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Oral History (Lisa Price, Daughter)
Stories from Harry (oral history)
Harry told me that he and his brothers spent a number of years
living with Mariah out side of Bowling Green when they were
boys. The girls staying with Henderson and Josephine in
Gretna while they established their business (a store).
According to Harry, Mariah was a very tough and honest
little woman. He recalls that he and Joe stole a water melon
from the neighbors patch and that Mariah made them go
over an "beg his pardon" and then they got a sound
beating.
Mariah was tough all of her life. According to Harry,
Mariah worked in the kitchen of the slave owner's house
(the Kuykendalls) and that the wife took a cain to Mariah
in the kitchen one day but Mariah took the cain from the
slave-owner wife and hit her with it. After this, the husband
slave-owner Kuykendall "hung Mariah up" of a lashing.
Abram (who rode a horse and according to Harry acted
as an overseer) pleaded for mercy on Mariah's behalf.
How much mercy, if any, was shown was not known.
- I find it strange indeed that I am now a resident of the town in Holland from which
the slave owners of my family trace their ancestors....
- The slave owner's who owned Dilsie and Dick by the name of John Kuykendall
is a direct descendant of a Dutch man named Jacob Luursen who arrived in the United States in 1640.
"When he arrived in the New World in 1640,
Jacob signed his full name as Jacob Luursen Van Wageningen, the word
van meaning from, thus establishing that he was from Wageningen, Holland..."
- They adopted the Kuykendall after they were in the U.S.
- Dilsie is derived from the dutch name "Dils" (meaning true and faithful). In the dutch
language it is common to add "je" to the end of words to make them diminutive. Thus a house (huis) is
a Huisje (meaning cute little house). It is also often used for children's names, pets, and
very close friends. Thus, I believe that Dilsie is the anglicized form of Dilsje. This is probably
true for Dilsie as a name in South Africa as well.
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