According to Ruth Godwin Gadbury's GODWIN-HILL AND RELATED FAMILIES, Chapter VIII, 1980 (out of print):
It was about 1852-1853 when James Hill married Lucinda Parolee Godwin from Blue Mountain, Mississippi, in Tippah County just across the state line. Parolee's parents gave them land in 1853 in Tippah county on Big Spring Run joining her brother Jacob's land. Their post office was Ripley, Mississippi. - The family story goes that James and Parolee buried their cotton to keep it from being taken, later dug it up and sold it for gold coins which Parolee put in a crock container and covered with used cooking grease which looked innocent enough near the stove. It was this money they eventually used to come to Texas. (Told by Curtis Hill to Ray York.) - James was conscripted and kept in a training camp for some time, Aunt Minnie Scoggins Gunter relates. Parolee, with Addie, her six-month old baby, went to visit him and tried to get his release so he could care for his family of four small children. Her plea was refused, but as she visited James, many of the family men were so glad to see a baby that they fondled little Addie until, as the story goes, Parolee had to change the baby's dress six times that day, so dirty did she get. Parolee went home disappointed, but somehow the men were released and James arrived home the same night that Parolee and the baby did.
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According to Ruth Godwin Gadbury's GODWIN-HILL AND RELATED FAMILIES, 1980, page 116-118, Minnie Gunter, daughter of Addie, also tells the story of the family slaves. Parolee's parents gave her a slave girl named Ann who later married another slave, Jeff, owned by James. Though James often took Ann to work in the fields, she was very devoted to both Parolee and James. Ann had a baby about the same age as Addie and would nurse both babies if Parolee had to be away. Their children played together... - When the slaves learned that they were free, they went from farm to farm gathering their liberated friends. When they came to the James Hill farm, Parolee was churning on the rocks just outside the cellar where she kept her milk. This cellar was in a little house at the back of the kitchen. Parolee always cared for the milk and butter herself. - When the negros swarmed over the place, they saw that churn of buttermilk and began to dip in and help themselves. Parolee was afraid to oppose them, but when no one was looking, she quickly turned the churn over. When the Negroes saw the milk spilling over the rocks "the cussing taken place." - Ann cried because Jeff made her leave the Hill's. She begged Parolee to keep her children, a boy and a girl, but Jeff would not allow it, and she rode away with a wagonload of other freed slaves sobbing as she went. ---
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Parolee's last words to her granddaughter Nollie were written on March 8, 1909, just 2 days before her death: ...Nollie, I can't write much this morning. You and Enoch do the best you can, for this is a hard life, but we must be content with our lot, and serve God the best we can. No news. You both come when you can. Love to you both and write soon to... Your old mother, L. P. Hill
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