Jefferson-State County KyArchives Biographies.....DAVIS, Major William J. March 23, 1839 - 
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Milisia Hanlin NineBetweens@aol.com January 15, 2009, 7:09 pm

Author: A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representatives Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. E. Polk Johnson.

Biography of Major William J. DAVIS, Monticello, Fairfield County, South 
Carolina to Louisville, Kentucky, USA

“Major William J. Davis—It is always interesting to take up the life of one 
who had been devoted to the public affairs, whether in those affecting the 
greater divisions of the country or those of the township or county. Major 
DAVIS had not only a record of a live spent in honorable activity in private 
affairs but has devoted time and service to the public matters of his country; 
have been engaged in educational pursuits; has written extensively on several 
classes of subjects; including many scientific works, and is connected with a 
number of societies of scientific research.”

“Major DAVIS has a fine ancestry, which is a good beginning, for anyone and 
has much to do with feature of the individual. His lineage bespeaks long and 
prominent identification with the annals of American history, while 
representative of the name have shown that intrinsic loyalty and patriotism 
which had led them to take an active part in the great conflicts through which 
the republic was established and has been perpetuated.”

“Major William J. DAVIS, well-know retired citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, 
was born near Monticello, Fairfield County, South Carolina…” [End of P:1055] 
[Start of P: 1056] “….on the 23rd of March, 1839, the son of William KINCAID, 
and Sarah (Zimmerman) DAVIS. William K. DAVIS was born in 1809, and died in 
1871. He was a cotton planter of Fairfield County, South Carolina, later a 
cotton factor of Charleston, South Carolina, to which city he removed in 1848. 
His paternal ancestry dates back in America to David DAVIS, whose father 
purchased thirty thousand acres of land from William PENN, which was afterward 
incorporated into New Castle, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and was settled 
by a colony from Wales in 1701, known as the “Welsh Tract Baptists.” The 
colony included the famous divine, John DAVIS. William, Nathan, and Francis 
DAVID, of Pembroke County, Wales, of this family, were noted preachers of the 
seventeenth century. John DAVIS, the son of David DAVIS, when a young man 
removed from New Castle, Pennsylvania, to Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1770, 
bought a large tract of land in Craven, afterwards Fairfield County, South 
Carolina, and settled there with his seven sons. He equipped a company in the 
Revolutionary war and died in 1785. One of these seven sons, James DAVIS, born 
in 1754, and died in 1822, was a member of a company of cavalry in Sumpter’s 
brigade and attained the rank of captain. Five of his brothers were killed in 
that war. He married Mary Ederington, who lived to the advance age of ninety-
nine years. Rev. Jonathan DAVIS, son of Captain James and Mary (Ederington) 
DAVID and grandfather of Major William J. DAVIS, our subject, was born in 
1786, and died in 1853. He was a planter of large wealth and became a Baptist 
minister, built the church near Monticello, Fairfield County, South Carolina, 
in which he preached, and married Rebecca, daughter of James KINCAID, captain 
of Sumpter’s cavalry and for a time under General Marion. He had seven sons 
and four daughters, William K., father of the Major, being one of the sons.”

“Major William J. DAVIS received an excellent mental training, first in the 
private school and then in the High School of Charleston, South Carolina, 
afterwards attending the ‘Citadel’ Military Academy and College of South 
Carolina, from which he was graduated in the class of 1857 with the highest 
distinction, ranking first in every branch of study save one. He was captain 
of the corps of cadets and was appointed assistant professor in his senior 
year and accorded extraordinary privileges. At the age of nineteen years he 
was appointed principal of the Murfreesboro Military Academy; commissioned 
first lieutenant of South Carolina infantry January 19, 1861, and promoted 
captain in June, 1861. Being transferred to the Western army, he joined 
General John H. Morgan’s cavalry January 19, 1863, as volunteer aide-de-camp, 
first brigade. He was then made commander of scouts and afterward, on April 
12, 1861, captain and adjutant-general of Duke’s brigade, Morgan’s Calvary, 
serving as such during the celebrated Ohio raid and being captured in July, 
1863. For fifteen months he was held as a prisoner of war, until specially 
exchanged in the latter part of 1864, when he rejoined the command in 
southwest Virginia. After the capture of Richmond he served for a time as 
major and assistant adjutant-general to General John C. Breckenridge, and 
disbanded with the command at Woodstock, Georgia. During the war he was 
wounded five times, but no disability has resulted there from.”

“In May, 1866, Major DAVIS removed to Louisville, and became a teacher in the 
public schools, being in 1867-68 principal of the Fifth ward school. In an 
estimate of the relative value of the professions and different business 
interests to which many may give his attention, educate is by many accorded 
the foremost place, and upon the educator devolves a responsibility such as is 
shared by few. He has to do with the formative period, when are established 
the habits and character of the individual, and there are few men who have 
attained to any distinction or prominence who do now acknowledge their 
indebtedness or at least the stimulus for their later activity to some 
educator who had had direct influence upon their plans and purposes of life. 
In this connection, Major DAVIS is deserving of more than passing mention. 
Instructor and author, he had ever worked toward high ideals, and he had the 
power of imparting to other much of his own zeal and unflagging interest in 
the work. After the principal ship of the Fifth ward school the Major then 
accepted the position of general agent for John P. Morton & Company, in charge 
of the educational department, and was editor of “Home and School” and “School 
Messenger” journals devoted to educational interests, from 1868 to 1877. In 
1877, he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Louisville School Board, 
which position he held for a period of over twenty-five years.”

“Major DAVIS had contributed largely to educational progress as a teacher, as 
an official of the school board, as a writer and by institute work in 
Kentucky. He is the author of “Davis’ Primer and Word Methods”; “Sunlight and 
Starlight” an astronomical treatise; “Philosophy of Physical Phenomia; a 
Chapter in Metaphysics”; “The Earth, Its Place and …” [End of P:1056] [Start 
of P:1057[ “….Its Motions”; “Ocean Currents”; “The 
Air”; “Climate”; “Mountains”; “Soils”; “The Solid Earth”; “The Crust of the 
Earth”; “The Story of the Rocks”; “The Birth of a Continent”; “The Sea”; “Life 
On The Earth”; “The Brain”; “Kentucky Edition of Electic Geographies”, 
together with many monographs on the cognate subjects. He was paleontologist 
and statigraphist of the Kentucky State Survey from 1879 to 1891, when the 
survey was discontinued, and determined the formation in which natural gas was 
found in western Kentucky. As geologist of the Rock Gas Company, he decided on 
the location of the gas wells in Meade County, from which the gas was 
conducted to the city of Louisville.”

“At the result of his geological investigations, he had published brochures 
on “Natural Gas’; “The Falls of Ohio: “The Physical Foundations of 
Louisville”; “The Water Supply of Louisville”; “Geology of Jefferson County” 
and “The Fossil Corals of Kentucky”, a monograph of the Silurian and Devonian 
formations of Kentucky, a handsome folio, illustrated with on[e] hundred and 
forty autotype plates, figuring one thousand sample, five hundred pages, 
published by the state of Kentucky in 1880. Of the three hundred and fifteen 
species of fossil corals figured and described in this work, one hundred and 
sixty-eight are founded by Major DAVIS. He has also discovered on “Family” and 
seven “Genera”, and his collection is known thought the scientific world as 
containing a greater number of well preserved and typical examples than any 
other. Paleontologists from all parts of the United States and Europe have 
visited it and pronounced it unequalled. It contains many thousand imposing 
and beautiful specimens, and the value placed upon it by experts at a low 
estimate is fifteen thousand dollars.”

“Major DAVIS, in addition to being a scientist and practical geologist, 
possesses the faculty of imparting knowledge to others and is a popular and 
attractive lecturer upon geology, physical geography and collateral subjects. 
In early life he courted the Muses and is the author of may short 
poems: “Gentleness”, a sonnet: “The Printer’s Dream”, a poem read by him as 
poet-elect before the Kentucky Press Association at Henderson in 1874, and two 
sonnets, “The Phosphorescent Sea” and “Summer and Winter”, have been largely 
copied.”

“In politics, Major DAVIS had always been a Democrat, but not an office 
seeker, his interest in life tending toward scientific and educational work. 
He is a member of the Confederate Association of Louisville; of the Filson 
Club; of the Salmagundi Club since its formation in 1878, and for five years 
in succession its president; lately of the Conversation Club; of the Sons of 
the American Revolution; and of the Confederate Association of Kentucky.”

“On December 6, 1866, Major DAVIS married Frances, the daughter of Cleland 
CUNNINGHAM, of Springfield, Kentucky, and his wife, Rebecca OFFUTT, of 
Woodford County, Kentucky. This union had been blessed with eight children, 
six sons and two daughters.” 

Source Citation and Source Information:
A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representatives Men in 
Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. E. Polk Johnson. Lewis Publishing 
Company. 1912. Item Notes: V. 2. Original from Harvard University. Digitized 
January 23, 2008. PP:1055-1057. http://books.google.com/books?id=FXQUAAAAYAAJ.



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