Thomas-Oglethorpe-Mitchell County GaArchives Biographies.....Davis, William E. 1839 - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 24, 2004, 1:20 am Author: William Harden p. 951-953 WILLIAM E. DAVIS. One of the oldest residents of the town of Meigs, and a representative of a family which has been identified with Georgia for several generations. Mr. Davis has had a long and interesting career. He is a native of Oglethorpe county, where he was born December 19, 1839. His father, William J. Davis, who was born in Virginia, December 14, 1802, at an early age was left an orphan and then went to live with an uncle, Middleton Pope. Soon afterward the Pope family came to Georgia, and he was reared on a farm in Oglethorpe county, his uncle being one of the first settlers there. Middleton Pope acquired large tracts of land in that part of the state, operating them with slave labor. His wife survived him and spent her last days in Athens. Their only child married David C. Barrow, of which union was born Pope Barrow. Early in his career William J. Davis bought land in Oglethorpe county, having slaves to work it, and lived there until his death on September 8, 1858. He married Angelina Lumpkin on the 24th of December, 1827. She was born in Oglethorpe county. June 28. 1801, and belonged to one of the most prominent families in Georgia during the first half of the last century. Her father was Rev. George Lumpkin, a native and lifelong resident of Oglethorpe county, where he conducted a farm and also performed the duties of a pioneer minister of the Missionary Baptist church. A brother of this minister was a governor of the state of Georgia, and another brother was Judge Joseph Lumpkin. Mrs. William J. Davis died on December 21. 1847. Both she and her husband were members of the Missionary Baptist church. They were the parents of eleven children, named as follows: George, Middleton, Sarah, Annie J., Matilda, Martha A., William E., Mary, Lucy Pope, Howell Cobb, and Josephine. William E. Davis was sixteen years old when his father died, and his older brother Middleton then returned home and became head of the family until its members had found homes of their own. Not long after attaining manhood and taking up the serious duties of life, the war broke out and William E., then a young man of twenty-two, enlisted in May, 1861, in Company K of the Eighth Georgia Infantry under Colonel Barton. The command went to the front and was attached to Longstreet's corps in the army of North Virginia, participating in many of the campaigns and battles in the principal seat of the civil conflict. He was in the first battle at Manassas Junction, and a few days later was within a few miles and in plain sight of the city of Washington. The seven days' fighting around Richmond, the Wilderness, Williamsburg, Martinsburg, were other notable engagements in which he did a soldier's part. At Mechanicsburg, Company K and another company were sent out to meet the Yankees. All were lying on the ground when a shell burst above them. Mr. Davis was stunned by one of the fragments while the men on each side of him were killed outright, and he was covered with their blood. The companies retreated and he was left for dead among his slain comrades. After a time, when he recovered consciousness, he observed that the enemy had occupied the field all about him. Keeping still and watching his opportunity, he finally crawled into a swamp, and at night found his way back to camp, where he was passed by the pickets. He then lay down among his sleeping comrades, and the next morning afforded them a surprise as though returned from the dead, and they hailed him as the dead man. His captain had already dispatched a letter informing Mr. Davis' sister of his death on the field of battle, and it was some time before the truth came to end her bereavement. Mr. Davis performed a strenuous service as a southern soldier until the spring of 1864, when on account of disability he was honorably discharged and returned home. As soon as he had recovered, however, he was back in service, this time in the Twenty-ninth Battalion of Georgia Cavalry, and was in the coast defense until the close of the war. In May, 1865, his duty to the southland had been discharged and he went to his sister's home in Decatur county. He arrived so destitute of clothing that she tore up one of her dresses to make him a shirt. Mr. Davis is one of the honored citizens who, at the close of the war, set to work in the reconstruction of their own fortunes and the rebuilding of a new industrial society. His first employment was as overseer on a Decatur county farm, where he remained two years. He then paid six hundred dollars for sixty-two and a half acres of land in Mitchell county, rebuilt a log house that stood on the place, and there commenced his career as an independent farmer. From that time to the present, through much hard labor and careful management during the earlier years, he has been on the highroad to material prosperity. In a few years he sold his first place and bought two hundred and fifty acres fifteen miles southwest of Camilla, which continued to be his home for about ten years. He then sold and bought a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres six miles southeast of Camilla, and lived there until 1884. In that year he transferred his residence to Thomas county and the vicinity of the present town of Meigs, buying one hundred and twenty-five acres close to the present townsite. A sawmill, a turpentine still and a commissary then comprised all the activities at the point, and he has witnessed every important addition to the town. He afterwards increased his land to three hundred acres, and continued to operate it and make it his home until 1911, in which year he moved into town and built a comfortable residence for his declining years. His home is surrounded by a considerable tract of land in the cultivation of which he keeps himself busy. Mr. Davis was married in 1867 to Miss Martha Evans. She was born in Baker county, this state. Her father. Alfred Evans, a native of Alabama, who was left an orphan, came to Georgia, settling in Baker county, where he lived some years, then moved to Deeatur and later to Mitchell county, and finally to Cairo, which was then in Thomas county but is now the county seat of Grady county. At Cairo he bought a farm now included in the town limits, and lived there till his death at the age of fifty-two. Alfred Evans married Grace Ann Smith, who died at Cairo aged seventy-two years, and she reared ten children. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are the parents of eleven children, namely: William M., Alfred, Leonora, Eussell, Mattie, Gordon, Lucy, Haggard, Clifford, Herbert and Eossa. William has been twice married, his first wife being Delia Adams and his second Bessie Brandage. His eight children, all by the first wife, are Roscoe, Annie, Emma, Meda, Johnnie, Ernest, Ruby and George. Alfred, the second son, married Katie Wilkes, and their children include Lois, Wilkes, Edwin, Harrold and Kathleen. Leonora married J. J. Boswell, and they have one son, Julian. Russell married Nabbie Grant, and they have four children, Jewell, John, Evans and Nina. Mattie is the wife of J. D. Atkinson, and her two children are Grace and Clifford. Gordon married Mittie Lay. Lucy is the wife of J. A. Sasser, and their three children are Lueille. Ina and Mildred. Haggard married Hattie Redfern. Clifford is the wife of Hayward Singleton, and has two children, Huldah and Haffar. Herbert married Jimmie Golden, and they have one son, Frederick. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have enjoyed long and prosperous lives, have provided well for themselves and children, and in the evening of life their greatest pleasure is in the large family of children and grandchildren who honor and venerate them. All the family are members of the Baptist church. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/thomas/bios/gbs438davis.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 8.4 Kb