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Week ending October 18, 1938
SOCIOLOGICAL SERIES.
Helen S. Hartley
Identification No. 0149-5147
Federal Writers' Project Dist.2
wPA Project 4454, Mobile, Ala.
Jim Davis,
563 Short Cedar St.,
Mobile, Ala.
THE LIFE OF JIM DAVIS
Written by Helen S. Hartley
Jim Davis was born in Port of SO-ain, Trinidad, British West Indies,
in the year 1878. He was a happy youngster, having everything that any child
could wish for, a good home, fine mother and father, and two brothers. He
began to mingle with older boys when he was eleven years of age, and soon
began to hear the wonderful stories of other countries. One day while
loitering on the street, he was approached by a Sea Captain, who asked him
if he would not like to take a job as cabin boy on his sailing ship "Red
Jacket". Miraculously the opportunity that he was longing for had eome, and
he could now go out into the world and seek his fortune. So it was, that
as a boy of eleven, he started on a journey that led him to foreign shores,
never more to return to his native land.
One whole year or more he was on the Red Jacket as a cabin boy, and
enjoying the thrill of handling the sails with the crew when he was off
duty. He saw much of the world during those years, the ship having touched
England; Cardiff, Wales; Buenos Ayres, Argentine; Russia; Germany and many
other seaports of the world, not to mention the different ports in the U.
S., that his ship touched. Again the wanderlust seized him and the desire
to see more of those foreign ports was strong within him, so one bright
Friday morning, while the Red Jacket was in Mobile, tied up at the foot of
Lipscomb Street, Jim with several others of the crew, jumped the ship. It
was not long before the little twelve year old West Indian boy found him-
self alone. For one week he lived as he could, getting odd jobs for food;
sleeping where he could, he did not care if he suffered a little from
hunger and cold for his whole future lay ahead of him; but at the end of
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Week ending October 18, 1938
Helen S. Hartley
Identification No. 0149-5147
Federal Writers' Project Dist. 2
WPA Project 4454, Mobile, Ala.
THE LIFE OF JIM DAVIS.
Written by Helen S. Hartley.
Jim Davis
563 Short Cedar St.,
Mobile, Ala.
6
that first week, the law, in the person of deputy sheriff Brown, arrested
him for "loafing", and when he appeared before the Judge, the sentence
was that he should be returned to the Red Jacket.
While Mr. Brown, with Jim in tow, was walking back to the ship, he
founa himself talking frankly to this little quiet boy. They had now
gotten very near the Red Jacket, when Mr. Brown stopped, and said:
"Get goingl and don't let me catch you again".
Jim took to his heels, he flew, as if he had wings to his feet, but
never forgot those words. His regard for Mr. Brown (long since passed
away) is still very deep.
He ran until he found himself in that part of the northern section
of Mobile known as "the Grovenland soon he was met by an old colored man
by the name of John McMillan, whose voice was low and pleasant, and whose
eyes held warmth and kindness. The ola man asked a few questions and Jim
pourt,d out his story into his sympathetic ears. The old colored man
sitting himself down on the curbstone of the sidewalk listened, and when
Jim had finished his story, he found that he had won for himself a home,
for the old man, who had so little for himself, made a place for the
little boy and kept him as he would have a son.
As Jim grew older, again the wanderlust and desire to see the world
got the better of him, so he left his adopted home and after Wandering
around from town to town and station to station, he got a job as water
boy at Lock I, on the Tombigee River, where he worked for about six months.
Forty years ago in 1898, Jim started working at the Alabama Corn
Week ending October 18, 1938
SOCIOLOGICAL SEHIES.
Helen S. Hartley
Identification No. 0149-5147
Federal Writers' Project Dist. 2
WPA Project 4454, Mobile, Ala.
THE LIFE OF JIM DAVIS
Written by Helen S. Hartley
Jim Davis
563 Short Cedar St.,
Mobile, Ala.
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Mills Company as a porter drawing a salary of fifteen dollars a week,
gradually working up to be a teamster of a meal truck at eighteen dollars
a week, He remained with that firm until the Company closed its doors,
December, 1931, throwing Jim out of work.
He had been married since 1914 to Lizzie native of Mobile, and
is still living with her to -day, although she.is now a large, (corpulent)
woman. During those years when Jim was out of work, and there was none
to be had, Lizzie aided him by taking in washing. Their little home of
three rooms, is the fifth in a row of ten houses all just alike in the
front, but his home has a vine growing over the porch, which is freshly
swept each day, although now Lizzie is far from well, suffering from
rheumatism which seems to have settled in her feet causing them to swell.
In spite of her sickness, however, she is able only to keep the house
almost immaculate, do the little household washing for the two of them
(for they have no children), and in her spare time quilts up all the pieces
of material that she can get her hands on. I could not ke..-4 count of
the quilts she showed me, that she had finished and put away, but were at
least two dozen or more, some finished, others partly finished.
After the Alabama Corn Mills closed out of business, Jim could only
get odd jobs to do, painting, gardening, housecleaning and such like
jobs until 1932, when he was lucky in getting a job as helper on one of
the Taylor Lowenstein trucks at fifteen dollars a week, and is still with
this firm, and says they are the finest people to work for, as the firm
alas its employees in every way that it can. Jim's duty now is to travel
Week enuing October 8, 1938
00CIOLOGICAL SERIES
Helen S. Hartley
Identification No. 0149-5147
Federal Writers' Project Dist. 2
WPA,Project 4454, Mobile, Ala.
Jim Davis
563 Short Cedar St.,
Mobile, Ala.
THE LIFE OF JIM DAVIS
Written by Helen S. Hartley.
on a truck, which leaves at around five in the morning, going up the
6td.te and returning from six to nine in the evening. He had just re-
turned from a trip (when the writer called for this interviews which
took him through Bay Minette, Evergreen, Peterman, Brewton, etc. He
enjoys truck work, for each day carries its own experiences and he enjoys
every one of them. Each evening when he gets home he is too tired for
anything but supper, a minute to relax, and to bed.
Saturdays, Jim, upon his arrival home, gives Lizzie her share of
the pay check; hers to pay the bills and expenses and keep the house, his
share, as Jim told the writer, to spend as he sees fit, which usually
means joining the boys" and gambling.
On Sunday Jim is a gadabout, never going to Church, as he is indiffer-
ent to all religions, although at some part day he was baptized. Lizzie
is just the opposite, and is very religious, but has had to fore -go
Church meetings because she does not get out any more on account of her
rheumatic condition.
Jim is now a grey-haired man, of medium height, of about 160 pounds,
and is in good health, and, as he expresses it himself, "is as fit as a
fiddle". He is a thorough American, remembering the land of his birth
but dimly and in perfectly satisfied to be in America. He reads and writes,
although his eye sight is not so good for reading at night. Both Jim and
Lizzie enjoy life in their own simple way, in their little modest home and
are happy and congenial.