Between White Oak Creek and Sulphur River in the northeast part of Titus County is a Negro settlement called "Evergreen". A good many Negro families live in the Evergreen Community. All of them own their own land, and for the most part these Negro families are respectable citizens of our county. Thy are hard workers, and they mind their own business. This community was founded and named by Green Logan, a Negro doctor. Mose Price, who had been a slave of Dr. Thomas Stephens, and Mose's wife Emily also live in Evergreen. And there are the families of Frank Owens, Abe Doughtry, Jack Dillard, Alex Gamble, Sam Ellis, and John Ellis, among the others in the community. They are all ex-slaves, and it is possible to tell from some of their names who their former masters were because slaves generally took the surnames of their owners. The Negro John Ellis, for instance, belonged to the John Ellis family; and there are Gambles and Dillards who also live in Mt. Pleasant. Mose, however, had the name of Price, even though he'd been a slave of Dr. Stephens. Once I asked Mose Price how he'd gotten his name, and he told me that Emily had chosen it. His wife had felt that since they were going to make a new start in life, they needed a new and different name. She had selected the name of Price. It was in the following manner that the Evergreen Community had its beginning.

The John B. Stephens family moved to Titus County in the early 1850s. John B. Stephens had three sons: Thomas, William (or Billie), and Josh (the father of Abb, the outlaw-bartender). The Stephens family first settled on Cypress Creek south of Daingerfield in the Skinner Community, since the Stephenses were related to the Skinners. Later the family moved to Snowhill. Thomas Stephens was educated as a doctor at a medical school in Georgia. His brothers Billie and Josh studied law. The fact that Thomas had graduated from a medical school was a rarity in our time; for most of our doctors merely did some reading on their own, got themselves some medical instruments, and moved to a new community where they announced that "a new doctor" had arrived. In Mt. Pleasant we were fortunate to have three licensed doctors with formal training. Besides Dr. Tom Stephens, there were Dr. J.F. Wilkinson and Dr. J.B. Prewitt.

At about the time that Tom and Billie Stephens were ready to start practicing, the Civil War began; and both went into the Confederate Army. The army didn't have any need for lawyers as such, so Billie spent the war behind a cannon; but Tom was assigned to the Confederate Medical Corps. Tom said afterwards that he got training during the Civil War that he could not have received in a lifetime of civilian practice. In trying to patch up the Confederate and Yankee wounded, Dr. Tom learned much about the human body. Great compassion was shown to these wounded men by the medical corps of both armies.

"The Battle of Atlanta was the bloodiest battle that I participated in," Tom Stephens recounted to me later. "I'll bet there were 20,000 wounded in the two armies! Usually they'd fight the battles during the daylight hours and then let us medics go out at night to clear the battlefields of the wounded and dead, and one night was generally enough time to get this done. But during the Battle of Atlanta -- well, one day there were so damn many charges and counter-charges that when night finally fell, the field was littered with thousands of bodies! More than you could ever imagine! As soon as the sun set, we and the medics from the Yankee Army began the terrible job of trying to clear the field. We worked side by side with the Yanks that night. I tended to their boys as well as ours. But when daylight came, we still weren't through. We had to request the armies to hold off fighting that day so that we could finish our work. The generals consented, and it took all that day and most of the next night to clear the area! I hope I never see anything like that again!"

When Dr. Tom left Mt. Pleasant to join the army, his father sent with him as a personal servant a young Negro slave by the name of Mose. For four years Mose assisted Dr. Tom in caring for the wounded, as well as looking after the horses, equipment, food, and medical instruments and supplies. Mose was a faithful servant to Dr. Tom, who said that Mose was "the best scrounger in the whole damn army". Tom could always depend on Mose for a good evening meal, even if it were somebody else's hog or chicken or garden that supplied the food.

Following the war the two brothers came back to Mt. Pleasant to practice their professions. Tom soon married Miss Sally Stewart, who was the daughter of Capt. Charles Stewart, Titus County's first casualty in the war. Tom and Sally settled down about a block southwest of the courthouse square, and Tom had his office in his house. Mose stayed on with Dr. Tom as a paid servant and was a valuable employee. He looked after the horses, saddles, buggies, and surreys. In fact, Mose just about ran the whole Stephens place, except for the house which Sally took care of.

Billie Stephens, not being married, rented a bachelor suite at McMillan's Hotel on the east side of the courthouse square. Billie was somewhat of a firebrand and didn't take to Reconstruction very well. When Col. Starr removed all the local county officers and replaced them with his own lackeys, Billie was greatly incensed. Early in 1866 he had some heated words with Starr's new sheriff. The argument turned into a fist fight, and Billie gave the new sheriff a sound thrashing. This, of course, made Billie a marked man by Starr's group. One bright spring night a few weeks later Billie was sitting in his room in front of an open window that gave onto the street, and someone on the square below shot and killed him. A horse was heard galloping off, but no one was ever brought before the court as Billie's assassin. That, though, was to be expected, we guessed, in light of the sheriff's animosity towards Billie. We suspected that an outside gunman had been hired and brought in especially for the job. Billie Stephens was buried in the Edwards Cemetery.

During and immediately after the Civil War, doctors like Thomas Stephens and the others in our town were often limited in their capacities to render adquate medical treatment because of shortages of good quality drugs. However, as the months and years wore on, more and more medical supplies arrived in Jefferson from where they were distributed to the inland doctors by such drug wholesalers as Sedberry or Lockhart. East Texans, as did people throughout the Southern States, suffered from a variety of diseases: malaria, typhoid fever, smallpox, pneumonia, cholera, diptheria, lockjaw, consumption, pellegra, and rickets. The latter two ailments were especially prevalent among the Negroes and poor white families, who quite often suffered from malnutrition. Besides these diseases and the usual occurrences of gunshot and knife wounds, broken bones, and childbirth, all of which took their toll, there were other more mysterious diseases for which we had no name or cure: sometimes a person would feel an awful cramp in his abdomen and after a few days of pain and delirium would die in bed, despite constant efforts to save him. Our doctors had pretty good luck treating malaria, diptheria, typhoid and other fevers; but there wasn't much they could do about such diseases as cholera and pneumonia. Our doctors had many kinds of medicines, but their mainstays were calomel and various sorts of purgatives. Herb doctoring was also regularly resorted to, particularly by the superstitious. There was a vaccine for smallpox, and quinine was quite successful in treating malaria. Dr. Tom Stephens spent many months perfecting a quinine formula for malaria in order to make the bitter drug both more effective and easier to swallow. He called his medicine "Stephens' Chill Tonic". It became very popular in our part of the country and sold in large amounts. It's still on the market. I have taken it many times. Dr. Tom never did believe, like most people did, that malaria was caused by "disease-laden vapors" called "miasmas". He had the theory that malaria was caused by insect bites because the disease would thrive only in the summertime when there were swarms of biting insects such a mosquitoes.

No disease, however, struck such terror in a community as did hydrophobia. If a mad dog or other rabid animal was found to be lose among our people, everyone stayed at home as much as possible until the danger finally abated; and if by chance a man or woman would come down with hydrophobia, the only thing that could be done was to tie the victim securely to his bed and hope that death would swiftly take him out of his horrible misery.

Dr. Tom Stephens began to send Mose to Jefferson every month or six weeks to purchase medical supplies. Mose would visit the other doctors in Mt. Pleasant, Snowhill, and Daingerfield to learn it they, too, needed medicines or equipment; and upon his return from Jefferson, Mose's carriage was usually loaded to capacity. Sedberry's and Lockhart's wholesale houses would always send along any new drug that they'd received, in addition to the ones that Mose would purchase. Dr. Tom provided Mose with a closed surrey and two good horses, and he could make the trip to Jefferson on the average in about four days. One time, however, during a smallpox epidemic Tom put Mose on a fast saddle-horse; and Mose got to Jefferson and back in two days' time, bringing with him an urgently needed supply of fresh vaccine. Often, though, when there was no great urgency connected with his trip to the city, Mose would remain in Jefferson for several days, visiting with his many acquaintances. It was on one such trip that Mose was introduced to one of Dr. Lockhart's Negro proteges, a man who was referred to as Dr. Logan. Mose and Dr. Logan became good friends; and subsequently when Mose had to spend the night in Jefferson, he would stay with Dr. Logan. Mose often mentioned Dr. Logan to Dr. Tom. He told Dr. Tom that he'd persuaded Dr. Logan to come to Mt. Pleasant to work, and Dr. Tom became eager to meet this friend of Mose.

One morning in the fall of '67, as I recalled, though it could have been '68, Dr. Tom was eating a leisurely breakfast with Sally when Mose arrived at the house.

"Good morning, Mose!" said Dr. Stephens.

"Morning, Marse Tom! I'm sorry to disturb you," Mose told him, "but Dr. Logan is in Mt. Pleasant and wants to meet you."

"Oh?" Dr. Tom replied. "Fine! Bring him to the office in about an hour. I'll be very happy to see him."

"Thank you, Marse Tom!"

As Mose left to inform Dr. Logan that the appointment had been arranged, Dr. Tom turned to Sally and smiled.

"This could be quite an experience, my dear," he told his wife, "because I'm not yet sure if this Dr. Logan is a real M.D., or merely a respectable sort of witch-doctor."

"A witch-doctor?" Sally Stephens laughed incredulously. "Are there really such things as witch-doctors, dear? In these enlightened times?"

"Oh, yes! At least among the Negroes, there are," Dr. Tom explained. "The Negroes call them 'root-men' because they use exotic herbs to cure the sick. And some of them are supposed to be able to cast evil spells upon their enemies. A lot of their rituals come from the voodoo cults of the West Indies. Do you know Nancy Cherry's servant-woman Chole?"

"The one who prepares those wonderful Christmas pastries?"

"That's the one! Well, not too long ago I had to go out to the Cherry plantation to treat Big John who was sick with pneumonia. The day before I got there, one of these root-men had been to see Big John and had sold some magic potions to a few of Miss Nancy's colored help. Someone out there apparently had a grudge against Chole because the next morning when I arrived, she was in a state of near hysteria. When she woke up that morning, she found that somebody had sneaked into her bedroom during the night while she was asleep and had sprinkled a white powder in the form of a cross on the floor to put a hex on her. She just knew that she was going to die. To help soothe her, I told her to hang an assfettidy bag around her neck, even though things like that are completely useless. Still, it took Miss Nancy all day to calm her down and convince her that nothing would happen to her."

"Niggers are such silly, superstitious fools!" Sally pompously declared.

"Some of them are," her husband agreed. "But you can't really blame them for being that way. We white folks have never allowed them to get a decent education, so in that respect it's our fault. Perhaps things will change in the future."

"Mayhap," retorted Sally skeptically.

But Dr. Logan was not a root-man by any stretch of the imagination, as Dr. Tom discovered later on that morning. After finishing his breakfast, he went into his office and was relieved to find that no patients were waiting to see him. A few minutes passed, and there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" called Dr. Tom.

Mose opened the door and, smiling broadly, introduced Dr. Tom to a tall, distinguished Negro gentleman who was wearing wire-rimmed spectacles.

"Dr. Tom, I'm pleased to present my friend, Dr. Green Logan," Mose proudly announced.

Dr. Tom and Dr. Logan shook hands and greeted each other warmly.

"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Dr. Logan," said Thomas Stephens. "Mose has told me much about you, and all of it is good!"

"Thank you, Dr. Stephens," replied Dr. Logan. "And I have heard a lot about you from Mose."

"Please be seated," Dr. Tom invited his visitors. "Mose is a good man, Dr. Logan, but I'm afraid that I will be losing him soon to a nice young lady named Emily!"

The two doctors glanced at Mose and grinned at his embarrassment. Mose was shy and never liked to be the central topic of conversation.

"Dr. Logan," said Dr. Tom, "I have heard from both Mose and Dr. Lockhart that you have led a very interesting life. Please tell me all about it!"

And thus it was that Dr. Logan commenced to relate his life story. I will report it as well as my memory serves me, having heard it second-hand from Dr. Tom.

"I was born a slave in the Logan family in Tennessee in about the year 1820," began Green Logan in a soft voice. "There was a son in that family by the name of William. I was about five years older than William. When William was growing up and going to school, Marse Logan sent me along with him to take care of the horse; and I sat in the back of the classroom and listened. I learned to read and write, and William gave me a slate to use. Eventually William studied medicine and started a career as a doctor. In 1835 he married and decided to move to Texas. My owner gave me to William as a wedding present, so I came to Texas with him. We settled down near the town of Liberty. Dr. William started practicing medicine in Texas, and I was his personal servant and assistant. I looked after his horses, conveyances, medical supplies, and whatever else he wanted me to do. Dr. William hated to go out on calls alone, so I always went along with him. I cleaned his instruments, prepared the bandages, heated the water, and finally got to mixing medicines. We talked about medicines and ailments on our trips, and eventually he let me do a lot of the doctoring on the Negro patients 'cause I really know the nigger nature.

"We got to Texas just before the War for Texas Independence, and Marse Bill had to get into the war. Of course, I went along to look after him and his horse. He became a part of General Houston's army, and we were in the Battle of San Jacinto. I was not enrolled as a soldier -- in fact, I had no gun -- but I sure got in the fighting! Marse Bill told me about dinnertime on the day of that battle that they were going to fight that afternoon. I asked if I could go, and he said: 'Sure! Get yourself a club, and maybe you can help.' I found an axe and cut me a club about five-feet long out of some bois d'arc wood, and I was ready for war! We all saddled up our horses, and away we went. Well, sir, I never had so much fun in all my life! Those Mexicans were so frightened of us Texans that all they could do was run away. Now I know you've heard about how fast a nigger can run when he's scared, but I'll tell you what! Those Mexicans can outrun us niggers!"

Dr. Logan paused for a moment and chuckled loudly as he recalled the scene.

"I clubbed a lot of them," Dr. Logan continued. "In fact, it turned out to be a slaughter. Those of us on horses ran right through that Mexican Army, shooting, cutting, and clubbing. We outran the Mexicans and then turned and started back, and they turned and started back towards our foot soldiers. The foot soldiers cut them down like weeds, and finally the poor fellows lay down on the ground and surrendered. The battle was over, and about half of them were dead. But you know the story of the battle.

"After the war Marse Bill and I went back to Liberty and back to practicing medicine. He prospered and acquired a lot of land and slaves and had a nice family. I was still helping him in his practice when I got married two years later. Then me and my wife had a child. Marse Bill and I started a school for Negro slave children so that they would know how to read and write when they were freed.

"But about 1855 the yellow fever hit us. It took my wife and child and some of Marse Bill's family and a lot of his slaves. A whole lot of people in Liberty died that year. At times there were hardly enough people up and about to bury the dead. But we lived through it, and I got married again. In 1858 Marse Bill called me into his office one morning.

"'Green,' he said, 'you have served me well. You've always been a great help to me and have never given me or my family one bit of trouble. Things are going to change in this country. Before long all the slaves will be free, but I'm not going to wait for that day as far as you and your wife are concerned. I'm going to grant you your freedom here and now.'

"Dr. Stephens, you just can't imagine the wonderful feeling that come over me! All I could do was fall to my knees and thank my master and praise the Lord!

"Marse Bill continued: 'Free Negroes don't do very well in these parts, Green, so I would advise you to move to Jefferson. I have talked to Dr. Lockhart about you and told him what I intended to do. He told me to send you to him, and he would take care of you. Green, I'll give you and your wife a team and a surrey to haul your goods. You are free to go wherever you wish. I know that it isn't very safe for a Negro family to be driving through the country alone in a surrey, so I'll send my overseer with you to see that you get to Jefferson without any trouble.'

"Well, I was acquainted with Dr. Lockhart because he has that drug house in Jefferson, where I had been many times for Dr. William. I knew that Dr. Lockhart was a good white man. Me and my new wife made ready to go. The Negroes in Liberty gave us a goodbye party at the tabernacle. It was pretty hard to leave, but we went. We got to Jefferson without any trouble and went to see Dr. Lockhart.

"'Green,' said Dr. Lockhart, 'I have been expecting you and have a cabin at my place that you can use. I will let the folks know that you are a doctor, and you can get your drugs from me. I will help you in any way that I can.'

"Well, sir, Dr. Stephens, the next four or five years were good ones. I made a good living and helped out Dr. Lockhart in his business. However, I also had some trouble. There was a constable in Jefferson who didn't like me. I don't know why, but he didn't. Dr. Lockhart was always advising me to work real hard and keep my mouth shut, and I tried to do that. But anyway, you will remember that there used to be a law that on the complaint of a white person a freedman could be put back up for sale into slavery. Well, that is what the constable did to me. That sure did make Dr. Lockhart mad, and it liked to have worried me and my wife to death!

"Dr. Lockhart had a son named James, who was as rough and as tough as any man; and he did his best to get the constable to make some move against him 'cause James wanted to kill the constable. But the constable wouldn't grab the bait. Both James and Dr. Lockhart told me not to worry, that Dr. Lockhart would buy me.

"Sale day came, and several Negroes were up for auction. James Lockhart was there and wearing a pistol. He moved through the crowd and told everybody that his Pa was going to buy me and that nobody else had better bid. Finally they put me up on the block, and I was scared to death. James came up and stood close to me, and Dr. Lockhart bid $100. Nobody else bid, and I was sold back into slavery again. Dr. Lockhart took me home.

"'Green," he said, 'I would give you back your freedom now, but the same damn thing would probably happen again. However, as far as I'm concerned, you are still a freedman. You can go about as you please, but you must tell everybody that you are my slave. That will be some protection for you.'

"Dr. Lockhart is sure a good man! We made it through the Civil War, and now I'm really free at last. But there's too much trouble in Jefferson for me these days. There are lots of Yankee soldiers, and those men they call the 'carpetbaggers' are plentiful. And now the white men of Jefferson are organizing a group they call 'The Knights of the Rising Sun'. There is just too much strife and too many killings for me. I want to find a peaceful area of land owned by the state and start a new community for colored folks. I want them to own their own land, have their own homes, a tabernacle, and maybe a school. I can be their doctor. Mose tells me that he has heard you and others here in Mt. Pleasant talk about some open land in this county. So, Dr. Stephens, that is my story, and that is what I want to do. Can you help me to do it?"

Dr. Tom said afterwards that Green Logan's story was the most moving and pathetic story that he'd ever heard from any human being. He could see that Dr. Logan was very sincere and earnest in what he wanted to do to assist his people.

"Dr. Logan," replied Dr. Stephens after a moment or two of reflection, "I will do everything that I can to help you out. Elam Riddle is out county surveyor, and he can give us more information about available land in this county than anyone else I know. Let's go to his office at the courthouse and talk to him."

So they walked over to Elam Riddle's office that very morning. Dr. Tom explained what they were looking for. The county surveyor produced a map and pointed to an area of land northeast of town.

"The only land in this county that's not already claimed," he informed the doctors, "is a thousand-acre tract between White Oak and Sulphur north of John Ellis' place. It's here in this location." Then turning to Dr. Logan, he inquired, "Are you married?"

"Yes, sir," Green Logan told him. "For about a year now. This is my third wife. The other two are dead."

"Then you and your wife can homestead 80 acres," Elam Riddle informed him.

"Tell me how to do it," Dr. Logan said.

"All you have to do is make an application here in this office, and pay the fee for surveying and patent."

"How much will that cost?"

"I would say about $60."

This caused Dr. Logan to pause for a moment in bewilderment; but Dr. Tom, sensing his concern, intervened on his behalf.

"Elam," said Dr. Tom, "take his application now, and I'll pay the required fee. We need this man in our community. He's a competent doctor who understands the nigger nature. I have a railroad certificate for 640 acres which I got for medical services. I am going to give that certificate to Mose because he's getting married, and I want you to locate his 640 acres next to Dr. Logan's land. I will pay all of the fees."

Those who worked in the courthouse said that they'd never before seen two happier people than Mose and Dr. Logan. Then the three went back to the Stephens house, and Dr. Tom talked medicine with Dr. Logan and found him to be very well-versed in his profession. Dr. Tom asked Dr. Logan when he would be ready to move to Titus County.

"Now," Dr. Logan told him.

"Well, then next week when Mose makes his regular trip to Jefferson, I'll send him in a big wagon, so be ready to bring your family back with him," Dr. Tom advised his visitor.

"Thank you very much, Dr. Stephens. I will be indebted to you for life," Dr. Logan responded.

Then Dr. Tom smiled and asked, "By the way, Dr. Logan, what do you plan to name your new community?"

"Evergreen," said Dr. Logan.

And that is how the community got its start.