Ada-Boise County ID Archives Biographies.....Davis, Thomas Jefferson 1838 - 1908
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 18, 2008, 10:44 pm

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1920)

Thomas Jefferson Davis

SEVERAL months prior to the establishment of Fort Boise, Thomas Jefferson Davis
had pitched his tent and taken a homestead upon the banks of the Boise river for
land which is all within the present town-site of Boise and a part of which was
in the original townsite. For the irrigation of this land he constructed the
first irrigation ditch from the Boise river, and under the decree of the
district court, establishing priorities for irrigation purposes, he was given
the first right to the waters of that river, and this right is today the
property of his children, who hold jointly the estate left by the father, having
incorporated the same under the laws of the state of Idaho under the name of the
Thomas Davis Estate. The United States land office was first opened at Boise in
January, 1868, and on the opening day Thomas Davis made the first proof and
received cash certificate No. 1, of which he was always justly proud, and the
government records today testify that, by five months, he was the first
agricultural settler in the Boise land district. Assisted by George D. Ellis,
who was at the time a business partner, about six months after his first
settlement, he built the first house in Boise. A few years afterward and just
prior to his marriage, he built another house, upon his homestead, and it was in
this house that all of his children were born.

   Mr. Davis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 2, 1838, and, having lost his
father in boyhood, was, under the custom of that time, "bound out," and labored
on the farm of Alexander Claycomb, near Monmouth, Illinois, and attended winter
school. At the age of twenty-three, he and his brother Francis joined a party of
seventy-five, which was bound for Florence, the great gold camp. He and his
brother were outfitted with mule teams, wagons and supplies by Alexander
Claycomb before leaving Illinois. After a hard trip across the country this band
of pioneers were lured by men who had designs on their property, to go by way of
a most inaccessible route over the Coeur d'Alene mountains, which necessitated
the abandonment of their sun-bonneted wagons, in which they had spent two months
creeping along the Indian trail, and most of their provisions, or the sale of
these at a shameful sacrifice to their traitorous guides, who offered five
dollars for outfits that cost from three hundred to five hundred dollars. Mr.
Davis determined not to be made a victim of such intrigue and, after advising
with the others, their supplies were piled together and burned with the wagons,
the party completing its journey to Elk City, Idaho, on horseback carrying a few
supplies on pack horses. Upon their arrival in Elk City, owing to depressing
reports from Florence, they abandoned the trip to that place and went to Walla
Walla. From Walla Walla, Mr. Davis went to Auburn, Oregon, and then to Idaho
City, where he mined with fair results, and in December, 1862, came to what is
now Boise, where he made his home continuously until his death, June 10, 1908.

   During the forty-six years in which he resided in Boise, Thomas Davis was a
careful business man and one of the city's most substantially progressive
citizens. He was a pioneer horticulturist and, as early as 1864, planted an
orchard of seven thousand apple trees, which he purchased at a dollar and a
quarter each, this being the pioneer apple orchard of Idaho, and, in later years
he planted additional orchards of pears, peaches, prunes and cherries, and built
a dryer, where he prepared a portion of his fruit crop for the trade in the
interior, where fresh fruit could not be delivered. During the growth of his
orchards to maturity he successfully engaged in gardening and marketed
vegetables over the country as far as the mining camps in the Owyhees, having
regular days for his wagons to visit the various camps. In addition to being a
pioneer horticulturist and gardener, Mr. Davis was a pioneer in every line of
commercial and business activity of Idaho, except that ever present pioneer, the
saloon. He was engaged in the cattle and horse business, ranging horses from the
Snake river into Nevada, with his ranch headquarters on the Bruneau; and ranging
cattle on Smith's Prairie and later in Long valley. His range cattle were of the
highest type, all being "white faces," and being for many years the only herd of
Hereford cattle in Idaho. In connection with his cattle business, he acquired
large land holdings in Long valley, and in the Boise valley what is known as the
"Government Island Ranch," the latter being for a number of years withheld from
settlement as a hay reserve for Fort Boise. This ranch, which is located just
across the river from the city of Boise, contains about eight hundred acres and
a large portion of it is today in vegetable gardens, which are quite pleasing to
the eye of the traveler entering or leaving the city by train or trolley. He was
engaged for a number of years, as a partner of the late Charles Himrod in the
mercantile business, their establishment occupying the building which today
houses the Delano-Thompson Shoe Company, and in connection with this enterprise
they operated freight teams between Boise and Kelton. He was a stockholder in
the old Bank of Commerce and one of the reorganizers of the Boise City National
Bank of which he became one of the largest stockholders.

   During all the years of his life in Boise and Idaho, Mr. Davis never sought
political office, but he was a faithful and conscientious elector, taking
sufficient activity in public affairs to assert himself in favor of everything
that went for the best interest of the city, state and nation. He was a firm
believer in and cast his vote with the republican party, standing firm with a
handful of personal friends when Boise and Idaho became free-silver mad. He
cared absolutely nothing for public opinion of himself. He desired but few
friends and these he wanted constantly with him.

   In 1869, Julia McCrum came from her home in Gault, Ontario, Canada, to visit
with her uncle, who was an army surgeon stationed at Fort Boise, and on April
26, 1871, she became the wife of Thomas Davis. They had a family of three sons
and three daughters: Marion, who died at the age of four years; Harry, who was
engaged in the cattle business, and died September 28, 1910; Edwin Horace, now
president of the Thomas Davis Estate, incorporated; Thomas Jefferson, manager of
the Davis Meat Company; Etta Davis Quinn, wife of W. L. Quinn, of Cleveland,
Ohio; and Hazel Davis Taylor, wife of Rowland C. Taylor, of Boise, Idaho.

   Julia Davis was one of the active pioneer women of Boise. She took great
pleasure in making the women in the families of the new arrivals in the great
west feel welcome and was generally the first to call upon a new family arriving
in Boise, going at times to greet them where their tents were pitched beside the
wagon trains and before they were definitely located. She was, until her death,
which occurred September 19, 1907, active and prominent in the social life of
Boise. She was a member of the Episcopal Church and always loyally followed its
teachings and liberally contributed to its support.

   Her death so greatly affected Mr. Davis, because of his advanced age, that he
followed her in less than a year and during that time there was coupled with his
great love for her memory a desire to perpetuate her name in Boise—the city
which he loved and knew he must soon leave, after having watched it grow from a
sagebrush wilderness. As a memorial to this much loved pioneer woman he gave to
the city a tract of forty-three acres extending along the water-front from
Eighth street to Broadway, to be always known as Julia Davis Park. This today is
Boise's chief park and has been developed with vast acres of velvety lawns,
plentifully supplied with shade trees, with flowers, walks and driveways winding
in and out, forming attractive landscape features. There is also a menagerie of
wild animals and the park affords pleasure for thousands of visitors year by
year, and band concerts are given there on Sundays during the summer season.

   It would have been a great pleasure to Thomas Davis to have lived to witness
a crowd at a Sunday band concert in Julia Davis Park. He was passionately fond
of music, was a violinist, and in the early days was a member of the Boise band.
He never missed an opportunity of hearing good music and on the evening of June
9, 1908, he could not deny himself the pleasure of hearing the Damrosch
orchestra, although he had not been out of the house for two weeks, and on the
morning after attending this concert he was found in his bed, as though quietly
sleeping, but life had fled.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO

DELUXE SUPPLEMENT

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1920


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