Chris Stewart: —girls about the boys? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, they would come in. They had been, before the other teacher, I don't know the teacher, was letting them do anything. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: See? I say, "Okay, girls. Line up. Get right." "Where are we going?" "Wherever I feel like." And I would not let them go by themselves. I got right on up, and I got out on that campus. And I watched them. I saw they wanted to get with the boys. I said, "All right. Line up. Follow me, girls." (laughs) And I'd take them around the main school, and give them a little exercise. And do whatever I wanted them to do. And I was sure they would not be alone with the boys. Chris Stewart: I see. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I could see the boys running round. "Lord, no. We could go up yonder to so and so and do something." I'd say, "Go along, boys. Have your time right now. But girls, get busy. Follow me." But anyway, I had a glorious time even teaching, going to school, and whatnot. Because I took my time. I tried to do right. And when I did that, if I see anybody around and just, I'm right there, right now. Chris Stewart: Were you active in your church, too? Can you tell me about that? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, I am a— Chris Stewart: What did you used to do? Rebecca Elliot Davis: —I am a church member. I have been a church member ever since the church was over in James City years ago. And we would look right out there. There was a river. Chris Stewart: Oh. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And Solomon Phillips was sitting back at a church way back up there because he was selling. And people try to go across that little bridge or whatnot. Oh, that's cut out from these places. Myrtle Davis Downing: It's called a trestle. Chris Stewart: It's a what? Myrtle Davis Downing: Trestle. Trestle. Rebecca Elliot Davis: But anyway, we did that. Chris Stewart: What church is this? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Mount Shiloh. You ought to see— Myrtle Davis Downing: Missionary Baptist. Chris Stewart: Missionary Baptist. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Mount Shiloh. Chris Stewart: Do you remember your baptism? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Hmm? Chris Stewart: Do you remember getting baptized? Rebecca Elliot Davis: I got baptized while the church was down there. And the church had the—Wait a minute. You come in the door, and the choir would go upstairs, and they'd do the singing and everything. Rebecca Elliot Davis: All right. On each side of that church, there was still, just like people would—What is it? The men would go right on up. They had it walking. I can't think of the name of it now. But if they walked right on up, and they could look right down on the preacher, see? Chris Stewart: Oh, the balcony? Rebecca Elliot Davis: All right. On the balcony, on each side. There'd be one on one side. One on that side, and one on that side. But it aggravated me so bad. I was young, being shown up. Chris Stewart: How come it aggravated you? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Because every time I would get on out, my mother said I'd get sick. And she had just bought me a brand new suit, brand new dress. And I didn't want nobody to mess around while I was sitting there. And I was getting tired. Chris Stewart: You looked real good in that suit, huh? Rebecca Elliot Davis: That's right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So from that place where you could go right on, right on, and the pastor, he'd preach and go on. And what put me against one man, or two of—A lot of people up there. One on each side. So plenty of them. But the one on each side, or the one on this side, he said, "There ain't nothing to that." Lie flat. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And we had a stove in the center of the church. Myrtle Davis Downing: Pot belly stove. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And all we had to do is have it all warm when we get there, down there. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And when we did, everything was okay. But this young man, I don't know where they said he was from, ran from Texas or whatnot, but he said, "There wasn't nothing to it. Nothing to what to they're saying. See, I don't believe it." Right out loud to the people. And that made the people upset. But he did not upset the preacher. He knew he was going to have something like that. Rebecca Elliot Davis: But anyway. I remember, at that time, I was still young, and at that time I think I must been about 10, hardly that. And I was busy playing. And I used to hear all the different ones playing the music. And I was easy to catch. Stomp diddle do do, do do do do. That stuff. Now, I couldn't think about it. And he did it. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So after that, they moved over to this church, Mount Shiloh. And when they moved over to this church, my brother and my father, just want to say, built the first, not including the dinette and everything back there, but from that pastoral place right on up, my daddy built that. He bought it up. He had- Myrtle Davis Downing: There's someone over there. Rebecca Elliot Davis: —he had his— Chris Stewart: What? Rebecca Elliot Davis: —everything there. Myrtle Davis Downing: [indistinct 00:07:33]. Rebecca Elliot Davis: You don't know anything about that? Chris Stewart: Mount Shiloh, built Mount Shiloh? Rebecca Elliot Davis: What? My brother— Myrtle Davis Downing: Yes, with some other men. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: My brother did. Chris Stewart: Did he design it as well? Rebecca Elliot Davis: My brother was— Myrtle Davis Downing: Her father designed the church. Rebecca Elliot Davis: —my brother was much older than I was. And so something happened. Something happened, and he got sick. And when he got sick, and he got along all right for a while. And he said, "You know one thing, sister?" I said, "What?" "They took my clothes, and they took this. And they never brought it back to me." Rebecca Elliot Davis: So after a while, they got together while it's going along, going on, coming on out. He said, "Let me show you how good I'm doing now." And when he did, he said, "You see how well I'm walking now? You see how I'm doing now?" He said, "Well now, when I get home, I'll be a real man." You know it? Ensured the world- Chris Stewart: Was he? Rebecca Elliot Davis: He was well because he died. And he tried to do the best thing. He was in the church up there. Everything I could think about that, I could think about that. But anyway, the horse and buggies and all like that. She has it. She took it out. I have had it on a special place. So she has it. Chris Stewart: The pictures? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Hmm? Chris Stewart: Pictures? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Picture? Myrtle Davis Downing: Yeah. She's going to look at them and do whatever. Rebecca Elliot Davis: They're in there. Chris Stewart: I can make copies of them tonight. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Some kind of a factory behind there, this great big nothing but grass, and they're trying to get the James. They can't get to James, can't get across there. And this factory came as though it was putting out, I wouldn't say right, because it was putting out something. But it was a big factory back then. Chris Stewart: Yeah. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And after that factory was going on, I don't want to say it was one thing and it was another. So that's the reason I can't say because I was real young. But anyway, that factory right around there, and around by that factory, I have helped a many a soul. A family came from Durham or someplace, and they wanted to have a nice place in the country. Myrtle Davis Downing: [indistinct 00:10:46]. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And they did that. They sat down there, and they had a good time. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Give me another one. Let me see. Myrtle Davis Downing: You seen them already. Rebecca Elliot Davis: That was the house. The house was right over there. See? Chris Stewart: Over there? Myrtle Davis Downing: No, not that was there. Rebecca Elliot Davis: The house. Myrtle Davis Downing: The other house. That house was over there. Chris Stewart: Over there? Myrtle Davis Downing: Mm-hmm. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Over there. Oh— Chris Stewart: None of it's left? Myrtle Davis Downing: No, they had it burned down. If they had known what we know now, the historical society could have restored it. Chris Stewart: Yes. Myrtle Davis Downing: The preservation. They got a preservation society. Chris Stewart: Right. Myrtle Davis Downing: Could have— Rebecca Elliot Davis: That wide. Was that long. Chris Stewart: How long? The mantle was three, what? Three feet long. The glass? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Look, look, look. That long. Beautiful glass, and on top, it was beautiful built. Because my daddy, Starkville, he was a architect and whatnot. But anyway, so many people can do good things way back then, too. So anyway, he did it. And that house stayed there, and my nephew, Samuel Elliot—See, that's my name. If you want to know my whole name—Would you want to? Chris Stewart: I'm ready. Rebecca Elliot Davis: When my mother was pregnant with me, two men came dressed in little beautiful black coat, like the mayor. One says, "Name her Rebecca." And the other one says, "Name her Hershel." No. And from one to vice versa. So she went to the grand ones, the highest in the Baptist and all like that. And they say, "The best thing I can say, you'll name her Rebecca." Rebecca Elliot Davis: And the next one— Myrtle Davis Downing: Rebecca Hershel. Rebecca Elliot Davis: —"Name her Hershel." Because they had that— Chris Stewart: What's your middle name? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Huh? Chris Stewart: What is? Myrtle Davis Downing: Hershel. Chris Stewart: Hershel? Rebecca Elliot Davis: No, because he just aggravated her so bad, so she went by that. So my name is this Rebecca Hershel Elliot Davis. Chris Stewart: That's a long name. Rebecca Elliot Davis: When I was in school, they'd cut some of it off. Chris Stewart: You cut some of it off when you were in school? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Yeah. Chris Stewart: What'd you cut? Rebecca Elliot Davis: And I have some places now that I— Myrtle Davis Downing: [indistinct 00:13:47]. Rebecca Elliot Davis: —cut off. Chris Stewart: Yeah. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I have little concerns now that I have Mrs. R. E. Davis. Chris Stewart: Ah. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Some have the flag to it, and some did it, some don't, some like that. Chris Stewart: Which place did you like teaching at best, Ms. Davis? What was your favorite place to teach? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Vanceboro. Chris Stewart: Why? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Because I was with the principal, and he was exact. Chris Stewart: Oh. Rebecca Elliot Davis: He would not let things go. And he would make—Let us get this. Myrtle Davis Downing: Yeah, she's listening. Rebecca Elliot Davis: He would make those teachers stay until about, let's see, about four o'clock, like music. And they didn't want to. And after that, he says, "Well, I'm not going to stick my head in the fire for your, or the auditorium." In the auditorium. And they had, I've forgotten, I read to 50 or 60 students, or I mean to say teachers. But anyway, I did this. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I say, "You say you can't be taught. You can't do that." I say, "Well, I'll stick my head in it. This is not the first time I have taught under the same superintendent." And then I read folks and explained why. And so afterward, the teachers all got together. Rebecca Elliot Davis: "Mrs. Davis, you got something to lose." I said, "What do I have to lose?" "If we go there and ask Dr. Hill to do so-and-so-and-so, we'll lose our job." I say, "If you do, I know I'll lose mine too." "No, you won't. Because we can't talk to him, but you will." She kept right on. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I said, "Well, okay." I went to him, and he told me, "I'm sorry. I can't just stick my head in the fire for that." I said, "If you can't stick your head in fire, I'll just stick mine in there because I have been and taught under the same superintendent." I said, "When he said I wasn't going to have anything to do with the little one-teacher school in Havelock, someplace down there." And that was even before that time. Rebecca Elliot Davis: But in that time I says, "Go ahead and try." The teachers, all of them about stepped up on top of me and begged me so hard. So I went to him. When I told him what I did, he said, "Well, if you can't stick your head into it and everything, I'll do." He said, "Why did you do that?" Rebecca Elliot Davis: I say, "The man told me there was no way that I could get a good school. Wouldn't teacher school down here about somewhere down there? Because first his place, he hadn't got the money." And well anyway, the superintendent, or somebody, came. The window was breaking, was broken, and four on each side in the glass. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And that was already bad where it had been, the people were going right by the church, right on by the school. And the trash and everything, and caused that building to be like that. And so where they were looked on up, there was a place. I looked down here by the stove, there was a place down there. And I looked over here. There's something else. A bucket or something. I don't know. Oh, to the door. And you was still down there. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So anyway, I took it easy. I say, "Now, I weigh just as good until when he said I can't stick my head in the fire," because he was afraid of the principal. I said, "Well, I'm not afraid." I said, "I'm not afraid about it." Chris Stewart: What were you trying to fight? Rebecca Elliot Davis: So anyway— Chris Stewart: What were you trying to fight for? Rebecca Elliot Davis: I didn't have to do no fighting. Chris Stewart: What were you trying to get? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, what I tried to get is the teachers wanted to be free at four o'clock. Chris Stewart: I see. Okay. Rebecca Elliot Davis: See? Because Fort Barnwell, they were still working. And these teachers were here, and I had charge of the buses and everything like that. So they had go by. So when they began to build on this building, the building was facing like this. All right? Then when it got down there, it was a long way down here. All right? And down here, I was on that building. And then there was another one coming across, and then that one came back up here. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And so when we did that, he said, "Mrs. Davis, I ain't going to stick my head in that. These people just got to go ahead and stay here till four, something like that. And then they'll have to go ahead and have their place." And that was trying to help the people, help them. So all the time, they have a special service for the people to meet at once a month, with the parents. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And so when he commenced to talking about he wasn't going to stick his head. I say, "Well, I don't have to stick my head, and I won't. And I'll go ahead and do it." And when he found out that I was going to do that thing— Myrtle Davis Downing: Chris, I'll see you tomorrow. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Who do you think did it? Chris Stewart: Have a good evening. Sorry. Rebecca Elliot Davis: That's all right. Chris Stewart: I should have— Myrtle Davis Downing: No problem. Rebecca Elliot Davis: He went just as straight. Myrtle Davis Downing: I should have done better. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Went just as straight and told him. He said, "Well, you tell them." I said, "You should tell them. You know. So I'm going to let you tell them." And so when I told them, they were happy to get it. Chris Stewart: I bet. Rebecca Elliot Davis: See? And the main thing, all they wanted to get, they were keeping them done until about four o'clock. See, they wanted to get out and have some pleasure, but they had to teach something else and make them stay in the auditorium and do this and do the other. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So they didn't like the doctor. Chris Stewart: Mr. Hill? Rebecca Elliot Davis: That's right. Chris Stewart: Ma'am, do you remember seeing any Jim Crow signs? You know the Jim Crow signs growing up? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Whereabout? Chris Stewart: Wherever. Did you see them anywhere? Rebecca Elliot Davis: I never did get a chance. There's one right there near, but it wasn't no junk trailer. But my daddy had been working for this gentleman, and they got along fine. And they were talking, and when they talked, my daddy, he would say, "Yes, sir." And when I came on up from where I had been being up here, you know where I just now told you, he looked at me. He said, "I don't know." Rebecca Elliot Davis: I said, "Well, you might as well know because I'm going. I've done talked to the principal." And that principal, he was a principal at that time. I said, "And that man, he didn't do what he wanted to do." And so when he didn't do what he wanted to do, I read it just as good till all the children got out. When they got out, I said, "He's not going to have his way." This is the same principal. But anyway, I say, "You all clean and be careful." Now, this is down Cherry Point, right down this one. Chris Stewart: Okay. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And he says, "You be careful while you are down there." I says, "Okay." And [indistinct 00:24:26] to goodness, went on down there. And everything, everything from one to the other. Oh Lord, I'm telling you. But anywhere. Chris Stewart: Everything from one to the other, what? Rebecca Elliot Davis: You see, now, what we wanted, we wanted the church. We wanted this place. And when there was a street going right down and making a big old to-do in it, they finally got tired. And when they got tired, finally they say, "I don't know. I don't know." Rebecca Elliot Davis: "Well, you're going to know." This is the principal. He was rough, mean to them, and the people scared. So when he said he was tired, he wasn't going to stick his head in the fire, I said, "Well, I'll stick mine in head in the fire." I said, "Because I've been to a case." I said, "The man said I couldn't do that to you. And I did it, and the people were with." Rebecca Elliot Davis: He said, "Well, okay then. Go ahead." And here come the people, and the teachers in this place. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I say, "Here it is. You all afraid to do. I'm not." I said, "Well now, I'm going to take it easy. I'll let them." I said now, "This was a one-teacher school." Chris Stewart: Was this in Vance—? No, this wasn't in Vanceboro. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Hmm? Chris Stewart: Where was this. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Now, in Vanceboro, the same thing. What Vanceboro, I'm telling you, they kept right on me. Warned me, warned me. So finally, I gave up, and I said, "Well, you'll do so and so in Vanceboro." And so he gave in to me because I told him when he said he couldn't stick his head, I said, "I'll stick my head." I said, "I taught a one-teacher school." Chris Stewart: Right. Chris Stewart: Ma'am, when you were a teacher, when you were teaching, did you ever go visit parents? Go to visit parents at people's homes? Rebecca Elliot Davis: I go around, and they'd come to clean me. They were nice. Chris Stewart: They were nice. Chris Stewart: When would you go visit parents? When? Rebecca Elliot Davis: You going back to, what is it? Vanceboro? Chris Stewart: Back to Vanceboro or Adams Creek. When you were at Adams Creek or Fort Barnwell. At any of those times, did you go visit parents? Say, when students didn't come to school. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, I'm telling you, they came to school. Chris Stewart: They did? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Every one of them. Chris Stewart: All the time? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Every time. Chris Stewart: Even the students who had to work on the farms? Rebecca Elliot Davis: No. They, what work did they do? I don't really know what kind, but when they would appear before me, everything would be smooth. See, when I'd go down there, they'd done got the church, came to the church, got the church right. Had me in the church teaching. I couldn't stand there. Chris Stewart: Yeah, I know that. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I couldn't stand that. But— Chris Stewart: That was at Adams Creek, right? Rebecca Elliot Davis: All right. That was Adams Creek. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So now here to Vanceboro, I went there, and my principal was rough to all of them. And they were afraid. Well, that's why they wanted me to go and talk to him. Chris Stewart: How was the principal at Havelock? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Hmm? Chris Stewart: How was the principal at Havelock when you were teaching there? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Oh, that was good. Everything. Forgot that Havelock, it was another place above, before Havelock started. There was another place there. I've forgotten now. A little school. Chris Stewart: Oh, really? Rebecca Elliot Davis: And then they had a nice little place to—Auditorium. But still, it was small. You know what I mean? But they're real nice too. And everything went along smooth with it. Chris Stewart: How did you meet your husband? (Davis laughs) How did you meet him? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Wait just a minute. Chris Stewart: What are you giggling about? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Oh, I guess I met him when I had this accident. Because the first house had, it was high, and they had not completed it. And my husband was in the next house right beside me, but not that house there. Or both of them houses. But anyway, he was in there helping to do, and the lady that was in there had some children, had a child, something like that. And somehow or another, the house caught fire there. To that house right next door. But it's not the same house. Chris Stewart: Right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Because it got burned. And that's the way. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And when I got to my door, my door of this house was not completed, and it was high. And I went to fall. When I started out the door, the door was hard to get out. I pushed and pushed, and then when I did, I say, "Well, if I push and go down that deep place, I'll fall right back on my head, and I can't do that." I turned then. And so that's the time when I met him. He came on out. He says, "Get busy." Chris Stewart: Get busy? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Talking to the boys that were working for him. Chris Stewart: Oh, I see. Rebecca Elliot Davis: "Get busy. Get busy." And he got—Let me see how he told it. Said, "You teach. You drive. And you be careful. And I'm going to say they don't allow me go out." He say, "I'm sorry. I'm going. Who do you think I'm going to leave? Leave my wife?" And so they carried her, carried me to this place. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And he's a little bitty fella. You can see it over on the street down there on West Street, somewhere like that. And they say, "Well, you're just going to do." But anyway, he got in there. There's my head and my feet. And he said, "Now, you go, and you go to that place," going to the, no, you still, I don't know the name of the, but it is right on West Street now. A little bitty place there. When I went there, he went there. Chris Stewart: Were you already married? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Hmm? Chris Stewart: Were you already married? Rebecca Elliot Davis: No. For this— Chris Stewart: This is before you met? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Yeah. That's about right. Rebecca Elliot Davis: And he was so particular. Chris Stewart: Huh. Particular about what? Rebecca Elliot Davis: He liked me. Chris Stewart: He liked you. Did you like him? Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, anywhere, when I began to see, I said, "I don't know whether to marry or what now?" So I asked the Lord. Rebecca Elliot Davis: I guess it sounds strange. Just like you see that house is doing over there, back there. Chris Stewart: Yeah. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Well, we had a big place right back on this side. Right over there near the street. And I had a horse in there, everything. And the horse was white. And then whenever that horse gets sick, I'd get sick. And then after a while, I began to think, and I said, "This man, I don't know whether I'm going to like this man or not." And I went up there and looked up to the sky. You could see the sun looked like coming up. And I said, "Good lord, please, please help me to get the right husband. Let me know if the husband that I like." And the Lord, I didn't hear nothing much from Hm. Rebecca Elliot Davis: But you bet your sweet life, the man (laughs) this same old (laughing) [indistinct 00:35:10] where I didn't like him. He climbed up the ladder. He climbed up the ladder for something because I got something helping, and somebody got there. But anyway, he climbed up that ladder, and he saw. He said, "You see that ladder?" And he was good to me, I changed. And I got that that man. Chris Stewart: You got him? Huh? Rebecca Elliot Davis: I changed my mind. I got him. He was right over there. Rebecca Elliot Davis: So anyway. I'm satisfied. After all that tumor and everything, that's the reason I don't let nobody cut that little concern down and mow the grass. And somebody had put something around it, and the grass began to grow hot. It was sun and burn. And so I said, "Well, I'll wait a little while longer, and if I can see the man, I'll tell him to clean that stump off." Because I wanted to paint it. Make it look beautiful. Chris Stewart: Yeah. Rebecca Elliot Davis: Across that, we had that house, had that great big glass, and everything up there. Some of my daddy's stuff. And he knew he was an architect. He was an architect. So do any kind and copy. And when we did put it out there, somebody, all the furniture and stuff, I don't know what caused them, but I loved that place, for free. And when they put that thing out, when they put it out, there was all that great big mantle piece. You know what happened to it? Chris Stewart: What? Rebecca Elliot Davis: One of the men that was burning the place down, he took that thing and moved it, and set it aside. I said, "Why didn't you burn that?" Didn't burn it. He burned everything else up. Burned that old house up. I hated to do that. Chris Stewart: Who burned it? The city? Rebecca Elliot Davis: It could been the city. The men were trying to be efficient and going on. And so I saw they took pains and moved it out while they were burning this house up. And—