03709_0065: Story of Auguste Mollie

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Auguste Mollie, circa 1858, Dauphine, France, white farm laborer, Navcco, 21 December 1938

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U.S. Highway No. 90 Navco, Alabama December 21, 1938 I. B. P.

STORY OF AUGUSTS MOLLIS

Eighty years ago a boy was born in Dauphine in the southeastern part of France, whose name was Auguste Mollie (pronounced Noyie). Auguste had two brothers and two sisters. As he grew older he worked on a farm and cared for the fruit trees, but as time passed he wanted to change places, according to his story. When he was thirty-fire years old he came to Canada, but remained there only three months because it was so cold. He then came to Kansas City, Kansas, and lived there two years before moving to Spring Hill, a suburb of Mobile.

Mr. Mollie said he worked for Mr. Albert Stein, who laid the first practical waterworks system in Mobile. He said he also worked for Spring Hill College for a long time and saved his money and bought his home on Dog River. To reach Auguste's home one must leave Mobile County Court House and go west on Government Street on Highway No. 90, for five miles, and turn to the left at the first unpaved road, then go down this road to Navco Station, turning left at the station, to come to a new blacktop road. Driving on this road a mile, a turn is reached and instead of following the blacktop road, one turns to the right onto a narrow country trail, following it one quarter of a mile.

Auguste said when he first bought the place, there was no road, so he helped clear the area and in fact did the most of the work.

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The writer found Auguste's home by chance. It was while driving along this apparently deserted trail that she noted an old Negro woman standing in the middle of the trail, as though waiting for someone. Asked where the road led, the woman's face lighted up and she said:

"Just down yonder, at Fred's place." When asked where she herself lived, she replied: "With Mr. Mollie, a Frenchman. He is jes' like all Frenchmen, you can't tell him anything, and if he does anything wrong, he says 'Clarissa done it.'"

All the while she was talking she was using her hands. She seemed anxious to talk, and when asked if she thought Mr. Mollie would give any information about his life, she eagerly agreed that he would, but doubted that I could understand him. However as she promised to act as interpreter, I went along.

In a few minutes a boy on a bicycle rode up the road and gave Clarissa a Mobile Press Register and she explained it was for Mr. Mollie.

Leaving the car at one side of the trail and crossing a long narrow lane across a dry branch that was covered over with a makeshift bridge and then walking up a little hill, we approached a clearing, in the middle of which stood the home of Auguste Mollie.

While walking up to Auguste's house Clarissa volunteered information as to why she was living at Mr. Mollie's home, saying

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she came to keep house for him when he was sick with malarial fever in 1914, and had been there ever since, as he had no family or relatives in this country.

"I tries to take care ob him, cayse he had a stroke six and a half years ago, and po' fella he did work so hard. Dat wuz de reason he had dat stroke. Many de days he has wu'ked for four dollars a week, 'till I went to Mr. Thompson, (Po' man he done dead and gone), and tole him he ought to he 'shamed to pay Mr. Mollie only four dollars a week; he can't neber pay fo' his place.

Atter dat Mr. Thompson paid him two dollars a day, and den he managed to pay for dis place. Mr. Mollie railly worked, too. He warn't like mos' people; he worked fum six in de mornin' 'till dark, and if it rained and he had to stop work, he would tell Mr. Thompson, 'no I didn't work all day, so you don't owe me a day's wages'. Why, chile, I has seen him dig up big tree stumps and put dem in sacks and carry dem on his back to the white folks' house. When he first bought dis place from a nigger man, it didn't hab nothin' on hit, but since I'se been wid him, he's planted dese pecan trees and bofe of dose grape arbors, and dat banana plant, as well as pear and plum and quince trees. Po' man he has wu'ked so hard, an' now all he can do is jes sit, do' he's better dan he used to be, cayse he can put on his clothes now, and hobble in de hall way and set."

By this time we reached the house. We found Mr. Mollie sitting in the hallway in a rocking chair. He is a small, stooped man, with bright blue eyes, short mustache, and hair that although

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still black and thick around the edge of his head has left his head bald in the center.

When Clarissa told him that a lady had come to see him, he smiled and nodded his head in acknowledgment, then held out his hand to Clarissa for the papers.

Putting on his glasses he began to read. Clarissa felt that he was not polite, and explained how he always waited for the paper, for all he could do usually was to sit and read.

"Mr.Hollie, dis lady wants to know something ob your life, why you come to America."

"He then laid his paper down, and began to talk, but so brokenly that Clarissa had to repeat what he said.

He never married he said, never had time to dance and go to parties; always workied. He seemed very much amused when asked why he drank or made wine, like the most of Frenchmen do.

Clarissa said she helped Mr.Hollie repair his house and build the grape arbors. She said that the sale of their fruit was the only income they had. She had tried to get the old-age pension for his, but they would not give it to him unless he signed over his place to them, and that he refused to do. She said she had been paying the taxes on his place herself with money left her by a sister who had died in New Orleans.

Clarissa is a low, bright, Negro woman of mixed blood, and is very intelligent. She complained of how people refused to help Mr. Hollie. However, she seemed able to manage, for she said she had two white men outting down two pine trees on Mr.

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Mollie's place and splitting them into wood, because she was afraid it was going to turn cold.

"I thinks they is charging a whole lot to cut dat wood," and when asked how much they were charging, she said:

"One dollar and twenty-five cents for two trees."

Clarissa said she painted the house herself. It is gray with a green ceiling. "I tells you it keeps a person movin' to keep things in shape. I 'tends to him and rubs him wid alcohol ebery day. For a long time he was bedridden, but I'se taken sich good keer ob him, he's now able to put on his clothes."

When Mr. Mollie heard Clarissa talking of his legs he said:

"My foot feel like it dead."

Clarissa assured him that it would soon be all right, and then told of a Negro man who went in Mr. Mollie's bedroom one day when he was very sick, and said to Mr. Mollie:

"Well, you is done for." The writer could see Clarissa's eyes flash as she was talking, "I got dat nigger out ob dere" she continued, "and I gib him a piece ob my mind. I tole him he shouldn't ob tole Mr. Mollie dat. You should hab tole him, 'he'd soon be up fum dere and well again.' Atter dat I wuz keerful who I let goes in an' see him."

After a short time Mr. Mollie looked as though he was tired, so the visitor thanked him and bid him goodbye, and as he left, he was deep in thought as though the conversation had carried him back through the years of the past. Clarissa walked back to the car with the visitor, talking continuously as though she

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