Genesee-Tuscola County MI Archives Biographies.....Davis, Alexander W. 1824 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 11, 2007, 4:29 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

HON. ALEXANDER W. DAVIS. One who made a record for himself during the period of
secession and the time when the country was divided in opinion as to the right
and justice of holding human beings in bondage and buying and selling them like
stock, is he whose name is given above. He was an uncompromising and radical
Union man during the late Civil War and one who became eminent as a war
legislator. He had strong opinions and was not afraid to speak them. He is a
native of Albany, N. Y., being there born October 30, 1824. He was a son of
Ebenezer and Phebe B. (Burhans) Davis, Although both our subject's parents were
natives of New York, he inherits a sturdiness of character from his Welsh
paternal ancestors, and balancing of ideas from his maternal ancestors, who were
Germans with a dash of both English and Irish blood. Mr. Davis was the fifth in
order of birth of the parental family. Prior to the admittance of Michigan to
the Union as a State, his parents' family, in 1836, removed to Tuscola County,
this State, coming by way of Canada to Detroit, and settling in Tuscola
Township, his father being the first permanent white settler in that district.
The first home which the family enjoyed in this State was a cabin covered with
bark and located in the midst of the woods. They experienced all the hardships
of pioneer life and were one of the many hard-working families who have
beautified and enriched the country as it now is. Their first purchase comprised
fifty acres of land for which they paid the Government $1.25 per acre. There was
a large family of children sheltered in the cabin, and those that are still
living are as follows: Amos; Alexander; Oliver; Jane, widow of the late Hon.
Alfred Holmes; Sarah, wife of Thomas Lewis; and Esther, now Mrs. Decker.

  The original of our sketch was reared for the most part in Tuscola County, and
as he attained manhood became one of the most enterprising citizens of that
portion of the country. With an ox-team he might almost any day have been seen
working industriously at clearing up the land. As a boy he attended school in
the district, and for a short time was a student at Albion Seminary, now Albion
College. He has been an extensive breeder and is practically well educated.
While at Albion he was a schoolmate of the present Gov. Winans, of Michigan.

  When nineteen years old Mr. Davis started out in life for himself and came to
Genesee County, where he was engaged in farm work, receiving $10 per month for
his services. He was thus employed for several years and was in the service of
Judge J. R. Smith for some three years, whose farm he now owns. In the spring of
1847 he enlisted in Company A, Fifteenth Michigan Infantry, and took part in the
Mexican War. He fought in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco under Gen.
Scott in Pillow's Division and Pierce's Brigade. The latter afterward became
President of the United States. Our subject was wounded in the right knee and
was confined to the hospital for a year, when he was sent to Baton Rouge, La.,
in October, 1848.

  After Mr. Davis' discharge from the war he returned to Michigan and in the
fall of 1850 started for California, going by way of New York and the Isthmus of
Panama. During an absence of three years he pursued gold mining and did fairly
well. He then returned by the same route, coming back to this State, and
purchased a farm in Grand Blanc Township. He resided upon this for many years
and then retired from the active life of agriculture and settled in the village
of Grand Blanc.

  Our subject was married September 27, 1853, to Miss Harriet W. McFarlen,
daughter of Joseph and Eveline McFarlen. Her parents settled in Grand Blanc
Township in 1828, where she was born July 31, 1830, being the fourth white child
born in this county, and at the present time the oldest living white person born
in this county. Her parents are still living and are among the oldest and most
respected pioneers of the county, the father being ninety-three years of age and
the mother ninety. Our subject has occupied various official positions in this
township. He has been Treasurer and has held the office of Justice of the Peace
for a quarter of a century. During the stormy period of the late war he was a
member of the State Legislature, which, because of the trouble, convened for two
extra sessions. During his service in this capacity he was Chairman of the
Military Committee. He is a Republican in politics, and socially has been
identified with the Masonic fraternity. He owns three hundred and sixty acres of
fine land, besides valuable village property. Mr. Davis is abreast of the times
in all the advanced ideas of the day, and the biographer found him to be a
well-informed and interesting gentleman with an exceeding interesting store of
pioneer history which he relates in a pleasing manner.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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