8 BREEDING AND REARING OF 



He was born in Sussex County, Virginia, about 

 the year 1793. My grandfather, Captain Doak, was 

 an officer in the Revolutionary War. When the war 

 ended the government of the United States did not 

 have money to pay the officers for their services and 

 many were paid in scrip. My grandfather and a cousin 

 of his, named Doak Hanna, brought their scrips to 

 Rutherford County, in Middle Tennessee, and each 

 one of them entered a thousand acres of land in the 

 beautiful valley lying between Marshall's and Lee's 

 knobs. The Murfreesboro and Shelbyville pike runs 

 through this valley eight miles south of Murfreesboro. 

 My mother was a daughter of Captain James Doak, and 

 inherited a part of the one thousand acre tract of land. 



I remember the first sucking mule I ever saw was 

 foaled on my father's farm and he sold it at weaning 

 and it brought a better price than horse colts did at 

 the same age. This made a lasting impression on my 

 mind, and I have often observed since that those who 

 would buy young mules at weaning or at an early 

 age and grow them properly and have a good lot to 

 sell every year were generally prosperous stock farm- 

 ers and would, from time to time, be able to buy their 

 neighbor's land and perhaps sow it down in grass 

 and make the fences mule proof; and in the course of 

 a short time the growth of their mules and enhance- 

 ment in value would make the owner a handsome 

 capital. 



Some time in the thirties I remember my father 

 visited General Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory) who 

 was noted for his love of fine horses and had won a 

 wagon load of negroes from ex-Governor Cannon at 

 Clover Bottom race track. The General, in speaking 



