, and I went by, went on in there.One man I heard say, "He can't vote." He knew me. I went onin there and I couldn't vote.

GREENE: You couldn't vote for Mayor?COLLUM: I couldn't vote. They wouldn't allow

colored people to vote.GREENE: What year was that?COLLUM: I don't remember.GREENE: A long time ago.COLLUM: A pretty good while. And when I came back

out, I told one man, "They won't let me vote in there now, butthere's coming a day when they're going to pat me on the backand beg for my vote." And it has happened. It HAS happened.Now they beg for your vote.

GREENE: About how long have you been voting' Aboutten years?

COLLUM: Oh, more than ten. I've been voting since INOTICE

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don't know. how long - quite a while.GREENE: That's an interesting story, and it came

true just as you said, didn't it?COLLUM: Yes, sir, I came out and I knew one of

the fellows, and I said, ~They won't let me vote now, butthere's coming a day when they're going to pat me on my backand beg for my vote." And it has happened. I didn't know itwas going to happen then, but I was treated so bad, and I wasa taxpayer.

GREENE: And couldn't vote.COLLUM: And couldn't vote.GREENE: Before we close, Mr. Collum, I want to

mention some of the items that you have in this store justas they were when you were in business. Now, this morningwe made your picture by that meat-cutting block. Do youhave any idea how old it is?

COLLUM: No. I bought that thing second-handoutof Memphis. I paid ten dollars for it.

GREENE: And you say you won't sell anything in here?COLLm,l: Nothing for sale. Nothing for rent. The

store is not for rent. I put up half ,of my life here to getthis, and it was hard back' in those days, and now I'm livingon Easy Street, and I'm not worried about nothing or nobody,and I'm taking it easy. I'm eighty-seven years old. I drivemy own car, I go to church, drive my own self, and come back.

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I've got a lady housekeeper. I've got two cataracts on myeyes. I'm going to the hospital sometime this year to takeone of them off, and that lady, my housekeeper, is going tomove in until I come back.

GREENE: So people won't steal your things?COLLUM: That's right. They can take my clothes

and hurt me.GREENE: NOW, in addition to this meat-chopping

block there is the sugar barrel, or is that a flour barrel?COLLUM: That's a sugar barrel.GREENE: That's a hundred pounds?COLLUM: That's three hundred and some pounds.GREENE:. The three-hundred-pound sugar barrel, and

your meat saw and your cleaver, and your old-time scales.What else do you have here that was in your original store?Those little cases there, what are they?

COLLUM: That's the gum case I had. Do you see thatlittle shelf right there? Will Ammons made it, and it was putup there to show his honey to the people. You see, he had anapiary, and he raised a whole lot of honey.

GREEN: He had a what?COLLUM: An apiary.GREENE: Oh, a bee hive.COLLUM: And he packed it in there and I put it in

to go in there.He made that little shelf for that honey

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GREENE: I know you wouldntt part with it?COLLill,.!:No.GREENE: To nobody but his daughter? Did you ever

hear from his daughter?COLLUM: No, not since he passed. But I'll tell

you a tale on Reverend Foster. He brought them to my church.So, after VYill passed and she got the estate settled downhere, she went back to Boston, or somewhere in one of thoseEastern states, and Foster told her they were going to remodelthe church - thatts when they put that Foster Hall back there -and said, "I just wondered, when we make that cornerstone, couldyou give us some information about Will, because he was Secretaryat that time, and Itd like to put his name in there."

He told her, "Itts going to cost us a little. Iwould like for you to send me a check for $25.00 to pay theexpense of making the cornerstone." And as soon as she gotthe ietter she sent him a check right back for $25.00. AndFoster said, "I made a mistake. I could have got fiftyt"

GREENE: And his name is on the cornerstone?COLLUM: Yes, his name is in there on the inside,

when they open it up some day.GREENE: His name is not on the outside?COLLUM: Not on the outside, I don't think. I've

never seen it.GREENE: Now, you have plastic containers for

Jack's Cookies. NOTICE


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COLLm;~: I haven't given them all away.GREENE: Is that firm still in business now, Jack's

Cookies?COLLut~: Oh, yes, you can see their truck around

town, every Thursday, once a week.GREENE: I see you have your old egg cartons?COLLtTh~: Oh, I just save those for a fellow who

stays in the country and raises chickens. He sells eggs andI give him the cartons.

GREENE: Vfuat about this little mirror with a hatrack?

COLLU11: That's fram over home. I brought thatbecause I stay in here. I just brought it in here instead ofover home.

GREENE: And your drink bottles. They've been herea long time, haven't they?

COLLUM: Well, it's nothing but junk. If I eversold it, that's all I'd get out of it. But I've been here solong that's junk. If I straightened it up and it looked differ-ent, you wouldn't think it was an old-time store.

GREENE: And you wouldn't feel at hame?COLL~1: No. I'm at home like it is now.GREENE: This is a beautiful rocker~ It looks like

a Kennedy rocker.COLLUM: I bought that thing on sale when a store

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was going out of business. You know where the old coal yardused to be, right behind the court house?

GREENE: Yes, I do remember.COLLUM: Well, there was a little store right there,

called the Country Store, and I bought that on sale. Theywere selling out, because that man died - one of them. Therewere two of them.

GREENE: Now, what about these baskets, Mr. Collum?You have three baskets.

COLLm~: Those are baskets that I would delivergroceries in. I had two boys working, and I could get allthe way from five, six, or seven dollars worth of groceriesin that basket. 'The boys would put it on the handlebar likethat and get out and ride.

GREENE: Do you remember any of your porters?COLLUM. Yes. There was one boy, over at Chicago

Mill now, I forget his name now. He never had but two jobs.That's the job working for me as a porter, and he stayed hereuntil he got large enough to go get a job over at the mill atthe box shop, and he is still right there yet.

GREENE: At that. time, you didn't have to botherabout minimum wages.

COLLUM: Oh, no.GREENE: About what did you pay them?

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COLLUM: I paid them two dollars a week, to startwith, and as I got more work to do, I gave them just a littlebit more money. I wasn't making much money back then. Thingswere cheap.

GREENE: What are those baskets made of?COLLUM: Young pecan. Sprouts of pecan.GREENE: Do people make them in the country?COLLUM: Yes.GREENE: They split it and then weave it?COLLUM: They cut them down when they're young, and

split them; and that man up there somewhere at Metcalfe, heknows how to work it. He made those old cotton baskets wayback for people having cotton baskets, and he just changedthe model and used the same stuff, making the same basket.

GREENE: I imagine he charged just about fiftycents' a basket, didn't he?

COLLUM: That's exactly right.GREENE: You couldn t t get those for that now. And

the large baSkets will hold quite a bit.COLLUM: I could put ten or, twelve dollars worth

of groceries in that basket.GREENE: And you just keep them for old-timest sake?COLL~i: And the boy riding that bicycle, he could

hold that basket with one hand and guide with the other.GREENE: I see you have your lawn mower. NOTICE



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'COLLUM: Yes.GREENE: But you don't try to cut your grass, do yOU?COLLUM: Not now. I used to try to cut it. My

friend, Charles Smith, next door - his boys cut it now, butI furnish the lawn mower. If it broke down, I'd have itfixed.

GREENE: Well, you are all comfortable here, andI hope you live many years to enjoy yourself - enjoy the re-sults of your labor. Didn't you tell me this little Sign wasmade by Will Ammons?

COLLUM: Which sign?GREENE: Some Sign out there that Will Ammons made

for you. You said you couldn't take it down.COLL~l: The Sign I've got, "Come In Here"? No,

it wasn't made by Will Ammons. I said the Sign was in 1919.I painted the store then, and I wouldn't let them mark it out.

GREENE: Oh, I see. You still have that "1919".COLLUM: Yes, on the side there, it says, "1919".

And when I had the store, I didn't advertise. I had one adver-tisement.

GRE~IE: The piece of advertisement Mr. Collum isspeaking of is a bill that he sent out with his groceries.At the top it says: "L. V. Collum., dealer in Staple and FancyGroceries, same location since 1919, 501 Valiant Street."

Now, tell me about the butcher paper once more, Mr.Collum. MISSISSIPPI DEPT. OF ARCHIVES & HISTORY

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COLLUM: Well, the butcher paper had a rack. You This matenal may be



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put it in there and cut the paper where you wanted it. Youcould roll it. What is on there now is only 18 inch, but Ihad some way back that was 24 inches. I had two racks ofbutcher paper.

GREENE: It is very old, and it is faded. It hasholes in it, but it --

COLLill~: It was upstairs back there and it got hotback in there and it burst. You can see where it burst.

GREENE: Yes, but you still keep it for old time'ssake?

COLLUM: Yes, I'm USing- some of it.GREENE: What do you use it for, Mr. Collum?COLLill,l:Rabbits, squirrels, and first one thing

and another.GREENE: 'Vhere do you get rabbits and squirrels

from?COLLUM: My friend Carl Smith next door brings

them to me.GREENE: And you have some of your paper bags you

used when your store was operating, don't you?COLLut1: That's right. Just left here from old

times. I'll never get rid of them, never give them away.I haven't used them all. They're not for sale, not for rent.

GREENE: Have people offered to buy this corner?

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Collum 36

COLLUM: They've wanted to rent it. I had fourchances to rent it, two for churches - one white and onecolored, and three pool rooms. They wanted to rent it. I'vegot it in my will to sell this stuff to my friend Carl Smith,and I've set the price on it, $12,000. When I gave the price,I said, "It's worth more than that, but that's all, and youcan't get it until I'm dead and gone; and I don't need themoney. I'll be gone, and I've got more than enough now formy niece and two nephews out there. They don't need it, butI'm leaving it to them." And that's the price I've got in mywill today. And after that, I put in what they call a codicilto that will, leaving all of the proceeds in 501 Valiant and503 Valiant Street to Carl Smith for the same price the propertygoes. And it's in the will.

That's the reason I've told you about that bed thatgirl wants. She can't get it now. She could have it if shehad met me a long time ago. After my wife passed, I gave awaya whole lot of stuff, and have never sold a dime's worth ofthe stuff except what I sold with my wife. I tve got more nowthan I need. I'm pretty well fixed, Mrs. Greene.

GREENE: Well, that is good'.Two pi ctures were made. One is of Mr. Collum standing

by his meat block, with his meat cleaver in his hand. The otherpicture is of Mr. Collum and the lady who prepares his meals forhim. She is standing on his left. To the right is the inter-viewer, Daisy Greene. MISSISSIPPI DEPT.OF ARCH~VbS'&I~S~ORV

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(Trans cribed by Ali ce C. N age 1 ) protected by copyrightlaw (Title 17U.S. Code).

Final9/21/77

INDEXOF L. V. COLLUM

Adams, Will, 20Alcorn (College), 2Ammons, Will, carpenter, 15-18, 29, 30, 34Apiary, 29Army, 4Bell, (L. V. Collum's customer), 4-----Blanton Street, mentioned, 25Boil (river), 19Boston (Mass.), ~entioned, 30Brown, E. P., first Black Greenvillian doctor, 22Brown, I. W., doctor, mentioned, 22Butcher Paper, 35

Caldwell, Evelyn (Mrs. John Caldwell), 9Caldwell, John, mail carrier, 9California, mentioned, 13Campbell, Gussie, mother, 3Chicago (Illinois), 6

Chicago Mill and Lumber Yard, owners, operations, 6, 7, 32Church of the Holy Redeemer (Episcopal Church), 24Coleman, Lizzie, teacher, 2Collier, Hider, owner, Livery Stable, 18Collier, Holt, 18Collum, Clate, father, 3

Collum, L. V. (Lewis Van): born Flora, Miss., 1; occupation,

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Collum, L. V. (continued)grocer, 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 25; employee, M. Z. Koury'sstore, 2; schooling, No.2 School, 2; Alcorn, 2;

-Jackson College, 2; Army, discharge, 4; life duringthe flood, 7, 10; life during the Depression, 11, 12;owner, rental property, 12, 13; hunter, 15, 20; member,Church of the ,Holy Redeemer, 24; voting, registration,26-28

Collum, Lenora, wife, 8, 23, 26Country Store, the, 32Couty House, 16Craft, Freddie, owner, Idle Hour Floral Co., 26Crockett, Harry, black groceryman, 20Davis, Calvin, 9, 10Depression, the, 11, 12Episcop~~ Church, 24. ~~ Church of the Holy Redeemer, 24Fargason, Fred T., wholesale groceryman, 7Fayette, Miss., 26Flood (1927): conditions during, 7; treatment of Blacks, 10;

mentioned, 19Flora, Miss., 1Foster Hall, 30Foster, S. W., Methodist minister, 23, 24; association,

Episcopal Church, 24, 30Gamble, Dr. _____ , 17

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Garrett, Claude H., black groceryman, mercantile porter,21, 22

Goodrich, Frank, 15Government Fleet, 12Greene, W. H., 9Hack, 19Hunting Club, 15Idle Hour Floral Company, 26Jack's Cookies, 30, 31Jackson College, 2. See also Jackson State---Jackson, Jake, 20Jackson State College, 3Kennedy Rocker, chair~ 31Kings Daughters Hospital (colored), 25Koury, M. Z., groceryman, 2Lamp Lights (city), 5, 6Leavenworth, George, owner, Chicago Mill and Lumber Yard, 6Livery Stable, 18Louisiana, 18Main Street, 5McBride, Walter, 9Memphis (Tenn.), 28Metcalfe (Miss.), mentioned, 33Methodist Church, 4Miller, Jim, doctor, 22


1




Missouri, mentioned, 12Mound Bayou (Miss.), 12Nelson (Street), 2, 4, 21

-If-

Norris, Mrs. , 14, 15-----Number Two School, 2Paepke-Leicht, mill, 6Pepsi Cola Company, 4Percy, Leroy, senator, 25Persimmon (Street'),21Poplar Street, 3, 4, 25Prices, sugar, flour, 8

Provenza, , 3, 4

Red Cross, 10"Red Light District", 25Roosevelt, Theodore, President, U. S., 18Royal, ~~nry, black groceryman, 22St. Matthew's Church, 23St. Paul's Church, 3

San Diego (California), 14Sisson, Dr. _____ , 22

Smith, Carl, 35, 36Smith, Charles, neighbor, 15, 34, 35Tallulah, 6Telephones, 20Theobald (Street), 2


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-5-

Threadgill, Rev. _________ , 11, 12

Valiant Street, 1, 35

Vicksburg (Miss.), mentioned, 24, 26

Walnut Street, 19

Washington Avenue, 5. 6, 18, 21

World War I, policy, 11

Wysinger, 4




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21 - Digital Archives · 2012. 6. 27. · GREENE: Miss Freddie Craft. She was the owner. COLLUM: That's right. Freddie Craft lived in Fayette, and Miss Freddie Craft took my wife