I think my combative nature was largely
developed by living with him, for I had to fight for everything that I kept.
About two years after we were married, we exchanged our mutual properties
for seventeen hundred acres of land on the San Bernard River in
Texas, part of which was a cotton plantation. We knew nothing of the
cultivation of cotton or of plantation life. We took a car load of good
furniture with us and some fine stock, hogs and cattle. In packing up to
go to Texas there was a widow who assisted me. In paying her for her
services, I gave her some worthless things, because I was so avaricious.
I would not pay her money, but gave her the things I did not want to
carry with me. I remember I left about eight bushels of potatoes in the
cellar for her and the night we left they froze. I felt very much condemned
the way I treated this poor woman.
We were as helpless on the plantation as little children. The cultivation
of cotton was very different from anything we had been used to. A
bad neighbor threw all of our plows in the Bernard River and everything
seemed to go wrong. We had eight horses die in the pasture the spring
after we moved there. Soon the money we took with us was gone and
Mr. Nation got discouraged. He went to Brazoria, the county seat, and
stayed six weeks during court, for the purpose of entering the practice
of law again.
The cotton had been planted before he left.
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