“The ride through the fresh dewy morning hours! Oh,
that was worth something! Everything looked as if it were ‘made.’ The sky had
that wonderful blueness I have never seen anywhere but in San Antonio; the
hillsides were green with the tender green of spring and there was a perfect
blaze of flowers everywhere.”
Mollie
E. Moore Davis
~Quoted from Quotable Texas Women by Susie
Kelly Flatau and Lou Halsell Rodenberger
Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis (pen
name: M. E. M. Davis) was an American poet, writer, and editor. Born in
Telladega, Alabama, April 12, 1844, she was the only daughter of Dr. John Moore
and Lucy Crutchfield. Two of her uncles attained the rank of colonel during the
American Civil war, one in the Confederate, the other in the Union army.
 |
| Mollie E. Moore Davis; public domain; wikipedia |
A few years before the war broke out, Dr.
Moore moved his family to Texas and took up planting cotton. There, at the La
Rose Blanche Plantation, in Hays County on the banks of the San Marcos River,
Mollie grew up. She was educated by private tutors, and her talent for poetry
revealed itself. Along with her brother, she also learned to ride, shoot and
swim.
From the age of 14, Mollie wrote regularly
for the press and periodicals. A critic said of her that she was "more
thoroughly Texan in subject, in imagery and spirit than any of the Texas poets,"
and that scarcely any other than a native Texan could "appreciate all the
merits of her poems, so strongly marked are they by the peculiarities of Texas
scenery and patriotism." In 1889, Davis became editor of the New
Orleans Picayune.
In 1874, Mollie married Major Thomas Edward David,
editor of the The Daily Picayune. The couple took up residence in New
Orleans’ old French Quarter, where Mollie spent the rest of her life. Accepted
into the exclusive Creole society, she studied and wrote about it, but also
continued to write about her beloved Texas. Some of her best known short poems
were “Going Out and Coming In,” “San Marcos River,” “Stealing Roses through the
Gate,” and “Lee at the Wilderness.” Several of her poems and sketches were
written for Harper’s Magazine, and other periodicals.
Davis was perhaps most admired for her short stories,
which often appeared in northern monthlies. She enjoyed chronicling the
lighter, humorous side of life but occasionally touched on sterner problems. "Snaky
baked a Hoe-Cake," "Grief" and others, contributed to Wide
Awake in 1876, were among the first African-American Vernacular
English stories to appear in print.
Davis portrayed life in Texas and Louisiana
in a number of novels including: In War time at La Rose Blanche Plantation, Under
the Man-Fig, An Elephant’s Track and Other Stories, The Story of Texas Under
Six Flags, The Wire Cutters, Jaconetta, and others. In War Times at La Rose
Blanche Plantation and Jaconetta were largely autobiographical.
Jaconetta was Davis’s childhood nickname during the Civil War.
 |
| The Story of Texas Under Six Flags; public domain |
In both poetry and prose, Davis depicted characters and settings in minute detail, allowing her readers to “see” what she described. This ability demonstrated a keen observation of not only people, but of the natural world, as shown in the quote at the top of this article.
The Price of Silence; public domain
Mollie E. Moore Davis died on January 1,
1909, in her home on Royal Street in New Orleans.
