TX BIOS  Mrs. J. B. Mobley
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   [Work?]
   
   Warren, Ivey G.
   
   December 28, 1936.
   
   Lubbock County
   
   District 17 250
   
   Pg.1 [DEL: [The First Church Building In Lubbock? ] :DEL] Interview
   with Mrs. J. B. Mobley Bibliography
   
   Mrs. J. B. Mobley.
   
   "I was teaching school in Virginia when I decided to come to Texas",
   Mrs. J. B. Mobley said. "I always was adventurous and I said to
   myself, "Laurel Davis, I want to see a little of this old world".
   Texas seemed, in those early days, a long, long way from Virginia,
   still the more I contemplated the trip, the more daring I grew, so I
   advertised in the Ft. Worth Gazette for a school to teach in Texas".
   
   "I got several offers and after carefully considering each one, I made
   up my mind to accept a position in a school at [DEL: [?] :DEL] [?],
   Texas. So in September, 1888, I left my native state and came to
   Texas.[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ]
   
   "My work was pleasant and I liked the country fine, though I have
   never considered the scenery of Texas anything comparable to that of
   Virginia". Mrs. Mobley continued. "But I was well satisfied with my
   new location until my health began to fail and it soon became apparent
   that the climate of [DEL: [Travis?] :DEL] [?] County was not agreeing
   with me, so the next year I secured a school at Colorado City and came
   West.
   
   "The rugged beauty of the west [enthralled?] me and I began to take
   [DEL: places :DEL] [?] out on the ranches as private tutor for the
   ranchmen's children. For several years I taught on ranches over the
   country then in 1897, I came to Lubbock and taught two terms here.
   [DEL: About a month :DEL] [DEL: [after my school was out?] :DEL] [??]
   in 1899 I was married to J. B. Mobley, who was at that time the
   Treasurer of Lubbock County. We had a very quiet wedding [.?] Our
   ceremony was performed by Reverend Liff Sanders, who still lives in
   Lubbock. I was a Baptist and had never felt that I could have my [DEL:
   [???] :DEL] marriage vows administered by a minister of any other
   denomination and Brother Sanders was a Christian, but he was the only
   preacher there was in Lubbock at this time, so we asked him to read
   the ceremony[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ].
   
     NOTE: [??]
     
   00022"We located on Singer Street, which is now Avenue H. For awhile I
   busied myself with the affairs of my home and the social life and
   educational work of our village, then one day in 1900 while I was out
   in the yard working with my little flowers, I got to thinking about
   Lubbock not having any church house [?] we always had our religious
   services at the courthouse, and I came to the conclusion that it was
   time to start taking up a collection to build a church house. I was
   wearing a big shade bonnet and I just walked right on up town with
   that bonnet on [DEL: [?] :DEL] The first man I met was George M. Hunt,
   when I told him what I wanted to do, he gave $10.00 for the church.
   That was the first donation on the Baptist Church, I collected $70.00
   that afternoon. I was so elated when I went home that I took my bonnet
   off and waved it triumphantly as I went down the street. It seemed to
   me [DEL: [that?] :DEL] [DEL: [evening?] :DEL] that the church house
   was in [sight?], I could just see how it would look, and I kept right
   on talking to people about it and asking for donations. I sat down and
   wrote to people who I thought would like to see a church built in
   Lubbock and who were able to [DEL: [make donations?] :DEL] contribute
   and would like to do so. [DEL: [?] :DEL]
   
   "I received a hearty response from most of those [DEL: [from?] :DEL]
   whom I had solicited [DEL: [funds?] :DEL] . C. C. Slaughter sent
   $50,00. Fuqua and Smith of Amarillo, donated. J. M. Dupree of Mt.
   Pleasant and R. H. Lowry of Brady made donations. Then we received
   $100.00 from H. L. [Kocenut?] of San [DEL: [Antonia?] :DEL] [Antoni?]
   with a request that [it?] be used on a parsonage for the preacher.
   Lester Lewis, Banker of Canyon gave $50,00 for this fund also.
   
   "We got a considerable sum of money". Mrs. Mobley went on. "We had the
   money, or at least enough to make a good [start?], but somehow it
   seemed that we just could not get the church up, and then one day I
   received word to [?]Let up on the church for awhile, we don't need a
   church built in Lubbock now["?]. I sent word back," Lubbock does need
   a church and I intend to keep on working for one untill we get it.
   
   "It wasn't that I wanted to run things", Mrs. Mobley explained, "Where
   I grew up in Virginia we had old churches. In my childhood I had
   always gone to church and I learned when I was quite small to [take?]
   part in the services. After I came west I just couldn't 00033go on
   without some form of worship. When I taught on the ranches I used to
   get my bible down an Sunday morning and read to the little children
   and I taught them religious songs to sing[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ].
   
   "It was not long [after?] I received the request to let up on the
   church building that [DEL: [?] :DEL] [?] Lubbock County ranchmen came
   down to our house to discuss ways and means of getting the church
   started. This was in January 1901 and pretty soon the building was put
   up. These men were George M. Boles, J. W. Winn, E. Y. Lee, all of
   Lubbock and R. M. Clayton, who owned ranch property in Lubbock County,
   but resided in San Antonia[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ].
   
   "I have watched with great interest the building of all of the
   churches in Lubbock". Mrs. Mobley said, "For sometime after the
   Baptist church was built, it was a sort of community building[ [DEL: ?
   :DEL] ] We were always glad for any denomination to have their
   services there, when we were not [DEL: [having services?] :DEL]
   ourselves.[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ]
   
   "We had a good [Presbyterian?] meeting here in 1904. The Presbyterians
   did not have a church here at that time, but two Presbyterian
   preachers, [DEL: Reverend :DEL] Rev. Hammock and [DEL: Reverend :DEL]
   Rev. Anderson came to Lubbock from Colorado City to hold the meeting[
   [DEL: ? :DEL] ] they did not stay at the hotel, [DEL: [but?] :DEL]
   they [DEL: [had?] :DEL] brought a few quilts and a little camping
   outfit along with them and [DEL: [were going to batch?] :DEL]
   [batched?]. It so happened that at this time a house just below us was
   vacant, so the preachers [DEL: [went down there?] :DEL] [??] to camp.
   Mr. Mobley and I leanded them a feather bed, for we knew that they
   couldn't be very comfortable on a pallet of quilts. They had good
   services and we all enjoyed them so much. On saturday we asked the
   preachers to take dinner at our house. We had plenty of young frying
   chickens then and if I do tell it myself, I used to be complimented on
   making extra good salt-rising bread. We had an excellent meal [DEL:
   [that day?] :DEL] and the preachers talked over their work in the
   meeting and planned the services for the next day. Brother Hammock
   asked me if I would supply them with some salt-rising bread to use in
   their communion services. Ofcourse I was glad to do what I could in
   religious work and I readily agreed to provide the bread.[ "? ]
   00044"But they did not get to have the Communion services the next
   day," Mrs. Mobley stated. "It came the biggest rain that night that I
   think I ever saw in my life. Lubbock did not have any drainage system
   then and water stood everywhere all over town. When we got up the next
   morning and looked down at the house where the preachers were camped,
   we knew that they could not get out and cook their breakfast on a camp
   fire, so I hurried and fixed up a basket of hot food for them and Mr.
   Mobley put his old high top boots on and wadded down to the house and
   carried the basket to them. Later [up?] in the day, when the clouds
   had drifted away and the water had run off a little, we looked out of
   a window and saw the Reverend Anderson splashing up the muddy road/
   coming to [our?] house, bringing the feather bed home on his back. The
   rain had broken up the meeting and the preachers were preparing to go
   home. Shortly after this one of the Presbyterian brethern arrived in
   his wagon and helped the visiting preachers load up their camping
   outfit and they left Lubbock[ [DEL: ? :DEL] ].
   
   "I have been on the Plains for [DEL: [40?] :DEL] [41?] years", Mrs.
   Mobley concluded. "I have been happy here, and I have thrilled with
   the satisfaction of seeing Lubbock progress and grow from a few houses
   on the [prairie?] to an enterprising little city. I feel that both
   [my?] husband and I have [helped?] to make Lubbock what it is today,
   but now he is gone, and I can no longer take active part in the things
   that go on about me, so I just sit here and think and think. Sometimes
   I pass the time away [ [DEL: writting? :DEL] ][ writing? ]. I used to
   write [almost?] incessantly when I was in Richmond College in
   Virginia. After I started to teaching school I did not have so much
   time to write, but even then I wrote for a long time for "The Blue
   Ridge Echo" in Little Washington. Later I was a correspondant on the
   staff of a South Carolina paper. After I came to Texas I gradually put
   my writting aside, but after Mr. Mobley died [DEL: [?] :DEL] I became
   almost a shut-in following an accident and subsequent ill health [ ?
   ], I turned to my [ [DEL: writting? :DEL] ][ writing? again to help me
   through the lonely hours. Since then I have written several articles
   for some of our leading magazines, and also some historical and
   geographical items for the Dallas News. But [ [DEL: writting? :DEL] ][
   writing? ] tires me now and so sometimes I just sit and think of my
   childhood home in the shadows of the Blue Ridge mountains in old
   Virginia where the Mountain Laurels grow. That is why my parents named
   00055me Laurel, because the Laurels grew all around our house and
   Father loved them so. After I started to school people began to call
   me Laura, but Father never did. Virginia seems far, far away indeed
   now, much farther than Texas seemed to me in these early years. All of
   my relatives are still [DEL: [there?] :DEL] in [DEL: [Vaginia?] :DEL]
   Virginia, and [now?] I am alone on the Great South Plains. Ofcourse I
   have friends, for whom I am very thankful and I have my memories, the
   most pleasant of which are the early years of my marriage, the years
   when the Plains was still a cattle country and Lubbock was only a
   village trying to build schools and churches.

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