Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of John Davis

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Descendants of John Davis

Generation No. 2

2. JAMES² DAVIS (JOHN¹) was born Abt. 1762 in Augusta County, Virginia, and died 1831 in Wayne County, Kentucky. He married (1) NANCY POINTER Abt. 1782 in Virginia. He married (2) PRICILLA RICHARDSON in Tennessee. He married (3) MARTHA WELCH in White County, Tennessee.

Notes for JAMES DAVIS:
JAMES DAVIS, SOLDIER IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND TENNESSEE PIONEER

James Davis was born about 1762 in old Augusta County, Virginia. When he was seventeen years old in 1780, he enlisted in the 2nd Virginia Regiment during the American Revolution. Three of James' four older brothers were already serving in the Colonial Army with various other Virginia Regiments. In old hand written letters of great grandson J. M. Davis he relates the following. "When I was a small boy I stayed with my grandmother a good deal and she told me about some old time things. He (James) was with General Washington when they traveled over the snow and frozen ground, when many of the soldiers were barefoot." It is known that James Davis applied for a Revolutionary soldiers pension which was sent to J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War in 1819. At this time James was living in White County, Tennessee and fifty-six years old. In his application James states that he enlisted as a regular soldier in the Army of the United States at Goochland County, Virginia, in Captain Nathaniel Lamb's Company of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, Virginia Line. He also stated that he fought in an engagement with the British a little before the siege of York (Yorktown), and was present during the siege and at the surrender of General Cornwallis. He was discharged after the surrender, about eleven days before the expiration of his time. His pension was allowed on certificate number 11 287 and was issued June 03, 1819 at a rate of $8.00 per month. Judge Thomas Stuart, wrote a letter in James Davis' behalf on March 05, 1819 where he stated " He (James Davis) is old, infirm, in low circumstances and stands in need of the aid of his country for support."
After his service in the Revolution, James and his brothers left Virginia and headed for the Southwest Territory, It is believed they came to North Carolina, then briefly into present day East Tennessee. They moved on into Kentucky and founded in present day Clinton County, where they established Davis' Chapel. This community exists at present and is a few miles from Albany, Kentucky. Later his brothers settled in Wayne, Clinton and Logan, Counties of Kentucky.
James removed to Tennessee around the turn of the 19th century. He settled first in the lower Sequachie Valley in present day Marion County. In the early 1800's he obtained a large tract of land in the Big Bottom area of White County, Tennessee. This area is now a remote wilderness with little sign of the thriving community which James Davis and his descendants helped to establish. Much of the area is now a state owned "pocket wilderness" where only the foundation stones of a few log dwellings and the old Davis Graveyard remain. Big Bottom lies at the mouth of Scott's Gulf, a ragged canyon and valley with the Caney Fork River passing through it. The Big Bottom area is a large fertile plain at the end of "the gulf" seated between the Cumberland Mountains. There were many Indians in Scott's Gulf and several remained in this isolated area even after the Cherokee removal. Micajah (Cager) Scott is the oldest known white settler in Scott's Gulf and was living among the Indians in the 1790's. The first families to permanently settle and begin farming in the area were the Davis, Yates, Welch and Dodson families, all of whom share common ancestors today. James Davis was primarily a sustenance farmer. His stock was chiefly sheep and hogs which ran wild but were fenced out of corn and garden plots. Later family members would operate a grist mill in the area where corn was ground for meal and the Davis' also became known for growing large amounts of sugar cane along the river where they operated a cane mill for sorghum production.
James Davis traveled much during his life. He was twice widowed and married three times, the father of eighteen children, farmer, Methodist minister and an early Tennessee Pioneer. Many of his descendants still reside in White County today with many others in neighboring Cumberland and Van Buren Counties. The last known record of James Davis comes in the late summer of 1831 when he returned to Kentucky with his wife to visit a brother in Wayne County. While there he became ill and tried to return home to Tennessee however he died along the way and was buried on the roadside they traveled. His exact burial location is unknown.

THE HOUSE THAT JAMES BUILT

Life on the frontier was a constant challenge in the early 1800's. They had many dealings with Indians in the area and the settlers learned from them. J. M. Davis penned the following about the early settlers of Scott's Gulf and Big Bottom. " Their principle food was wild meat with plenty of game and they often killed bears and made bacon out of them".
Many years ago J. M. Davis wrote the following about James Davis' home.
"I have spent many nights in the old house which great-grandfather James Davis built. It was about thirty-six feet square and was built of logs, having just one room. The chimney was of stick and clay and the fireplace about ten feet wide. The door on the upper side was about level with the ground, and when they wanted to put on a back log, they would put rollers under it and roll it to the fireplace. The door shutters had been riven out and dressed and the doors were lapped over just as weather boarding is now. The house was covered with boards about four feet long, and the joists, which had been hewn out, were large enough to make very good house logs...the house is torn down now and the new one on the farm is very near the same place.... The old log house was near the Davis Cemetery up the road from the "new" house which was built in 1855-1856 by a grandson and namesake, James Davis (1831-1917)".

WILL OF JAMES DAVIS

In the name of God, Amen. I, James Davis, of the County of White and State of Tennessee, being in perfect health of body and of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God - Calling to mind the mortality of body and knowing that it is appointed for man once to die: Do make and ordain this my last will and testament, that is to say, principally and first of all I give and recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God who gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth, to be buried in decent Christian burial at the discretion of my Executors, nothing doubting but the General Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God; and as touching such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, devise and dispose of the same in the following manner and form.

"First I give and bequeath to my wife Martha Davis one certain part of the tract of land I now live on, to include the dwelling house, and to a certain ditch that runs across my plantation, to keep in her possession until her decease, also the household furniture, with all the working tools."

"Also I give to my son Ephraim Davis the balance of the said tract from the ditch above mentioned; also I give to my son Ephraim the balance of my tract of land at my wife Martha Davis' decease; likewise, I constitute and ordain my son Ephraim Davis and Woodson White the sole Executors of this my last will and testament."

"Also I give my son-in-law William Burks one dollar. I also give my son-in-law Archibald Welch one dollar; I also give to my daughter Priscilla Davis one dollar; also, the balance of my estate to be equally divided between the balance of my sons and daughters by them freely to be possessed and enjoyed."

"I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke and disannul all and every former testament, will, bequests, Executors by me in any ways before names, willed and bequeathed, ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twelfth day of August, Eighteen hundred and thirty-one.

/s/ James Davis (His X Mark) (seal)

More About JAMES DAVIS:
Burial: Kentucky
Military service: American Revolution, 2nd Virginia Regiment
Occupation: farmer and Methodist minister

Notes for NANCY POINTER:
Nancy's maiden name "Pointer" is sometimes pronounced as "Panther" by some Davis descendants in the White County, Tennessee area.

Notes for PRICILLA RICHARDSON:
Among the children in this line of the James Davis Family, Cornelius was killed in White County and the rest of the living children all resided in Big Bottom, White County, Tennessee but eventually left for parts unknown.

Children of JAMES DAVIS and NANCY POINTER are:

3.	i.	EPHRAIM³ DAVIS, b. 1783, Southwest Territory, possibly western North Carolina or East Tennessee; d. 1843, Big Bottom, White County, Tennessee.
	ii.	ABSOLOM DAVIS, b. Abt. 1785; m. LUCINA NICHOLS.
4.	iii.	ROBIN DAVIS.
	iv.	POLLY DAVIS, d. Unmarried.
	v.	UNKOWN DAVIS.
	vi.	UNKOWN DAVIS.

Children of JAMES DAVIS and PRICILLA RICHARDSON are:

	vii.		UNKOWN³ DAVIS.
	viii.		JAMES DAVIS.
	ix.		CORNELIUS DAVIS.
	x.		WESTLEY DAVIS.
	xi.		TOM DAVIS.
	xii.		BILL DAVIS.

Children of JAMES DAVIS and MARTHA WELCH are:

	xiii.		AMBERS³ DAVIS.
	xiv.		ISAAC DAVIS.
	xv.		MATTIE DAVIS.
	xvi.		NANCY DAVIS.
	xvii.		UNKOWN DAVIS.
	xviii.		UNKOWN DAVIS.

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