Jefferson-State County KyArchives Biographies.....DAVIS, Major William J. March 23, 1839 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: 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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