Davitt, Henry (1784-1885)

DAVITT

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 12:40:45

HENRY DAVITT (1784 -1885)

Pioneer Sketches – by Leonard S. Spencer [Advocate Tribune, Indianola, IA, Thursday, Apr 2, 1885, p.2, col.1]
In our last article we endeavored to give a sketch of one of the oldest members of this community at the time of his death; a man who was born before the nation had its birth as a nation; one that had lived to see these United States when they were under the colonial government, governed by George the III, King of Great Britain; lived to see those thirteen colonies throw off the yoke of governmental bondage, become thirteen separate states, united under one government, electing their own civil officers; lived to see the effects of our eight years of war and devastation on them as a united confederacy; lived to see Washington chosen chief commander of these forces; to see his withdrawal from them at the close of the struggle; lived to see these thirteen states become thirty-three states; saw them in their poverty and in their wealth; saw them in their second struggle with the mother country, and took a hand in the fight (as it was a free pitch in for all); followed up the pioneer movement; saw the western states when they were in the possession of the red man of the forest; saw these same red men melt away like the winter snow before the sun rays of an April thaw; saw civilization make her paths into the forest and the wild prairie; saw the Indian wigwam give way to the cabin of the Caucasian, and to the school house and church; saw her army over run Mexico and take nearly half of her territory; saw the greatest rebellion the world ever produced crushed and the states cemented as one nation; saw all of the transactions of this government for one hundred and four years before he was called to his fathers.
In this number we are called to sketch another centenarian, who, perhaps, has seen as many ups and downs, amid the scenes of national strife as any other man in Warren County. His life, the greater portion of it, was spent in his native country; hence we will have to turn to the map of Europe, to find the principal theatre of our sketch.
Henry Davitt was born in the county of Linerick, Ireland, in the year 1784, March 5. This makes him one hundred and one years of age the 5th day of the present month. But few men of the present day arrive at the age of this man, yet he is still active, can get about nearly as well as most men at their three score years and ten. Few men have received the constitution that our subject has been endowed with. He has seldom seen a sick day in his life.
Born amid the national strifes in which his native country has been perpetually involved, he too has seen his country in its poverty, we might say in its starvation. At the time of his birth England, the ruling government of Ireland, had just closed a war with his since adopted country, trying to crush it because its people has tried to set up a government of their own, whereby the oppressed of all nations might find a home for themselves and their families. Young Henry grew up amid the exciting conditions of the French Revolution, having been born but a year few later than the great Napoleon, who made all of the monarchal governments of Europe tremble and totter upon their foundation. He can remember when France put her requisition upon her people, and the exciting times caused by the same. Our subject was eight years old when Louis XVI, King of France, was tried and condemned to death. The King was executed on the same spot where afterwards the Queen, the Princess Elizabeth, and many other noble victims of the revolution perished; where also Robespierre and Danton were executed; and where the Emperor Alexander and the allied sovereigns took their station when their victorious armies entered Paris on the 31st of March, 1814. All of this transpired within the memory of young Henry.
At an early period of his life he was enrolled in the English army, taking a part in this same Revolution. England, Austria, and Russia, were at this time the great powers of Europe, and they, therefore, bore a principal part in the long and desperate struggle that ensued. Is not our intentions to try to write a history of the French Revolution; but as these exciting events transpired at the time that our subject was in young manhood, we are almost compelled to speak of them in order to bring his life before us. At this time the opinions of the people on the French Revolution were greatly divided. “The young, the ardent, the philosophical, the factions, the restless, and the ambitious were sanguine in their expectations of its success, and exalted in its promise of benefit to the human race; while the great majority of the aristocracy, the adherents of the church, the holders of the office under the monarchy, and in general the opulent ranks of society beheld it with disgust and alarm.”
Taking part with our hero we have Fox as a leader of the first party, who was an illustrious champion of freedom, descended, as he was, from a noble family, he inherited the love of liberty, and by the impetuous torrent of his eloquence long maintained his place as a leader of the opposition of the British Empire. Mr. Pitt was a the leader of the second party, and at the commencement of the French Revolution, was in full possession of the government and had a decided majority in both houses of Parliament. Perhaps modern history can scarcely furnish two greater characters then Fox and Pitt.
Our Henry was well acquainted by reputation with these two men; for he lived at the same time. Mr. Burke was the leader of the third party, composed of all the old Whigs, who supported the principals of the English, but supported those of the French Revolution. He had long stood side by side with Mr. Fox in the opposition, but on the breaking out of the Revolution, he took part with the government.
How long Mr. Davitt remained in the English army the writer is unable to say. He says he was honorably discharged. We might follow him down through the whole Revolution; for he recollects many of the battles of Napoleon, the battle of the Nile under Lord Nelson, and many others; remembers well the day that the great Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. In this battle he had a younger brother that took part under Wellington. But few men live to see so long a life and see the vast changes that the nations of the earth have passed through, especially the government of England.
Mr. Davitt emigrated to this country during the year 1852; came to the “Empire State.” As he was raised a farmer, he pursued that occupation on his arrival in this country. Having a son living in Iowa, he came to Iowa County, this state in the year 1853; so that he had been an inhabitant of the “Hawkeye State” for 32 years. He has seen Iowa grow up from its childhood until it has reached nearly to manhood, and meanwhile he had nearly turned the corner of a long and eventful life, a life that but few of us ever see.
The writer has been acquainted with him for the last twenty-five years, and has found him to possess good morals. He has always been a hale, hearty, robust man with but very little sickness. Like Jacob of old, he will go down to his grave like a shock of corn full ripe.
He lives with his son, James. His son told the writer that he was getting very childish, very peevish, and sometimes ugly. Like Phillip Colclazier, he had seen the ups and downs of this country, as well as the fall of monarchs of the old world; seen rebellion in his adopted country as well as in his native country. But the remainder of his time may be short. Let us honor him as an aged land mark, who has stood the storms of the revolutionary winters while kings and emperors have passed away. [Henry Davitt was born Mar 25, 1784 in Limerick, Ireland. He was drafted into the British military and served in France during the French Revoluation. He came to the U.S. in 1852 and Iowa in 1853, living with his son, James Davitt in Iowa City in 1860 and Warren County in 1870 and 1880. Henry died Nov 13, 1885 and was buried in Saint Patrick Cemetery, Madison County, Iowa.]