Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Davids, John Wesley 1918 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net November 14, 2009, 2:13 pm Portland Observer, 12 Feb 1918 John W. Davids Dies Born in Danby, Education in Portland and Albion. Had Held Pastorates In Important Michigan Towns. Went on Super?? List Three Years Ago and Settled at Charlotte. Rev. John Wesley Davids died at his home in Charlotte last Thursday. He was born in Danby, on the old Davids homestead, Oct. 3, 1854, and prior to entering Albion college attended school in Portland. For two years he boarded with Mr. and Mrs. James Churchill. He graduated from Albion in June, 1882, married Miss Clara Shelley, of Ionia, the same summer, joining the M. E. Michigan conference in the fall. His first charge was Coral. There his wife died, leaving one child, John Ward Davids, now residing on the homestead in Danby, who was seven weeks old at the time of his mother’s death. Rev. Davids’ second wife, who survives him, was Miss Alice Smith, who was teaching school at Lowell, where the pastor moved from Coral. After having held pastorates in several Michigan towns Rev. Davids united with the Minnesota conference and preached at St. Paul for a time. There four of his children, by the second wife, died of scarlet fever within four days. Three were born later and are now living. They are Mrs. Joy Keith of Battle Creek; Clara and Mabel Davids, who attend Albion college. The first named will graduate in June. Among the Michigan towns were he preached are Muskegon, Decatur, Kalamazoo, Carson City, Homer, Stanton, Whitehall. An unusual incident happened at Coral. The child of a German Catholic couple had died and for some reason a priest could not be obtained for the funeral. Rev. Davids, on Sunday, read from the pulpit notice of the child’s death as it had been written – in German. People went to their homes and the story spread that the new Methodist pastor could speak German. Later in the day the child’s relatives called to see if the pastor would not conduct the funeral service and talk in German. He had picked up the language at Albion and was a bit rusty on it, but he had 24 hours in which to prepare and gave a talk that satisfied the bereaved family. They showed their appreciation, as did several of their friends, by sending the preacher a neat little sum of money. Some years before his retirement, Rev. Davids visited England, France and the Holy Land. He was well educated and was considered an able man in his profession. While he was worth probably $30,000 at the time of his death, it represented the savings of years, and the interest thereon. His brother, Samuel, now a resident of Portland, handled the pastor’s savings and kept the money drawing interest, a little being added to principal year after year. About three years ago, having been in the ministry for… [Transcriber's Note: The rest of this copy of the obituary is unreadable.] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/d/davids1381nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb