Tom
Fowler, who is not related to Sukeek, lived on the property in the
1930's and farmed with his father. He shared recollections about
the house where Jane Johnson lived. It was still standing then,
though nobody lived there. Mr. Fowler said his father told him
that Jane Johnson "was the workingest woman he ever saw."
Oral
history continues to be important. As new information comes to
light through documentary research or archaeology, new questions can be
asked of people who might remember something about the site or the
people who lived there.
In 1996, JPPM staff interviewed Daniel and Octavia
Gross Brown about their experiences working for Jefferson Patterson in the
1940s. During the interview, Mr. Brown mentioned a ruin of a cabin where
his wife’s great-great grandmother lived when she was enslaved. Other
members of Ms. Brown’s family, her sisters, nephew, and sons, furnished
more information. We learned that the great-great grandmother was named
“Sukeek.” It seemed that the cabin site on the hill was the ruin that
Mr. Brown talked about. For that reason, it was called Sukeek’s Cabin
Site.
