BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
1795
History of
Clermont County, Ohio
with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its
Prominent Men and Pioneers
Philadelphia:
Louis H. Everts
Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia
1880

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Alfred E. Davis Residence of A. E. Davis, Dec'd. Union Twp., Clermont Co., OH

ALFRED E. DAVIS.  One of the pioneers of Hamilton Co, Ohio, was Eli Davis, born Dec. 1, 1772, in Salem, Salem Co., State of New Jersey, of Welsh origin.  When about twenty-one years of age he, in company with another young man, emigrated West, by walking to Pittsburgh and there descending the Ohio River in the old-fashioned family boat, and located at Lexington, Ky.  Here he spent several years teaching school, for which he was amply qualified. by a good education received in his native State.  From Lexington he went to Newtown, Hamilton Co., Ohio, where he passed several years in the same vocation, and acquired marked celebrity as an excellent teacher, most thorough in his discipline and learned in all the English branches.  He served several years as a justice of the peace of Anderson township, and was very popular as an efficient magistrate.  Here he became acquainted with and married Ruth Long, of Butler Co., Ohio, in the year 1808.  After his marriage they resided in Newtown four years, and there were born unto them two children.      In 1812 he purchased of Gen. William Lytle sixty-two and one-half acres of land, now a part of the real estate of the late Alfred E. Davis, deceased, and which had not had a stick of timber cut off of it.  On it he built a log cabin in the woods, into which with his, wife and two children he moved.  Here he resided until his death on Oct. 23, 1832, leaving a widow and seven minor children.      When he came into Union township in 1812 it was almost an unbroken forest, but to-day, thanks to the noble old pioneers, it is a territory of the best cultivated farms, dotted all over with commodious and comfortable residences, and several thriving villages.      Alfred Eli Davis, the second child. and son of Eli and Ruth (Jong) Davis, was born in Newtown, Hamilton Co., Ohio, on the 10th of December, 1810; and at the time of his father's death, his elder brother having left to acquire a trade, he was the oldest child at home.  He now became in his twenty second year the manager of the farm, which his father had increased to one hundred and twelve and one half acres, but on which he had left an incumbrance.  By his industry and ingenuity he enabled his mother to raise her minor children, paid off the old debt on the farm, and built a new house.  About this time he bought the interest of the heirs who had arrived at their majority, and continued to buy out the younger heirs as they became of age until he owned the whole farm.   He married, Dec. 27, 1856, Mrs. Landona Jones, by whom he had five children, three of whom are living, to wit, Jefferson, Eli, and Addie Davis.  He died in March, 1879, in his sixty-ninth year, and left a very large estate, consisting of some three hundred acres in Carrington's survey, No. 2434, and the contiguous surveys, lying about a mile north of Mount Carmel, besides a large amount of personal property.  He was a model farmer and business man, and ever took the greatest pride in having the finest live stock of every kind.  A habit of close observation of everything in connection with his farm, both regarding stock and crops, was what made him so successful in the management of one of the best conducted farms in the county.  A keen business man, of quick perception, good judgment, and strong executive abilities, he was a power in the community, and met with gratifying success in his life and career. Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Page 459

Joseph Davis

JOSEPH DAVIS.  An early pioneer of, and half a century a resident in, Clermont County was Joseph Davis, born near Romney, in Hampshire Co., Va., in 1782.  With his parents he emigrated to Ohio in 1803, and coming down the Ohio River in a flat, they landed at the mouth of Crawfish, and Joseph settled in Union township, on Shaylor's Run.   Joseph being in his twenty-first year, and with the capital only of willing hands and an axe, went to work and soon saved money enough to purchase some land in Hardin's Survey, on the East Fork, between the present villages of Perin's Mills and Milford.  On May 1, 1806, he was married to Rachel Fowler, and when they moved into the log cabin on his new purchase to begin housekeeping he carried all his household goods on a horse, and his wife followed on foot with her dishes of pewter in her apron.  The cabin he had erected at first had no floor, and their beds were made with sticks and saplings, as were also their tables.  There were born to them ten children, all boys, Matthew, Jeremiah, Joseph, Samuel, Thomas, Henry, Robert F., Ira I., George W., and  William R., who all lived to manhood but one, and the five youngest of whom are still living.  When he came into that part of Union township it was all a wilderness, but he reclaimed his purchase from the unbroken forest, and added new lands until he had bought and owned over four hundred acres at his death.  For the first few years he made his own salt at Salt Run Creek, and wheat bread and coffee were rarities kept for Sunday morning.  In the war of 1812, Joseph Davis served nearly two years as first lieutenant in Capt. Hosbrook's company, raised around Milford and the adjacent country in Hamilton County, and participated in the siege of Fort Meigs in the Maumee Valley, and was under Col. Croghan in his gallant defense of Fort Stephenson or Sandusky.  His wife, Rachel (Fowler), died Dec. 25, 1837, and on Apr. 16, 1838, he married Rebecca Vail, by whom there was no issue.  He died July 18, 1845, universally respected for his honesty and integrity, and greatly esteemed as a good citizen and enterprising farmer.  While a member of no religious denomination, he was a moral man, and aided in sustaining the churches and liberally paid the preachers.  He served many years as justice of the peace in Union township, and it is to be said to his great credit as an enlightened magistrate that no appeal was ever taken in any case from his docket, and it was his constant practice to prevent litigation and settle all disputes without the intervention of a suit if possible.  'Squire Davis was public-spirited, and having arisen from a poor boy to be one of the solid, substantial men of the county, he took a great interest in all public improvements, particularly in schools, in which in his young days the facilities for education were very few.      His eighth son, Ira I. Davis, resides on his farm in Clay's Survey, adjoining the one where is the old Davis homestead now owned by the seventh son, Robert F.  Ira I. Davis was born Oct. 10, 1827.  He was married by S. H. Whitmore, a justice of the peace, Dec. 27, 1852, to  Lydia A. Edwards, daughter of Isaac Edwards, Sr., by whom he had three children.  After the death of his first wife he was the second time married, and on Mar. 9, 1862, by Rev. A. U. Beall, to Phebe A. Cross, daughter of Josiah Cross, by whom he had two children.  Since her death, in 1872, he has remained a widower.  He is a good farmer, with the characteristics that made his honored father a man of note and respected in the community. Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Page (Betw. pps. 446 - 447)

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