Davis, Albert I.

DAVIS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 14:18:37

ALBERT I. DAVIS
born Mar 31, 1853, W. VA.

Albert I. Davis, a farmer of Lincoln township, Warren county, was born in Brooke county, West Virginia, March 31, 1853, a son of Thomas Graham and Nancy (McCreery) Davis. Albert was one of four children, three of whom are now living, the others besides himself being Gaston and William. Thomas Graham, the father, was born in Virginia, February 28, 1815, where he lived until a young man. He learned and followed the blacksmith and machinist trades for several years, was afterward an engineer on the Red river for seven years, and for the following seven years was engaged in farming in Virginia. In 1854 he located in what is now Lincoln township, Warren county, Iowa, and from that time to the present this has been his home. Mr. Davis is justly classed among the pioneers of Warren county, there having been but few settlers in this region at the time he located here. The country was in a wild uncultivated condition and the noble record of those old settlers is written in the fertile fields and marvelously developed farms, which have made this region of Iowa famous; and here, at the ripe age of eighty years, Mr. Davis is spending the evening of life in the midst of peace and plenty, a rest well earned after a long life of active effort. His wife, Nancy (McCreery) Davis, was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of William and Sarah (McCoy) McCreery. She was one of five children, namely: Isabel, widow of Levi Shipley; Mary, widow of Dr. Ramsey; Sarah, of this county; Rachel, now Mrs. Glass. Mrs. Davis died many years ago. Alberta Irwin Davis was but three years old when the family located in Warren county, where he has lived to the present time. In his boyhood days he attended the common schools and the Simpson College of Indianola. When twenty-six years of age he started out in life for himself. Mr. Davis now owns a fine farm of 250 acres, where he makes a specialty of stock-raising. He is one of the enterprising young men of Warren county, an instance of that fact being shown in the residence recently built by him, which in its style and appointments is creditable to its owner and an ornament to Lincoln township. In political matters, Mr. Davis is a Democrat in the full meaning of the term. He is a member of Three Rivers Lodge A.O.U.W. at Indianola. April 28, 1881, he was united in marriage with Juliet M. Moore, a native of Alabama and a daughter of Dr. R. E. and Margaret (Minette) Moore. Mrs. Davis was one of six children, three of whom are now living, - the others, besides herself, being John R, a member of the Treasury Department at Washington; and DeWitt, of Kentucky. The father was born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1822 and his early life was spent in that city. He studied medicine at the Louisville, Kentucky College, and later at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York city. For several years the Doctor led a venturesome life in the Central American States of San Salvador and Guatemala. He was Medical Director during the building of the Panama Railroad and he drove the spike which finished that notable work. His later life was spent in the North, he having at one time been physician to the Erie Railroad. Dr. Moore belonged to the profession by right of birth, it being represented in the family for generations, extending back to the distinguished Dr. Moore of the British navy. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two sons, - John Graham and Robert Gaylord. Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.262