Annie helps Jesse get a nice, cold drink of water

Annnie and her brothers

Annie said that her father built a dam so that they could have water, but she remembers that her little baby brother Willie was sick. She said her father had built a cradle for him. She said, "Mother wanted us to stay there and rock that cradle to keep him from crying." Annie says that her father had dug a well right under the dam and water would seep through and fill this little well up. She said they would use that water. Her older brother Jess and her were playing around and he got thirsty so he needed a drink, but knew if he went to get one in the house, his mother would make him sit and rock the cradle. So, he tried to convince Annie to hold onto his feet while he laid down and tried to get a drink from the well, so he wouldn't fall in. Annie says that she was trying to hold on, as Jessie kept getting closer and closer to the water, but she said she started getting pulled down too, so she turned him loose and, "he went down in that well head first". She said she didn't know how he ever got out, because she looked down there and his feet were just popping up out of the water. But, he got out of the well. Annie says about this time her mother came with a bucket to get a bucket of water and Jess was standing there all wet. So, she questioned Jess about how he got wet. Annie told her mother all about what happened. So, their mother told Jesse to get in the house. Annie said she stayed out there quite a while longer and then she went in the house and Jess was rocking the baby and his clothes were hung by the fireplace on some chairs to get dry and he had a kimono around him. Annie recalled, “I can still see him rocking the baby while his clothes dried. Our baby’s name was Willie and he died soon after that.”