Caldwell County MO Archives History .....EARLY DAYS AT BLACK OAK 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 4:16 pm

			EARLY DAYS AT BLACK OAK
	Narrator:  Mrs. Kelley Brown of Far West

     Mrs. Kelley Brown is a grand daughter of John T. Davis who came from 
Illinois into Caldwell County just after the Black Hawk War where he served 
with the Illinois troops.  He and his wife Margaret Moore were married when 
she was sixteen years old.  When she was twenty-two they came into the county 
in the summer 1840 and built near Black Oak Grove as it used to be called.  
There were no windows or doors hung in the cabin.  They hung a wide cloth at 
the door and window openings.  He needed windows and some tools for his work, 
so he left her alone and went back over the long pioneer trail to Illinois to 
get them.  He was gone about three weeks and she used to build fires at night 
by the cabin door to frighten away the panthers who frequented those woods.  
The cry of the panther was something to scare you even at a distance, and 
especially terrible at your own door.
     The Davis brothers were the first settlers in what is now Davis Township 
after the Mormons left.  John T. Davis' place was a little south west of the 
present Black Oak village.  Davis Township was named after this family.  His 
father Dennis Davis (1791-1879) a Black Hawk soldier came into the county with 
his sons.  He and most of the Davis family are buried in the Black Oak 
Cemetery, which is quite early in date.
     Interview taken  July 1934.


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