My Grandparents' Home at 58 Lemoyne Place, Mobile, Alabama Part I

My Grandparents’ Home

58 Lemoyne Place

Mobile, Alabama

Part I

My paternal grandfather, Isaac Luther Davis, Sr. lived at 58 Lemoyne Place in Mobile, Alabama for as long as I knew him. I don’t know if he ever lived any other place after he married my grandmother, Ellie Cronin Davis on January 30, 1907. Lemoyne Place is the only memory I have. Older brothers and cousins may know of other dwellings that our grandparents may have inhabited, but I never remember them or my parents speaking of another domicile. Even if there were other homes, they would not have compared, I can imagine, to 58 Lemoyne Place. The street address itself had a magical ring to it. I read somewhere that the Le Moyne brothers from Mobile’s past history contributed to the city in some significant way, and thus, a street commemorates their contribution. That is the way of local history. As generations come and go, we forget the whys and wherefores of those who have contributed to our future.

Lemoyne Place is a short street between the long avenues of Dauphin Street and Old Shell Road. Old Shell Road is the northern boundary and Dauphin Street is the southern boundary. Around the corner from my grandfather’s home at the corner of Old Shell Road and North Lafayette Street was the Neo-Spanish, stucco church of St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s Parish was the hub of the neighborhood with its attending elementary school where my two older brothers commenced their education during the beginning days of WWII. Nearby was McGill Institute which was a college preparatory high school for boys. When one attended McGill for all four years, his entire being would have been fortified with a classic education from Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Cicero and Virgil to all of the liberal arts. My father graduated from McGill in 1933. That was the extent of his formal education, but I guarantee that he knew more and understood more in 1933 than most of our college graduates do 74 years later.

There were three children born to the marriage of Luther and Ellie: Mary Lucille, Margery, and Cronin. My grandmother Ellie died in 1916 when my father was a little over a year old. His father Luther would later marry his first wife’s sister. Luther and Aunt Irene (as the children called her at first) had a son who was named Isaac Luther Davis, Jr. Prior to the birth of I. L, Jr., Aunt Irene requested that the three children begin calling her Mother since the new brother would be confused to hear his siblings calling his mother Aunt Irene. From then on it was Mother.

Since I am the fourth of six sons, my three oldest brothers would have earlier memories of Lemoyne Place since our parents during the early years of their marriage lived with my grandparents. The date that our parents moved the family to Green Street in Chickasaw, Alabama is beyond my memory. But, the older two brothers started school at St. Mary’s Elementary School at whatever age they were eligible. It seems that I remember one of them telling me that he started school at four years old.

As I youngster my parents would take us during the summer on a “vacation” to Mobile. If you have ever lived in the South, you know that August is one of the hottest months of the year. My mother once commented to me that children never seemed to feel the heat of the day. That may have been true since our summer attire was usually short pants, no shirt or shoes. We did take a bath each night to be rid of all the sweat beads under our arms and neck as well as every other crease in our tanned and untanned hides. We were bad to get chiggers as I later learned to call “red bugs.” Red bugs were plentiful where we lived and one always acquired more than one needed as we played outside all day in the wooded areas near our rented home. Red bugs would infest a little body in no time, and they had to be “picked” off in the evening or one would suffer an itch that made a flea bite seem like gnat bite. Chiggers had a way of boring into the folds of skin especially in the unmentionable places and then would “hold” on until your mother searched them out at nightfall. One’s modesty fell by the wayside quickly in order to get relief from these tenacious little buggers. (To be continued with next entry,)