Several interesting characters surfaced in the three ring binders that lie in disarray on the floor of a backroom closet. The binders house a clumsy compilation of legal pad pages upon which I slathered numerous post it notes enumerating references to a collection of index cards hidden in a shoebox under my Redwing work-boots. The index cards reveal cryptic messages related to electronic filings found on my laptop under the identity of Wilbur Rancidbatch. This elaborate system replaced the original use of butcher paper taped to a bedroom wall when the count of ancestors exceeded one hundred in 1984.
Research indicates that the following notables are not great grandparents of any enumeration in my father’s family tree and so they were relegated to the slag heap of discarded files that surround my desk. The cards are like unedited bits of film left behind on a cutting room floor when a movie is processed for public viewing.
Like the characters in Toy Story, these cards seem to come to life whenever I leave the room and they find their way back into the ‘system.’ Allow me to introduce a few of the more persistent ancestors from whom, with a few exceptions, I wish we could claim a direct descent.
Our Cousin, the Architect of Beaufort NC and His Vintage Homes
James Davis (1668-1748) and Elizabeth White (1673-1748) had seven children, 6 boys and 1 girl: sons William, James, John, Robert, Henry, Robert and daughter Mary.
Their son William (1692-1748) drew my attention. Was he the William to whom I could bestow all the luxuries, rights and privileges that are assigned someone who is anointed a great grandfather in our family tree? I Googled his name, searched the archives and plowed my way through various online textbooks I became enthralled with the location of his plantation and the history of his descendants. All the while I wondered: is this the guy I am seeking? Let’s begin with his homestead, Davis Island, just outside of Beaufort, North Carolina on the Outer Banks.
Davis Island is found where the Neuse River joins the waters of Pamlico Sound and is separated from the mainland by tidal marshland. There are a few hundred acres that include a village, and a few acres known as “The Ridge.” Richard Wicker came to Virginia in the mid-sixteen hundreds and settled in Princess Anne County. Among his children was a son Joseph, who married Ruth Musson, and lived for a while in Currituck County, NC.
In 1723, Joseph Wicker (1679-1743) came to Carteret County and bought a small island from Levi Cressy. Joseph Wicker, wife Ruth, and two daughters, Mary and Keziah, made their home on what became known as Davis Island. Upon his death, Joseph left the Island to his daughter, Mary Wicker. Mary Wicker married a Welshman, William Davis (1692-1756), son of James Davis (1669-1716) and Elizabeth White. Research by Mamré Wilson states, “Their ancestry goes back at least to 1607 when William’s great-great grandfather sailed to Jamestown.”
Stories of Davis, by Mabel Piner, relates that William’s grandfather, William Davis came to Virginia in 1622 in the Margaret and John. On the same ship with him were Joseph Moore, Henry West, and Peter Ashley. The first William Davis was paid eight pounds per year by the Crown to preach the Gospel to natives. Other sources claim that William Davis, carpenter, came to the Core Sound area in 1736 after selling his land in Perquimans. According to Maurice Davis’ History of the Hammock House, Davis had sued Robert Cox in Perquimans County after Cox had accused him of stealing an axe and hiding it in a potato patch. The author, Maurice Davis wrote,
“In March 1728 Joseph Wicker, Esq., Warden of the Anglican Church, was ordered to pay William Davis for the construction of a new court house in Beaufort.”
According to another version of Davis family history, William came into ‘America’ in 1700 from Wales and arrived in Carteret County in 1715. Davis family historians are plagued with the same family fallacies, fables and fictions that frustrate and fracture the Smith lineage. It is hard to give birth to family lore when the forefathers can’t accurately track the foreplay that proliferated the species. The history of Davis Island is the story of a southern Tidewater family caught up in the travail of a Revolutionary War and its’ aftermath. It was a family that faced religious persecution and economic turmoil in the wake of the American Civil War.
William and Mary Wicker Davis spent their married life on Davis Island raising eight sons and one daughter. William’s Last Will was offered for probate in 1756. By the end of the Revolutionary War, two of his sons had died, two others had left the county, and another son named Solomon White Davis (1746-1794), moved to Cedar Point at the western end of Carteret County. He married Joanna Wade in 1768 and eventually settled in Beaufort. Of the three children who remained at Davis, Joseph inherited the Island, Nathan lived on the Ridge, and Benjamin, the youngest son, built a home at Davis Shore.
Deeds and court records show that Davis Shore was first settled by four families: George Styron and wife Frances Davis; Seth Willis and wife Anne Howland Willis; William Davis and wife Mary; and Benjamin Davis and wife Sabra Williston, daughter of John Williston. The Williston name is posted on various geographic features. The Davis community began to grow, community services and the necessary institutions which form the cornerstone of community life began to appear. In 1867, a Baptist church organized with 14 charter members. A house of worship was erected on land owned by Daniel Davis. The building served the community as both Church and general assembly center for many years.
A school building was erected near the south end of the village. The teachers were all born and raised in Davis. Later, another one-room school house was built nearer to the center of town. When the need came for an even larger building, a cadre of small-town investors agreed to build and operate a school in the village. Their charter offered the building to the county School Board for “holding public school whenever there was sufficient money to pay a teacher.” One of the several windmills along the eastern shore was located at the Ridge, owned by James Davis. Another mill was in the village at a place called Mill Landing. The first store in the community was a combination grocery store and apothecary shop owned by Poindexter Murphy.
The chief occupations in Davis over the century were farming and fishing; a little or a lot of each, depending on one’s motivation. The area was rich in wildlife, both water and forest, with hunting and fishing providing the game necessary for sport or survival. The soil and the population were rich in some parts and poor in others. Family gardens, chock full of sweet potatoes, collards and beans flourished. Cattle and hogs furnished the necessary meat and there was a steady supply of seafood. There was little need to buy anything other than sugar, salt and coffee. Poindexter Murphy had his shelves stocked with such necessities.
Mr. F. C. Salisbury gathered his memories of life in Davis and published them periodically in the Carteret County newspaper.
“After the Civil War, the Island was lost by the Davis family and several African American families moved into Davis Ridge. There was Nathan and Simon, and Proctor Davis with his wife Elizabeth. Proctor’s children were Barney, Eli. Lucy and Bet. There was Adrian Davis, who was a captain for many years on the fish boat Belford. Sutton Davis and his wife had a son named David, who was lost on the fish boat Parkin. Sutton Davis was the son of Elijah Davis and a very outstanding person. A first-class carpenter, he built his own home on Davis Ridge, a fish factory and with the help of his brothers, he built two schooners, the Mary Reeves and the Shamrock. From their boats they caught fish, cooked them in their own factory and sold them on the market.”
Any doubts previous generations of family historians have had about the roots of their family tree can now be uncovered with the ‘invention of DNA.’ The lineage for the Davis Island Clan is as follows:
- The seafaring captain, Captain James Davis, of Sagadahoc and Jamestown fame, married Rachel Keyes. Their son
- Thomas Davis (1613-1683) of Nansemond married Mary Bowers (1621-). One of their sons,
- William Davis (1643-1680) married Sary Jarvis (1643-1690). One of William’s sons
- James Davis was born in 1668 in York, VA and died 1716 in Perquimans County, NC. He married Elizabeth White (1673-1748). One of the sons of James,
- William Davis, was born in 1692 in Pasquotank, NC. He died in Davis Shore, Carteret, NC in 1756. He married Mary Wicker (1706-1770). William and Mary had children including
- Joseph Wicker Davis Sr (1722-1799) Davis Shore, Carteret, NC. He married Sarah Gaskill (1733-1805) about 1754 in Carteret County. And they had children including
- Joseph Wicker Davis Jr. (1755-1826) lived and died on Davis Island. He married Susanna Stanton (1761-1827) an ‘East Side girl ‘with ties to the Newport River shoreline. They were married in Carteret County in 1776.
The ‘East Side girls’ were well known along the Carolina Coast. They established a reputation and an attitude that gnawed at the very fiber of morality in Christian circles. Three of the East Side gang infiltrated the market place in Boston, Massachusetts causing mayhem and threatening the safety of children. Community leaders cautioned the public about their gang affiliations and pointed to their use of gang symbols, speech patterns and even their manner of dress.
Driven from Boston for their suspected crimes, the women returned to the city in the dark of night and continued their gang activities. This time Boston would show no mercy. The women were apprehended and hung from the gallows for being Quakers. That was their crime.
Joseph Wicker Davis and Susannah had a son, the eighth generation of the Davis family identified in this continuing chart of descendants of Captain James Davis and Rachel Keyes.
- James Davis was born of Joseph and Susanna on July 3, 1780 in Core Creek, Carteret County. His 10 siblings were all born in a Quaker colony on the east side of the Newport River. James was received by request at a Core Sound Quaker Monthly Meeting on March 5, 1791.
He was later disowned by Quakers for marrying outside his faith, but he remained in the area. In 1803 he married Elizabeth Adams (1783-1868), the daughter of Nathan Adams and Mary Canaday, farmers in Core Creek. This James Davis spent his career littering Beaufort NC with evidence of his work. To this day the community holds dear the work of architect James Davis. A walking tour of his stately homes reveals his many contributions. Each is preserved as an historical treasure. James was first a brick mason responsible for building Fort Macon (1826-1834). He was then a skilled builder and graduated to the role of a contractor with many employees. He capped off his career by frequently referring to himself as an ‘ar-chi-tech.’
James Davis died August 1, 1861. He didn’t live to see the streets of Beaufort paved or the train come to town, but he did leave his mark—a legacy of wonderfully constructed homes that have weathered coastal storms for almost 200 years and still stand today.
Houses built by James Davis can be found on the Beaufort Tour of Homes. James and his carpenters did all their work by hand. There were no power tools available when Davis built these and other homes up to the time of his retirement in 1850. Nikola Tesla (b 1856) and Edison (b 1847) were mere infants. Makita, Milwaukee and DeWalt were a century away from creating practical power tools for construction. But I am not even talking about such modern-day conveniences. Davis didn’t even have a saw mill nearby to cut a simple board. The town was still very isolated with few amenities. There were no paved streets, no main route, no miracle mile, no Home Depot nearby. He was living in a wilderness of scrubby bushes and live oak and long leaf pine. Pigs, cows and horses roamed the streets. One had to walk alertly to avoid the scat.
James (b 1780) and Elizabeth, along with eight of their children, lie buried in the Davis family plot of the Old Quaker Cemetery, also known as Core Sound Meeting Burial Ground. It is located on NC 101 northeast of Beaufort, on the west side of the highway, behind and south of Tuttle’s Grove United Methodist Church. Apparently, in death the Quakers who had disowned him welcomed him home.
Vintage Homes Built by James Davis
I am going to paraphrase like crazy here, on the verge of plagiarism, from marketing materials designed to get us into Beaufort to see the James Davis homes. Ginny Costlow, owner of the 1817 Davis House at 201 Ann Street, wrote of Davis’ craftsmanship,
“James Davis built his houses to last, using the ancient and time-honored technique of timber frame construction, more commonly known today as post and beam. This process involved framing out the structure using wooden pegs (treenails or trunnels) to secure the mortise and tenon joints, the pegs not only replacing scarce hand wrought nails but also allowing the house to breathe and move during the years of battering storms in this coastal climate.”
Across the street from Costlow’s house is the J. Forlaw House (c. 1817) at 206 Ann Street.
Davis bought lot 66 for $3 in 1820 and built a square twenty-five-foot structure. The house became known as the Alexander House. In 1828 Davis deeded the eastern half of the lot including the house to his daughter Elizabeth Davis Potter. In future years he further subdivided the land to other of his children and grandchildren. One partial sold for $80, a nice profit on his original purchase and an indication that inflation was on the rise.
At 205 Front Street one can walk past the Pigot-Nelson House (c.1805) and the neighboring B.L. Perry House (c. 1812) at 207 Front Street. Benjamin Leecraft Perry (no relation) was involved in coastal trading and one of the wealthiest men in Beaufort before the Civil War. He was, among other things, a shrewd speculator, buying and selling land from 1832 to 1869.
In 1805 James bought a lot from his father-in-law, Nathan Adams at 105 Front Street. In l817 he built the Duncan House which he sold in 1820. The Davis homes were subject to a thorough architectural survey conducted by Ruth Little in 1997. Her notes for each home can be found online and speak to the craftsmanship and unique character found in the work of James Davis. There are many Davis homes, too numerous to mention, that line of the streets of Beaufort.
The 1850 Beaufort Census revealed the entire Davis family was living in Harlows Creek. Seventy-year-old James, his wife and four adult children; James and his son Joseph James were noted as carpenters. The 1860 census recorded James as a farmer in Carteret County with wife Elizabeth now age 77 and daughters: Mary 50 and Sarah 45. During the Federal occupation of Beaufort in the 1860’s, some of the Davis family may have lived in the basement cabinet shop, using the open-hearth fireplace as their ‘kitchen.’ In 1870, the house, then owned by Postmaster Joseph James Davis 49, was valued at $11,000 and sold in 1871.
Despite an exhausting search of the Davis Island family I am unable to find a William Davis from whom we descend. While these generations of the Davis family all descend in our family tree from our common ancestors, they did not leave evidence that we descend directly from the Davis Island clan. They appear to be an enclave of southern Quaker cousins and Davis Island is not ours to be had.
Author’s note: Damn! I was hoping to secure a place on the front deck of an island home with a pristine view of the Sound and Cape Hatteras. I pictured myself in a hammock with waves crashing all about me as I prepared for a round of golf, a nice glass of the official state beverage in my hand. [Hurricane Florence (2018) caused me to rethink this fantasy.]
Editor’s note: What is the state beverage?
Author’s response: I don’t know. Google it. Maybe a Cheerwine Bourbon Cocktail.
Editor’s response: Milk.
Author’s response: No way! Milk?! No way? Not even sweet tea?
Editor’s response: Way! A 1987 law established milk as the state beverage.
Indian Creek Massacre – Earlville, Illinois 1834
William Davis is a common name found in our family history. It can be frustrating trying to figure out which Davis belongs in the boat of life with us and which one gets tossed overboard. I am not a direct descendant of the William Davis in this tragedy, nor is he a great uncle of any kind. More than likely he is a cousin. The last male Davis from whom I descend was the William who died in Hyde County, North Carolina back in 1802. His sons would be my uncles, his grandsons my cousins.
The William Davis family found in La Salle County Illinois in 1834 moved onto the great plain of northern Illinois in the early 1830s. They had come to the prairie grasslands from the forest of Kentucky. As I have many cousins of various families in the hills of the Bluegrass State, I am willing to bet I could track this William Davis down, drag some DNA out of his marrow and line him as a member of my large Davis clan. He hails from a corner of Kentucky that was home to Captain Jesse Davis of Revolutionary War fame, who descended from Isaac Davis and James and Rachell Davis of Jamestown.
I only wish we could go back in time and knock some sense into this man’s head before the Natives knocked his block off. Here in lies the story of his death came about and that of his family and friends. And don’t worry, I am going to leave the gruesome details online where I found them in a firsthand account authored by his surviving daughters who witnessed the events before being dragged away into captivity.
The Indian Creek Massacre in Lasalle County, Illinois could have been avoided had William Davis acted on a warning given him by Chief Shabbona. While no one deserves to die in a confrontation, William made several bad decisions that cost him and his family their lives. A cooler head, a bit of reason, less bravado, more respect for the Natives, all could have created a different scenario. William Davis and his family may have lived a few more decades on the prairie if William had shown less machismo when it mattered.
William Davis purchased some decent farmland along Indian Creek, a good 15 miles north of Ottawa IL. He intended to provide for his family by operating a sawmill, a blacksmith shop and farm. He knew incoming settlers would need his services. The sawmill would be water powered and to that end, William damned up Indian Creek and diverted the stream through his mill. This had the effect of cutting off fishing in a Potawatomi village 6 miles upstream from his base of operation. Tribal leaders approached Davis in a cordial matter and pointed out that his dam prevented fish from coming upstream to breed and cut off the Native’s valued food source. They asked Davis to re-engineer his mill. Davis flat out refused. He had the right to do what he damn well pleased and they could figure things out: “Why not just come down here and fish below my dam, where the fish now gather?”
As the story goes, he later found a tribal member removing stones from his dam and he beat the living day lights out of the guy, leaving him for dead in the river. The Native revived and slipped away to his village. Tribal members were incensed and wanted to kill Davis, destroy his mill and family if they had to. They were tired of white guys moving in and ruining the Native way of life. This was a full 225 years after the Jamestown Massacre and the issues were no different in 1830 than those faced by Powhatan along the James River in 1610.
Two tribal chiefs, Shabbona and Waubonsie, implored their tribal families to cool it. They advised a compromise and tribal members agreed to fish below the dam. Friction was temporarily alleviated and relations between the Davis settlement and Potawatomi chilled for the moment. But then, along came Chief Black Hawk and his attempt to intimidate the federal government and any settlers who had been driving his nation out of Indian Country. Black Hawk intended to intimidate the settlers with the threat of war. He asked Shabbona to join forces and the Potawatomi leader refused to sanction Black Hawk’s plan of attack. Shabbona approached William Davis and the villagers, advising him that Black Hawk may be launching an attack, waging war, killing, maiming and just generally destroying anything in his path.
The Davis villagers took the warning seriously, packed what they could in a wagon and hurried off to a fort in Ottawa. Davis judged himself to have been a fool for fleeing when nothing came of Shabbona’s warning. Black Hawk never attacked in the area at that time.
“Never again!” Davis swore to his peers. “That will be the last time we run away and hide. Next time we stay and fight if we have to.” At least that is what eye witnesses said they heard when a full-scale investigation followed the massacre of his family.
Black Hawk then crossed the Mississippi River from Iowa and entered Illinois. Hostilities increased, and war was declared. Chief Shabbona did not have the authority to keep his tribe under wraps. Many of his young warriors were ready to create mayhem. The chief went once more to Davis to caution him that this time the threat was imminent and real. Warriors would be coming to exact revenge on Davis for his mill and the manner in which he battered one of the Potawatomi. But Davis wasn’t home when Shabbona came with his warning. He was in Ottawa stocking up provisions. William’s family, friends and neighbors listened to Shabbona, believed every word and packed up to leave. In fact, they were on the road to Ottawa to escape harm when they crossed paths with William Davis. He was heading home to Indian Creek. He scoffed at the villagers, including his family and insisted they turn the wagons around and congregate at his place, where they would take their stand and teach the tribal warriors a lesson. He really thought he would be opening a can of whoop ass and destroying the wannabe warriors.
It didn’t work out that way. Shabbona was right this time and for whatever reason Davis was not prepared for an attack. He and a small number of men were working in his mill and others were tending to the fields when the attack came. Per one version of events, their guns were empty and standing in a distant corner of the mill. Their ammunition was in the house. The women and children were gathered in the house, doing chores, sewing garments, preparing meals and totally unprepared for what descended upon them so quickly and ruthlessly. The tribal war party numbered 60 to 70 men and emerged from the woods, racing through the fields and over William’s split rail fence.
The Hall sisters survived and were taken prisoner by the Natives. Their description of the massacre can be found online. I won’t even begin to repeat the graphic scenes here. Suffice it to say that when a state militia arrived in the aftermath, they were horror stricken. One of the Hall boys was able to flee on foot through the woods and ran undetected, to Ottawa IL.
The surviving villagers, members of the extended families, dispersed in the aftermath of the massacre, packing what they could on barges and river boats. They headed down the Illinois River to the Mississippi and points south, St. Louis and Tennessee seemed safer.
Jeremiah Stilley: Puget Sound Pioneer
Jeremiah Stilley is my third cousin, 4 times removed. That means we share a great grandfather, Anders Olofsson Stille (1639-1689). You may remember Anders as the man who married Annetje Pietersdr von Kouwenhoven in ‘New Amsterdam’. The two of them were responsible for all the Dutch and Swedish DNA in our system. Well, Anders is Jeremiah Stilley’s 3x great grandfather and that same Anders is my 7x great grandfather. So, 7 minus 3 tells me that Jeremiah and I are 4 times removed from each other. And the fact that I descend from one son of Anders (John Stilley) while Jeremiah descends from another son, Jacob tells me that we are 3rd cousins. And frankly that is way too far a separation for me to get revved up. But, on various ancestry related television shows the narrators do get pumped up about such connections. I mean, really? I can tell you that if we dig back far enough, we are all distant cousins and sooner or later we are all going to be removed. But anyway… this has been a small lesson in how we compute third cousins and all that 4 times removed stuff. And besides that: Jeremiah is famous for getting the city of Seattle off the ground. One of my favorite places to spend New Years Eve.
We met Jeremiah’s grandfather, Jacob, husband of Anne French in Western Pennsylvania. Jacob was the soldier who died when a fellow soldier’s gun accidentally discharged while working at a fort. Jacob’s son Tobias was Jeremiah’s father.
Jeremiah Stilley commenced his trek west in 1857. Considering the nation was about to plummet into the Civil War, he picked a good time to separate himself from the realities of living in the east. It was early in September 1857, that immigrant wagons known as “The Arkansas Company” slipped into Utah and their horrific place in American history.
Traveling from the northwest corner of Arkansas this caravan of 120 people was unique in its’ composition. Far from the stereotype of people on their last legs, hoping to strike it rich in California, these travelers were well to do and hoping to expand family enterprises. They were going to capitalize on the growing needs of the west coast. The caravan was in the wrong place at the wrong time. American President James Buchanan had recently ordered federal troops into Utah to guard against Mormon separatism espoused by Brigham Young. The Mormons were now suspicious of any non-Mormon traveling in their midst. They harbored the same deep-seated suspicions that Native Americans once held as the white guys from Europe arrived on the East Coast in 1620. The federal troops had not yet arrived in Utah but Brigham Young was going to jack up his followers and prepare them for war with Washington D.C. The folks in Salt Lake City refused to sell any provisions to “The Arkansas Company.” They were not cordial with the caravan. They made it clear the folks from Arkansas should leave quickly and find their way out of Mormon Country without hesitation.
The wagon train split off into two directions, never to meet again. The Baker Fancher party moved south through Mormon Country intending to take the Old Spanish Trail south and west through Utah. They would be slaughtered on September 11, by the Mormon Militia at Mountain Meadow, Hamblin, Utah, just 25 miles from the Nevada line. Mormon Major John Lee was held responsible in a federal court, fifteen years later, for carrying out the massacre of men, women and children. Only children deemed to be under 7 years of age had been spared and they were placed in bondage. It is believed by many historians who refuse to see Brigham Young as a God, that he was ultimately responsible for the conduct of his followers. In a public speech, Young referred to the massacre as “a little of the Lord’s Revenge.” The entire matter has a Reverend Jim Jones, Jonestown massacre feel to it.
Our ‘cousin’ Jeremiah had the good fortune of being with the caravan that headed north and west out of Salt Lake. Had Mr. Stilley’s choice favored the Old Spanish route, his story would not have been written. Jeremiah Stilley first settled on the Feather River in California and later built a squatter’s cabin in what is today Puyallup, Washington.
Jeremiah’s future wife, Mariah Burr, had an equally adventuresome tale to tell prior to meeting and marrying Jeremiah. She was the step-sister of Ezra Meeker of Oregon Trail fame and her acquaintance with him dates from a time the two families first crossed the Oregon Trail, one day apart.
Mariah Burr was the daughter of David Solomon Burr and Nancy North. Her family left Ohio in the Spring of 1854. It was their intent to reach Oregon before the end of Autumn and to begin a new life. Mariah was seven years of age and travelling in the company of many other families.
Jacob Meeker, her future father-in-law, was in an entirely different caravan. He was en route to Oregon to join his sons, Ezra, John and Oliver, who had made the trip two years previously. The two trains were about a day apart. Anyone who has played the game ‘Oregon Trail’ knows what happens next: Either provisions run low, a snake bites, a river floods or a battle takes place ending life for any number of the game’s participants. In the case of the Burrs and the Meekers, it was the dreaded cholera. Legend had it that Mr. Burr contacted the disease while burying one the victims of the disease. On that same day, the wagons that were following stopped to prepare a grave for Mrs. Jacob Meeker, also a victim of cholera. Two graves, a few miles apart along the Oregon Trail near the Nebraska/Wyoming border, mark a final resting place. In the first of the two trains we find the widow Nancy Burr. In the following caravan rode Jacob Meeker, the bereaved husband. The two spouses hooked up later and married at Fort Steilacoom on the Puget coast. The seven-year-old Mariah Burr became the step-sister of the pioneer Meeker brothers.
In 1862 Jeremiah either gave or sold his squatter’s cabin to Ezra Meeker. That September Jeremiah married Mariah Burr and they eventually settled into Buckley, Washington.
Following the Civil War, Charles Wood of Olympia, who operated a brewery, brought hops from England and sent some to Jacob Meeker, the father in the Meeker clan. His first harvest brought in $185. Shortly afterwards everyone wanted to plant hops. By 1884, there were more than 100 farmers growing hops in the Pacific Northwest. Native Americans from as far away as British Columbia came to plant, tend and harvest the crops. Chinese workers also came to help. The harvest was usually 3,000 pounds per acre. Ezra Meeker, Jeremiah’s brother in law, formed his own hop brokerage house and became known as the “Hop King of the World.” The dreaded hop lice showed up in 1891. The best efforts to kill the lice failed and the hop boom was over in less than a year. Everything went from boom to bust.
Cue Bruce Springsteen in the background singing his lament Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City:
“Everything dies, baby that’s a fact.
But maybe everything that dies some day comes back.
During the prosperity of the hop years, Ezra Meeker platted a town on 20 acres of his land, giving it the name Puyallup. His friend and neighbor over the past decade, J.P. Stewart immediately followed with three 20-acre plats north of Meeker’s plat. Additional plats by Meeker and others doubled the size of the town by 1888. The “corporation” of Puyallup was formed. The first ordinance dealt with the licensing of “drinking shops.” The corporation acquired land, laid out new streets, built wooden sidewalks, and generally acted like a real town council. The enterprise was slowed by the advent of something called ‘Statehood.’ Washington was admitted into the union as a state replete with governing bodies, statutes and paperwork. There were now legal hoops to jump through and requirements to be met. Puyallup went from company now to incorporated city.
After living in western Washington for 38 years the family took out a homestead in the Okanogan Valley in 1900. The Stilleys celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 1923. I am guessing they got hopped up on some of those fine Washington microbrews.
William Montgomery (1715-1779, The Overmountain Man
My Father’s 6th Great Uncle,
As a young man, this William Montgomery, distinguished himself from the other William Montgomerys of our lineage by separating himself from humankind in general. It appears that from the time of his birth he was always heading west, beyond the frontier and deeper into the wilderness, beyond the reach of the tentacles of European influence. He moved from the original Holston settlement (Wautauga) in the Blue Ridge of Virginia to Kentucky with his family of adult children and grandchildren and established a base camp at Logan’s Fort, near the headwaters of the Green River, the same Green River of Muhlenburg County “where Paradise lay.” It was also home to the children of Peter Smith of Round Hill who came into the lands on the heels of William Montgomery.
Logan’s Fort (aka Logan’s Station) was established in 1775 by William’s son-in-law, Benjamin Logan and John Floyd. There is the Floyd surname again, cropping up in our family stories at each step of the migration westward. Floyd and Logan had explored and surveyed the region the year prior and were now engaged in an early form of community development. They established stockades along the traces, or pathways, carved through the forests of Kentucky County. Families traveling together (safety in numbers) could seek refuge from possible Native attacks behind the palisade walls of Logan’s design. Logan’s Station was constructed on the Skagg Trace, a branch of the Wilderness Road, near Stanford KY.
In the fall of 1779 took refuge in Logan’s Station and remained there for several months. The stockade was no more than 90 by 150 feet and provided several cabins within for the use of families seeking shelter and safety. But safety was never guaranteed. Try as he might, General Logan could never protect even his own family from Native attacks. He did gain fame as an early version of Captain America. His reputation as a courageous fighter and tactical wizard in warfare, preceded him as he moved through the hills of Kentucky.
Logan was known to have rushed out onto the fields surrounding his stockade, while under heavy attack, to assist Burr Harrison back into the fort. Harrison had been wounded while fleeing from advancing Natives and fell on the ground short of the stockade. Logan ran to his side and pulled him to safety. Burr was of the same Harrison family that engaged in land speculation and plantation development with the men of the Davis family of Southwarke in Nansemond County VA.
General Logan had married Anne, the daughter of William Montgomery. William and his entourage of sons (William, John, Robert and Thomas) and son-in-law Joseph Russel left the safety of the fort and established a settlement near the headwaters of the Green River. They built four cabins on a property about 12 miles to the south and east of Logan’s Fort. Their presence was soon discovered by Natives and an attack ensued. The story of the attack has been told many times by countless authors and can all be found online. Suffice it to say details are gruesome.
William and his wife occupied one of the four cabins. Living under their roof were sons Thomas and Robert and two daughters, Jane and Betsy. Two younger children, James and Flora, were also residents of Cabin One. On the night of the attack, Thomas and Robert were exploring the region and miles away from the stockade. William’s wife was with daughter Flora twelve miles away at Logan’s Station.
William Junior and his wife occupied Cabin Two. They were joined by one child, Thomas and a boy who was bound over to them, either by slavery or indenture, the record is not clear. Cabin Three was home to newlywed John Montgomery and his wife. Cabin Four was occupied by Joseph Russel and his wife (the daughter of William Sr). Now that we have set the stage we can cut to the chase became exactly that, a bloody chase.
It was in March of 1780 that the settlement was forever wiped out. I’ll let D.B. Montgomery tell the story while I steal away into the kitchen and fry up some Nueske Applewood Thick Bacon to go with this Maple Bacon Fritter I found at Lisa’s Sweet Shop in downtown Wittenberg. Dang things are addictive. Seriously, I need a 12-step program to ween myself away from these things. Here’s D.B. to tell the story of the Demise of William Montgomery. I am going to have to prop D.B. up here somehow. This is like a scene out of Weekend at Bernies. Here we go.
“At night, a small body of Indians surrounded the cabins, which were built close to each other in a square. On the succeeding morning, between daylight and sunrise, William Montgomery the elder, followed by a negro boy, started out at the door of his cabin. They were immediately fired at and both killed by the Indians, the boys head falling back on the door sill. Jane, the daughter, then a young woman- afterward the wife of Colonel William Casey, sprang to the door, pushed out the negro’s head, shut the door and called for her brother Thomas’s gun. Betsy, her sister, about twelve years of age, clambered out of the chimney, which was not higher than a man’s head, and took the path to Pettit’s Station, about two- and one-half miles. An Indian pursued for some distance, but, being quite active, she was too fleet for him and reached the station in safety. From Pettit’s a messenger was immediately dispatched to Logan’s Fort.”
“For some cause or other, probably the call of Jane for her brother’s rifle, which was doubtless overheard by the Indians – they did not attempt to break into the cabin. William Montgomery Junior on hearing the first crack of a gun, sprung to his feet, seized a large trough of sugar water and placed it against the door and directing the servant boy to hold it, grasped his rifle, and through a crevice over the door fired twice at the Indians in rapid succession before they left the ground, killing one and severely wounding another. His brother John Montgomery was in bed, and in attempting to rise was fired upon through a crack and mortally wounded, his door forced open and his wife made prisoner. Joseph Russell made his escape from his cabin, leaving his wife and three children to the mercy of the savages. They, with a mulatto girl, were also made prisoners.”
“The Indians commenced an early retreat, taking their captives. As soon as the messenger from Pettit’s Fort reached Logan’s Fort, General Logan sounded his horn and a company of twelve or fifteen men, armed and equipped for battle, were at his side. They commenced their march, passed the cabins where the attack had been made and took the trail of the Indians. By the aid of some signs which Mrs. Russell had made by breaking a twig and scattering along the route pieces of white handkerchief which she had torn into fragments, Logan’s party pursued the Indians. Along the way they recovered a young girl who had been scalped and left for dead. She recovered. Logan continued his pursuit of the Indians, overtook them and ordered a charge. The Indians struck dead another young girl and then fled leaving the other prisoners behind. With the Montgomery family now safely in his command Logan wisely determined to return to the safety of the cabins before dark on the same day.”
Well, there you have it. Thank you D.B. for leaving out some of the bloody details. William Montgomery like his sister Catherine at Long Cane and his brother, James, at Fort Jackson met death at the hands of the Native Americans who could not and would not turn back the irrepressible push of the European invasion of their homeland. D.B. acknowledged that his version of the story was told by Jane Montgomery, one of the victims in the tragedy. Jane survived the onslaught and later married the aforementioned Colonel William Casey. Together Jane and the Colonel became the great grandparents of the iconic author, Mark Twain.
Captain Jesse Davis (1751-1818)
The son of Isaac Davis (1722-1771) and Elizabeth Kincheloe (1730-1796) Captain Jesse Davis was born in Prince William County, VA in 1751 and married Nancy Milton (1759-1849). The title ‘Captain’ distinguishes him from his son, Jesse Jr. The captain was my father’s first cousin, five times removed, making him a first cousin, 6 times removed to the children of JD Smith (my sisters and I). He descended from James and Rachel Davis of Jamestown.
The first mention of Captain Jesse Davis and his siblings appears in court records related to the Last Will and Testament of his father Isaac in 1771. Isaac identified his first-born son, William, as the executor of his will. The records reveal:
“William Davis, Jr. signed a deed Apr. 28, 1771 conveying to “Presley, Cornelius, Isaac, Travis, John, Warren, Jane and Mary Davis, brothers and sisters to said William Davis Jr lands of Isaac Davis, deceased, father to said William Jr, oldest son.”
To clarify William’s stature as ‘Junior’. His grandfather was William Davis (1695-1755), husband of Ellen Bland. It was not unusual to attach the suffix ‘Junior’ to a grandson, despite the fact that Junior’s father was named Isaac. It was again a matter of family pride, identifying with great names, great people, loved ones. As with so many things it was about keeping the names alive long after a person had departed. Kind of what this whole collection, this compendium, this miss mash of gibberish and innocuous perfidy is about. As an example: note the name Presley as one of Isaac’s children. It’s a Gordian Knot people, a tangled web of ancestors.
Land transactions help define our ancestor’s ‘search for meaning in life’ in a material sense. In 1784 Jesse and wife Nancy appear to transition from Prince William County VA to the lands that would become Kentucky. On April 2 they sign off on the transfer of 110 acres of land on Cedar Run in Prince William Co.
In 1797 a deed for 500 acres of land moves from the hands of William Davis Jr to Captain Jesse. These 500 acres had been issued to William Jr by the Colony of Virginia on May 7, 1797 as a bounty for his service in the Colonial Army. Records show the deed had been surveyed by Cornelius Kincheloe (1721-1810), a brother of Captain Jesse’s mother, Elizabeth Kincheloe Davis. Notice how these surnames keep cropping up as we travel from the east coast and inland.
The Captain appears in the annals of history as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He had quite a tour of duty. He was not the only patriot soldier found in our family tree, not by any means; but we are able to find numerous and valuable records that depict his adventures. Via these accounts we gain some insight into the lives of others who sacrificed much to gain the benefits of freedom.
Regarding the captain, the 1779 Virginia General Assembly resolution read as follows:
Resolved that Jesse Davis, who during the late war with Great Britain and America, served as a Captain for three years, be allowed land bounty for 4000 acres of land. Teste, true copy, J. J. Pleasants, H. Del. Jan. 4, 1804. Theo. Hansford, C. S. Warrants 5053-56 for 1000 acres each issued 10th Jan. 1804. Recorded Book Two, page 513.
An oath attesting to the value of the Captain’s service was submitted by Lt. Colonel Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. The Lee family of Westmoreland and Bull Run, predecessors of Robert E Lee.
Decades after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War our nation’s politicians realized the need to thank those soldiers who had put their lives on hold and their families at risk to secure freedom and establish a new nation. To that end the Congress established a reward system offering deeds to properties on the nation’s western frontier and menial monthly stipends to veterans or their widows. To qualify for said benefits the applications had to provide lengthy descriptions of the service provided by the soldier. The application had to be accompanied by sworn testimony provided by friends, family and comrades in arms who were aware of the applicant’s tours of duty. Such evidence was provided by William Milton Davis, the son of Captain Jesse Davis:
“Captain Jesse Davis and his rank as coming from his own lips and others who served with him in the Revolution, but who are now no more. I took a deep interest in hearing my father recount over the battles he fought, his marches and countermarches and his sufferings in the Revolution, so much so that I have a distinct recollection of his statements. He first entered the army as a private in 1776 where, after serving for some months, he returned home and commenced recruiting soldiers for the army and was commissioned a Lieutenant in one of the Virginia continental regiments. He returned to the Army with a full company commanded by Capt. Charles Gallihue. who in a short time died. My father got command of the company and was commissioned Captain in his stead and continued as such until the latter end of the year 1778. After fighting the battles of Brandywine, German Town and spending the winter in camp at Valley Forge and fighting the battle of Monmouth the [illegible word] having thinned the ranks of the Army, a consolidation of the different Regiments took place. Many of the officers were sent home as ‘supernumarys’ subject to be called into service again. My father never was called for and was always in readiness subsequent to this period at the time of the invasion of Virginia by the British. My father raised a company of volunteers and marched to meet the enemy. Before his arrival the enemy had fled or were taken. He was halted in the march and discharged and turned back. Afterwards he was engaged in procuring transportation for the American Army on their march to the north.”
The last sentence understates the work William’s father, Captain Jesse, performed regarding “transportation”. Transcripts from the time reveal that
“he was employed procuring wagons, teams and transportation for the American Army to go North. He procured his wife’s brother Milton as wagon master to transport the French Army to Boston.”
Soon after the war the Captain and several brothers and sisters moved to Kentucky. Included in the party were Jesse’s sister Jane and her husband Hugh Davis. They established the Davis Settlement on Simpson Creek near Chaplin Fork in Nelson County, KY. They built a fort there by the name of Fort Kincheloe, identified later as Burnt Station. Following the death of Captain Jesse’s father Isaac, Jesse’s mother, Elizabeth Davis married Rhodam Blancett. Rhodam owned a large plantation in Kentucky.
The Last Will and Testaments of the deceased could often be found on the dockets of the American court system long after the demise of the departed. Our family history has several notable cases. Few however remained subject to debate over such a length of time as that of Captain Jesse Davis. The Nelson County KY Court, Nov. 1849 certified that
“Jesse Davis, late of this county, who was formerly a Captain of the Virginia Continental line in the war of the Revolution departed this life in October 1818, testate, leaving the following children, his heirs at law:
- John Davis died with Smallpox at Long Island, 1776
- Presley Davis, of Shelby Co. KY; fell in battle at Long Island NY, 27 Aug 1776
- Elijah Davis, now of Nelson Co., Ken.;
- Nancy, now the wife of James Reynolds of Nelson Co.;
- Harriet, now the wife of Henry Williams of Shelby Co.;
- Elizabeth, the wife of Robert Moseby, who died intestate and without children;
- Jesse Davis, d. s. p.;
- Wilson Davis died intestate, leaving George, Thomas, and Harriet, his only children; and
- William M. Davis, who died testate, leaving Katherine as his only child and heir at law.
Nathaniel Wickliffe, Clerk of Nelson Co. Court. 19 Nov. 1844.”
Such delineation of the offspring of the originator of the will was a mandatory part of certifying just who was a legitimate heir to any aspect of an estate left in abeyance. The Captain died in 1818 and you will note Nathaniel Wickliffe is recording the above evidence in 1844. Five years later (1849) the matter was certified and reported. For what purpose I do not know. Still searching currently for the original issue at hand. Frequently, the matter involved the redistribution of properties following the death of a sibling and previous heir to the father’s bequest.
Nathaniel Wickliffe is a member of the Wickliffe clan found in our extended family tree. Arrington Wickliffe and his two brothers (Moses and Benjamin) enlisted for three years to fight under Captain Jesse Davis. They marched from Dumphries in Prince William County and joined the Eighth Regiment at Baltimore. They wintered at Valley Forge and were in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Arrington also fought at Yorktown under the command of French General Marquis de Layafette. Arrington married the daughter of Jessie Davis after the war.
Please also note the name Presley Davis, who died in battle on Long Island at the time that General George Washington was driving the British forces away from New York City. The name Presley is frequently found in other branches of our family tree. Following the marriage of James Smith and Elizabeth Presley Taylor, numerous children showed up in our tree with Presley as a name. So, the question emerges from this one small observation of the name ‘Presley Davis:’ Does this branch of the Davis family also descend from Colonel Presley?
I would be remiss if I didn’t also call attention to the tragic loss of life on Long Island in 1776. Captain Jesse Davis and wife Elizabeth lost two sons in that summer, both on Long Island. It is believed that Presley died in battle, while his brother John succumbed, as so many soldiers did, to Smallpox. The disease when first brought to the American continents (North and South) decimated Native American populations. In his epic work Guns, Germs and Steel, author Jared Diamond provides compelling evidence that the Smallpox was a forerunner of the nuclear weapon in terms of the massive devastation of a civilization.
Conversion on the Death Bed
The Methodist church at Chaplin was built on historic ground. The first Methodist sermon ever preached in Nelson County KY was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Ogden on the farm of Captain Jesse Davis. The Davis farm was located a half mile from the present site of the village of Chaplin. The following passage was submitted to a Nelson County paper by a patron of the church in celebration of the bicentennial year of the church.
“The Captain, it is said, had collected a quantity of logs for the raising of a house, and upon these extemporized into seats, the forefathers of the hamlet, sat listening to the gospel as proclaimed for the first time.”
“The first church building was an old-fashioned log edifice and was erected for this society during the year 1792. Some of the oldest inhabitants have a recollection of attending divine service in this building when they were so small that, becoming weary of the exercises, they would climb from the gallery through a crack in the wall, and then descend to the ground by means of a walnut sapling that grew thereby.”
“Some time during the year 1822, Jesse Davis Jr., son of the Capt. Davis, a man of influence and position in society, came to his death by tetanus, resulting from the sticking of a cornstalk in his foot. Before he died, he was converted and so triumphant and glorious was his death, that it made a wonderful impression upon the community This, taken in connection with his funeral sermon by Jonathan Stamper, and a protracted meeting conducted by Revs. Medley and Ferguson resulted in the conversion and accession to the church of over ahundred souls and in a flourishing condition.”
Captain Jesse Davis is identified as a child of Isaac Davis and Elizabeth Kincheloe in this pedigree chart. Notice the surnames of his ancestors Davis, Bland and Harrison; names that we found at Kincheloe Fort. Some of whom died at Burnt Station.
Pedigree Chart 29: Ancestors of Capt. Jesse Davis
To the right we see familiar names including the Canterburys, Kinseloes and the infamous Sydrach Williams.
