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J. R. Davis	JOHN R. DAVIS - See JOSEPH W. DAVIS Source:  A Centennial Biographical History of Champaign Co., Ohio - Illustrated - New York and Chicago - The Lewis Publishing Company - 1902 - Page 546
J. W. Davis	JOSEPH W. DAVIS.  A general history is but composite biography it naturally follows that the deepest human interest in study and investigation must lie along those lines where thought has endangered achievement, not less for the general than the individual good.  In any locality where progress has left its consecutive tracings there must ever be a dominant interest in reverting to the lives which have been an integral part of such advancement,  - whether on the lofty lain of "massive deeds and great," or on the more obscure levels where honest purpose and consecutive endeavor play their part not less nobly and effectively.  The Buckeye state is peculiarly rich in historic lore, and it can not but be a matter of gratification to find in these latter days of electrical progress that to the favored commonwealth remains a numerous progeny of those who stood as founders and builders of the state's prosperity. In the case at hand we are permitted to touch briefly upon the life history of one who is a native son of the city of Meehanicsburg, Champaign county, where he has ably upheld the high reputation maintained by his honored father, both as a citizen and a business man, while it was his to render yeoman service as one of Ohio’s loyal sons who went forth in defense of the Union when its integrity was menaced by armed rebellion.  “Peace hath, its victories no less renowned than war," said Sumner, and this fact has been proven often and again, as the march of progress has continued with ever accelerating speed.  But. the crucial period and the one which evokes the most exalted patriotism is that when a nation's honor is in jeopardy, its integrity threatened and the great ethic principles of right involved.  Then is sterling manhood roused to definite protest and decisive action, and above all the tumult and horror of internecine conflict never can greater honor be paid than to him who aids in holding high the standard which represents the deeper principles, hurling oppression back and keeping the boon of liberty.  The military career of the subject of this review is one which will ever redound to his honor as a loyal and devoted son of the republic, and as one whose courage was that of his convictions, and yet one who was content to fight for principle and for his country's righteous cause rather than for mere glory in arms or relative precedence.  That he is eminently entitled to consideration in a publication of this nature is self-evident, and as one who has played well his part in connection with the public, civic, industrial and military affairs of Champaign county we are gratified to here offer a resume of his career, thus perpetuating a most worthy record.      Joseph Ware Davis, who is successfully engaged in the furniture and undertaking business in Mechanicsburg, is a native of this town, where he was born on the 30th of October, 1842, being a son of John M. and Affalandert (Pearce) Davis, the former of whom was one of the honored and prominent business men of Mechanicsburg in the early days, having been engaged in the same line of enterprise as is our subject and having continued operations in this direction for a period of nearly twenty years, ever commanding the confidence and esteem of the community and being known as a man of unbending integrity of purpose.  He was significantly the artificer of his own fortunes, since he was thrown upon his own resources when a mere boy, but this unfortunate contingency, involved in the death of his parents, was not sufficiently potent to greatly handicap the career of the ambitious and self-reliant youth, who bent circumstance to his will and advanced to a position of independence through his own efforts.  John M. Davis was born in the city of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and he was left an orphan at the age of three years, a circumstance which naturally clouded his youth to a considerable degree, in that it threw him upon immature and unsatisfactory resources.  However, he availed himself of such advantages as presented, and in preparing for the active responsibilities of life he learned the carpenter's trade, in the city of Philadelphia, becoming a skilled artisan in the line and thus being adequately equipped for the battle of life.  As a young man he came to Ohio and located in the city of Urbana, Champaign county, where he made his home for some time and where he nearly lost his life in the memorable cyclone of 1832, his few worldly possessions being also practically destroyed at the time.  He took up his residence in Mechanicsburg in 1835, and here success came to him as the result of his energetic and honorable efforts, for, as a furniture dealer and undertaker, he secured a large supporting patronage and attained a fair competence.  He was a director of the underground railroad and was one of the first six to vote the abolition ticket in Mechanicsburg.  He was conscientious in feeding and assisting the slave in his road to liberty, believing it was not in accordance with God’s will.  His death, in 1884, at the age of seventy-eight years, terminated a career of signal useful ness and honor.  He held membership in the Methodist Protestant church, while his devoted wife, a woman of gentle and noble attributes of character, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.  She survived him by more than a decade, entering into eternal rest in 1896, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years, secure in the love and filial solicitude of her children, whom she had reared to years of usefulness and honor.      Joseph Ware Davis, the subject of this sketch, secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of Mechanicsburg and here he learned the cabinetmaker’s trade in his youth, having just completed his trade at the time when the dark cloud of civil war cast its gruesome pall over the national horizon. He was among the first to tender his services in defense of the Union, for three years’ service, since on the 9th of August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company B, Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for a term of three years, and in 1863 he veteranized, re-enlisting in the same company and being promoted to the office of commissary sergeant of his regiment, while at the time of receiving his honorable discharge, on the 18th of July, 1865, he held the office of lieutenant, being mustered out with this rank.  During the first year of his service he was with his command in Virginia, and at Harper’s Ferry he was taken prisoner by the Confederate forces, but was eventually exchanged, after which he accompanied his regiment to the southwest, being assigned to Logan's division and McPherson's corps, with which he participated in the movements and engagements of the Army of the Tennessee, taking an active part in the siege of Vicksburg.  He was an eye witness to the meeting of Generals Grant and Pemberton between the Confederate and Union lines, which resulted in the surrender of the army that had so ably defended the city for forty days, and on the following day, July 4, 1863, he marched with Logan's division into the city.  Later he was with Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and the memorable march to the sea, making the long and weary march through the Carolinas.  His active service terminated with the surrender of General Joseph Johnston, at Raleigh, North Carolina, and after the great victory crowned the Union arms he proceeded with his command to the city of Washington, where he took part in the grand review of the victorious armies.  From the federal capital the regiment proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, where Mr. Davis received his honorable discharge, his record having been that of a valiant and faithful soldier.  He retains the most lively concern in all that touches the welfare of his old comrades in arms, whose ranks are being so rapidly decimated by the .one invincible foe of mankind, and he is ever ready to recall the kindlier associations of that crucial epoch with which he ,was so closely identified as a soldier of the Republic.  He is prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, being a member of Stephen Baxter Post, No. 8, in his home city, and his popularity in the same has been shown in his having served as commander of the post for three terms.      After the close of the war Mr. Davis returned to his native city, and here he turned his attention to contracting and building, in which line he gained prestige and success.  His interest in public affairs has long been of vital order and he has figured as one of the uncompromising supporters of the principles and policies of the Republican party, in whose councils and cause he has played an active part.  He served for nine years as a member of the city council of Mechanicsburg, was for three years incumbent of the office of treasurer of Goshen township, and for eight years he rendered efficient service as a member of the local board of education.  A further mark of the confidence and esteem reposed in him by the people of his native county was that shown in 1888, when he was elected to the office of treasurer of Champaign county, giving an able and discriminating administration of the fiscal affairs and being chosen his own successor at the expiration of his first term of two years, so that he was consecutively in tenure of the office for a period of four years, during which he resided in the city of Urbana, the official center of the county.  Upon retiring from office a resumption of his former vocation seemed inexpedient, and Mr. Davis therefore turned his attention to the line of enterprise in which his father had been so prominently engaged, and he has built up an excellent business, having a large and comprehensive stock of furniture and having the best modern equipment as a funeral director.  His correct business methods and his personal popularity have conserved the success of his enterprise and he is numbered among the progressive and representative, business men of his native city.  He and his wife are both zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in whose work they take an active part, and fraternally our subject is identified with Mechanicsburg Lodge, No. 113, F. & A. M., of which he was worshipful master for a period of three years.  He has ever shown a marked appreciation of the duties of citizenship, and his public spirit instigates an intelligent and helpful co-operation in all measures for the general good of the community in which he has passed practically his entire life.      On the 17th of September, 1868, Mr. Davis was united in marriage to Miss Mollie Jones. who was likewise born in Mechanicsburg, being a daughter of Robert and Nancy Jones, one of the pioneers of this county.  Mr. and Mrs. Davis became the parents of three children, of whom two are living, namely: Hallie G., who is the wife of Harry Ridge, of Cincinnati; and David Thomas, who is associated with his father in business.  The great loss and bereavement which came to Mr. and Mrs. Davis in the death of their elder son, John Robert, constitutes the only great shadow which has fallen upon their long and ideal married life.  A young man of noble character and one who had made for himself a place of value in connection with the active duties of life, while he held the most unequivocal esteem of a wide circle of friends, he was cut down in his gracious youth, leaving that void in the hearts of his lived ones that can not be filled, though there must ever be a measure of consolation and compensation in knowing how truly and worthily he had lived his life.      JOHN ROBERT DAVIS was born in Mechanicsburg on the 17th of April, 1873, and he was summoned into eternal rest on the 5th of April, 1902, at Phoenix, Arizona, whither he had gone in the hope of recuperating his health.  His life was spent almost in its entirety in his native place, though his education was finished in Urbana while his father was there living as incumbent of the office of county treasurer.  There he entered the Swedenborgian College, but later became a student in the Urbana high school, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1888.  From his early years he had manifested a desire to identify himself with the banking business, and as preparatory to duties in this line he was matriculated in the Eastman Business College, in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, where he was graduated in 1892.  Soon afterward a vacancy occurred in the office corps of the Farmers' Bank, in his home city, and he was chosen to fill the office, which he practically held until his death.  The cashier of the bank gave the following tribute to the young man at the time of his death: “Rob came to work at the bank in March, 1894, and up to the time he began to fail in health, in the summer of 1901, he was absent from the bank very few working days.  Rob was an ideal bank man.  Not once did he presume upon his position; not once, even in the smallest way, did he betray a confidence either of his employers or the bank’s customers.  All three of the presidents under whom he served appreciated his sterling worth and loved him as a son.  He enjoyed his work and never shirked or complained, no matter how great the provocation.  It can truly be said that he never spoke an unkind word to any officer in the bank.  He was loved by all, - so much so that the thought of electing his successor was not considered until hope of his recovery could be no longer entertained.  We gladly took on his work for several months, with the hope that rest and change would see him well again.  He came back from his trip to the east in excellent spirits, but it soon became apparent - that he was getting through with his work only by the greatest' effort.  Realizing his condition finally, he manfully faced the situation and asked us to elect his successor.  In contemplating the loss of Rob from the bank and from our circle of true friends the final words of the Rev. Dr. Marley at the funeral of Uncle Dick Williams came forcibly to our minds, 'We will never see his like again.  We can not refrain from quoting farther from a memoir contributed to the Mechanicsburg News by J. M. Mulford; “Robert Davis' life fully carried out Cardinal New man's idea of a gentleman, he ‘never inflicted pain,’ but he was more than that, he was a Christian gentleman, - 'the noblest type of manhood.’  His activity in church work began in Urbana, when he united with the Presbyterian church.  He remained a communicant of the faith for several years.  Upon returning to this city (Mechanicsburg) he became an attendant of the Church of Our Savior, and when the Christmastide of 1900 was approaching he felt it to be his duty to be confirmed.  From that time he was happy in all his relations to the church, at home making it the subject of much conversation, and spending much time with the prayer book.  It was in the family circle that the warmth of Rob's love was most manifest.  His father says, ‘Rob never gave me an unkind word,‘ and though he loved dearly all the family his devotion to his mother was ideal.  His life was quiet, yet it did not limit the circle of his friends.  All who knew him knew him but to love.  A merchant said to me yesterday, 'Rob needs no eulogy; his life was almost Christlike,’ and his brother-in-law, Mr. Ridge. spoke volumes when he said, 'To be in Rob's presence for ten minutes made one a better man.‘ Such tributes as these are bright gems in the casket of jewels made up of the precious memories of his life.  Robert Davis is gone.  His life was a blessing; may his death be a benediction to us all.”  Of the estimate placed upon this noble young man by those who knew him best the foregoing words are significant, and the infinite life gained a new glory when death placed its seal upon his mortal lips.  Source:  A Centennial Biographical History of Champaign Co., Ohio - Illustrated - New York and Chicago - The Lewis Publishing Company - 1902 - Page 538