FRANCIS MARION DAVIS

DAVIS

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 13:26:50

FRANCIS MARION DAVIS, attorney at law and farmer of Adams county, was born near Columbus, Ohio, August 13 , 1831 , a son of Joseph and Edith (De Ford) Davis, the father a native of Maryland and the mother of Delaware. He is a descendant of John Davis, an aide of LaFayette in our Revolutionary war. His grandmother was Ann Simpson, a near relative of Hannali Simpson, the mother of General Ulysses Simpson Grant. Our subject still has in his possession a musket that was used in the battle of Trenton. Joseph Davis is a farmer, still residing on the old homestead, now aged ninety years; but his wife has been dead about sixteen years. They had six children, of whom three are still living.

The subject of this sketch, the second child and eldest son, was brought up on a farm and attended Blendon College (Presbyterian), and finally graduated at the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, in the class of 1852 . Then he took a trip to the South, but owing to the social ostracism of all Northern men existing at that day in the South, he was not encouraged to remain there. In 1853 he returned from the South to Columbus, and for two years studied law in the office of Dennison & Carrington, Dennison afterward becoming Governor of Ohio, and Carrington, a Brigadier in theFederal army. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Soon thereafter he came to Iowa traveling on the cars to Rock Island, and from thence by stage to Des Moines, and from there on foot to Adams county, carrying a surveyor’s compass and staff, where he arrived at Quincy on the 5 th of August. Here he immediately opened out in the practice of his profession of law and surveying, having at the first term of court thereafter thirty-seven cases and a large business, entering land for the early settlers, working night and day. The first three months after his arrival he earned $1 ,500 , which he was able to invest in land; of this he still retains 200 acres. When at the South he was fully impressed with the belief that a great slavery war would soon be inaugurated, and in 1856 , during the Fremont and Buchanan campaign made several speeches in his neighborhood in which he told the people that the election of Buchanan would terminate in war between the South and North True to his convictions, as soon as Buchanan was inaugurated, in 1857 , he organized a company called the Quincy Guards, which during the following years was thoroughly drilled in the duties of soldiers. After Fort Sumpter was fired on the whole company was mustered into the United
States service for three years and became Company H, Fourth Iowa Infantry. This company became especially noted for efficiency in the years of the war that followed. In the spring of 1862 he organized Company D, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry and was chosen its Captain. This company saw active service in Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas. At Fort Pemberton, on the Yazoo, he was leading a charge of the regiment across a bayou against the fort, and received a wound in the stomach, which resulted in permanently disabling him from the service; and he was discharged by order of the Secretary of War, for in incurable disability, in 1864 . The wound is still a source of great disability to him, for which he receives a pension.

In 1876 he built the elegant residence which he now occupies, and his landed property now amounts to 2,000 acres; and he is also largely interested in stock. As a farmer he is one of the most extensive in the county. He is a member and commander of Lewellyn Post, G. A. R., which post was named for one of the original Quincy Guards, which he organized. He was made a Freemason as long ago as 1852 , in the South, being a member of the same lodge with the noted rebel, John B. Floyd. For many years he has been a pillar in the Congregational Church. In personal habits he is a model man. During his life he has practiced in all the courts, having many of the most noted cases in the United States Supreme Court, winning the Adams county swamp land case, the Hunter defalcation case, etc. In politics Mr. Davis has always been antislavery and Union, taking part in favor of the anti-Nebraska (Republican) party of 1854, at Columbus, Ohio, and opposing the Douglas doctrine of giving opportunity to the extension of slavery. He has been county Attorney and county Judge; was a member of the Legislature of 1871 -’ 73 , aiding in the enactment of the Code of 1873.

He was married in 1857 , to Miss Julia Clark, a native of Michigan, and of their three children two are living, one having died in infancy. Mrs. Davis died in 1880 , and Mr. Davis was married again in 1883, to Miss Sarah Brown, the daughter of one of Adams county’s prosperous farmers, by whom he has two children, a boy and a girl, who are the present associates of his declining years, in their happy home.