DAVIS
Davis Reasearch Information & Genealogy
A Digest of a Manuscript by C. Tharp
Our interest in this family takes us to the early settlement of the upper Miami Valley in Ohio, approximately the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. The search has been difficult as there are several individuals with the Davis family name during the settlement of the region. The primary search is for the parents of Mercy Caroline Davis, which has not been proven in the research data. The fact is that specific documentation has not been discovered stating her family connections to others. Never-the-less with the material supplied by Janette Crumpacker and myself several documents show that there was close relationship with the Davis clan in the towns of Yellow Springs and Clifton of Greene County and across the county line in Green Twp. of Clark Co., Ohio.
Information gathered seems to leave a trail of these Davis families which claim Welsh ancestry as well as Scots and Irish through New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky and to the Miami Valley in Ohio. Lewis Davis the first settler at Yellow Springs, Owen Davis, his father, a miller at Clifton and Robert Davis seems to have been in close proximity in Kentucky and Ohio, involved in land purchases. Robert Davis may have been a younger brother or nephew of Owen, perhaps a cousin to Lewis.
Others have traced Davis ancestry in this same area but do not relate to a Robert Davis who I believe is the father of Mercy Caroline Davis.
This Robert Davis is listed as residing in Bath Twp. in 1801, appears on the Poll Book Xenia Twp, Greene Co., Ohio dated October 14, 1805. In 1808 was listed as residence of Greene County. Greene County History states Robert and Owen Davis were early settlers. Robert appeared on Greene Co., Casear Creek Twp. tax list in 1810. Vance Twp. was created, Novenber of 1812, and he is listed as residence of that township laying on the county line with Clark County, this twp. ended in 1818 parts of which went to both counties. He paid taxes in 1812 on a parcel of land next to the town of Clifton (Owen Davis - entry lined out, 1802 assigned to Lewis Davis). In 1816 Robert Davis bought land in section 22 T-5 R-8 Mad River Twp.(present day Greene Twp.) Clark Co. on North Fork of Little Miami River. He added to this 90 acres in 1818. The Deed stated that Robert was a resident of Greene Co., Ohio. He is in the 1820 Federal Census of Clark Co., Ohio with children and wife of the correct ages and again in the 1830 Federal Census Clark Co., O. He sold this land to his son-in-law, Palmer W. Earle and daughter Olivia, September 13, 1833. He died about this time and was buried at "Old" Emery Chapel located at the cross roads of Yellow Springs Pike and Peacock Road three quarter miles south of present day Emery Chapel. Elizabeth, his wife, is given as widow in 1839 when Earle sells this same land. These families including Elizabeth Davis, the widow, are next found to have purchased land in Logan Co., Ohio as had Lewis Davis.
Robert L. Meranda married Mercy Caroline Davis October 15, 1834 and had remained in Clark Co. near his parents and others of the Meranda family northwest of Springfield. In 1839 Mercy Caroline's brother Hugh M. Davis returned from Lawrence Co., Ohio and purchased land next to the Merandas. While at this location Hugh M. Davis lost two children; son Hugh M. Jr. and daughter Caroline.
In 1841 Robert L. and Mercy Caroline Meranda purchased 80 acres of land in Logan Co. but seems they never lived on it but sold it to John Meranda in 1842, recorded about 1845.
In about 1848-9 both Mercy Caroline (Davis) Meranda and Hugh M. Davis families moved to Randolph Co., Indiana. Mercy south of Ridgeville and Hugh near Farmland. It seems that the descendents of these families recognized a relationship through the next generation.
By the year 1859 Hugh MacPherson Davis moved again, this time to Saline County, Missouri where he remained until his death in 1878. Three of Hugh's sons remained in Indiana in order to apparently complete schooling. His eldest son, Robert P. Davis became a doctor and practiced that profession at Redkey, Indiana and later at Portland, Indiana. Robert P. died in 1902. Lewis N. Davis also became a doctor and his practice was at Farmland, Indiana. Dr. Lewis Davis died in 1912. He had one son, Herbert who died young. The Herbert Davis Farm, (Herbert Davis Forestry Farm) Managed by Purdue University located about one quarter mile west of State Road #1 and about three miles south of State Road #28, is a memorial left by Lewis and Martha Davis to their son.
The third son of Hugh M. Davis to stay in Indiana was James S. Davis. He keep a General Store and Grain Dealership at Farmland, Indiana. Of these three sons, James is the only one that had children to survive them. They were daughters; Mattie and Bonnie Davis. James died in 1909.
A daughter of Hugh M. Davis, Sarah Jane and sons; (again) Hugh MacPherson Davis Jr., Elihu L. Davis, and Francis N. Davis were in the move to Missouri, a daughter; Martha E. (Mattie) Davis was then born there in 1861. Hugh M. Davis was a stonemason, farmer and also had taught school. In the old Clark County History it was stated that Robert Davis was also a pioneer schoolteacher.
BIOGRAPHY
OF
JAMES SILLIMAN DAVIS
Randolph County History
By Tucker - Published 1882
James S. Davis was born August 9, 1838, in Lawrence County, Ohio and in infancy removed with his father, Hugh M. Davis, to Clark County, in the same state. His father was a brick and stone mason and worked at this trade during the great part of the time, teaching school in the winter. Until thirteen years of age James remained near Springfield, Ohio, receiving, in the meantime, the benefits of the common schools of that locality. In 1851, being thirteen years of age, he came to Randolph County, Indiana, with his parents, and from that time until he attained his majority he was engaged as a farm hand during the farming season, attending school in the winter. In the Fall of 1858, he went to the state of Missouri, where he remained a year, returned to his home near Farmland at the end of that time, and entered Liber College, in Jay County. He taught school in the latter county during the ensuing winter and in the spring of 1861, enlisted in Company C, of the Nineteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers Infantry. But the part he might have taken in the defense of the Union, and for which his patriotism inspired him, was prevented by sickness. He was taken ill soon after the Regiment reached Washington City, and when their removal was ordered he was declared unable to accompany them, and was left behind by the order of the Surgeon. He was visited in the hospital by Mrs. Caleb Smith, whose husband was Secretary of the Interior at that time, and was taken to the Secretary's home, where he remained during convalescence. At the end of seven month after his enlistment, he was discharged for physical disability and returned to his home. He again adopted the vocation of school teaching, which he continued in the winter, interspersed with other employment in the summer, until 1869. In that year he embarked in mercantile pursuits at Farmland, and has ever since been one of the leading mechants of that town. Like many who to-day occupy similar positions, he started in life without any capital save that he had earned by hard work, and by a careful saving of his small earnings was first enabled to engaged in business. In the meantime, by energy and industry, he has accumulated a comfortable estate, and occupied a prominent place in the mercantile lists of the town in which he is located. He is a man in whom energy and determination are prominent features, and to these characteristics he owes much of the success that has crowned his efforts.
He was married, in June, 1862, to Miss Lye Ruble, a daughter of Samuel and Rowan Ruble, who were among the early settlers of Randolph County. By this union they were to parents of two children; Matte R. and Bonnie J., both of whom are now living.
In his political affiliation Mr. Davis is a Republican. He was elected Trustee of Monroe Twp. in 1866, and built at Farmland the second graded school house in the county. -- he was re-elected to seven terms of one year each. etc.
In private as well as public life he is known as a man of honor and integrity, and to his personal associates he is a valued friend. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as is also his wife. He is indentified with the Masonic fraternity at Farmland, having attaind the Master Mason's degree. He is enterprising and public-spirited, and a worthy and highly respected citizen of the community in which he resides.
BIOGRAPHY
OF
DR. ROBERT P. DAVIS
History of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana
Lewis Publishing Co. - 1887
Dr. Robert P. Davis, of Portland, one of the leading physicians of Jay County, is a native of Lawrence County, Ohio, the date of his birth being November 12, 1836. His father, Hugh M. Davis, was also a native of the Buckeye State, born in Greene County, of English descent, and when a young man settled in Lawrence County, where he married Martha Silliman, who was of Irish origin. Of ten children born to them, six sons and two daughters grew to maturity, all of whom are still living but two sons and one daughter.
Two brothers of our subject are residents of Indiana, living at Farmland, Randolph County; James, a merchant, and Lewis N., a physician, who read medicine with our subject, and graduated at Cincinnati, Ohio. The father was a stone mason by trade, which occupation he followed in connection with farming through life.
When Robert P. was two or three years of age the family moved to Clark County, Ohio, and about the year 1850 they again changed their residence, removing to Randolph County, Indiana, where they settled on a farm. In 1857 our subject began attending school at Liber, where he remained three years, occasionally teaching school to defray his school expenses. While at Liber (south out side the town of Portland, Indiana) he made a specialty of physiology and anatomy, having at that time the medical profession in view. At the expiration of his three years at Liber he engaged in teaching school, and at the same time pursued his medical studies until the summer of 1862, when he enlisted in Company A, 84th Indiana Infantry. Immediately after the organization of the regiment it was ordered to Cincinnati. His knowledge of medicine procured for him at once a position in the regimental hospital, where for three years he faithfully performed the duties of his position. He. accompanied his regiment until the close of the war, being present, as his duties required, on many a bloody battle-field, including Chickamauga, and those of the Atlanta campaign, and was also in General Thomas' Nashville campaign. He was discharged at Nashville in June of 1865. He was united in marriage March 23, 1866, to Miss Annie Peoples, of Randolph County. She was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, April 16, 1844, a daughter of Jonathan and Mahala (Norris) Peoples, both of whom died when Mrs. Davis was a child. --- A brother, Captain Norris Peoples, was killed in his first battle near Resca, Georgia.--------- Dr. Davis, the subject of this sketch has been a member of the medical profession of Jay County since the winter of 1866-67, at which time he located at Redkey, and began the practice of medicine. Although Dr. Davis began his professional life in 1866 his preparation for his life work was by no means completed. In 1869, after attending a course of lectures at Cincinnati he received from the medical college the degree of M. D. and in 1873 he attended another course of lectures in Cincinnati, and in 1884 he went to New York, where he took a course at the Post Graduate College, thus preparing himself in the best schools the country affords, for the practice of his chosen profession. He came to Portland in 1880, where he has since built up a large and lucrative practice, and gained the confidence and esteem of all who know him. Beginning life a poor boy he has by his own unaided effort attained a high rank in his profession, and has a beautiful home, one of the finest residence in Portland. He has succeeded in spite of many obstacles, not the least of which is the result of a severe injury that he received from his horses running away, from which he has never recovered. Politically the doctor is a Republican. In 1878 he was elected by his party to the office of county auditor, which position he held for four years, discharging the duties of the office with ability and fidelity. He was the only Republican elected on the ticket. He has been a prominent Odd Fellow for many years, being at present Deputy Grand Master of District No. 222, I. O. O. F., of Indiana, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
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Last update 7-18-97
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