Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 490

CHARLES B. DAVIS, one of the early settlers of Muscatine County, residing on section 24, Goshen Township, was born in 1833, at Bennington, Vt., near the famous Revolutionary battle-ground on Bennington. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, gallantly fighting for the freedom of his country. The parents of Charles, James, and Thankful ( Bissell ) Davis, were also natives of Vermont, and in that State, the father worked in a cotton factory until his death, which occurred several years ago. Mrs. Davis also departed this life long since.

Our subject was reared upon a farm in his native State, and in the district schools of the neighborhood received his education. When a young man he left the parental roof, and starting out in life for himself, in 1850, emigrated to Kane County, Ill., locating near Aurora, which was then a small town..For five years he continued to reside in the neighborhood, and then continued his journey to the West until he reached Cedar Rapids, Iowa, near which city he was employed as a farmhand until the fall of 1860, when he came to Muscatine Copunty, arriving on the 22nd day of November. During the winter of 1860-61 he engaged in hunting and trapping, and in the following spring worked at breaking prairie for William G. Holmes. As the crops ripened he also engaged in harvesting, but in August of 1861 abandoned business pursuits to respond to his country's call for troops to put down the Rebellion, enlisting in Goshen Township on the 16th day of August. With the regiment he was sent to Camp McClellan, near Davenport, and assigned to Company D of the 8th Iowa Infantry. During most of his service he did scouting duty in Missouri, and participated in the raid after Gen. Price. At the battle of Shiloh he was wounded, being run over by artillery, after which he was honorably discharged at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1863. Returning to Muscatine County he there remained until the following spring, when he went with the pioneer corps, working in Mississippi and Tennessee until the close of the war.

Once more returning to Muscatine County, Mr. Davis began farming on shares, and in 1864 purchased forty acres of land on section 4, Pike Township. To this he subsequently added another 40-acre tract, but later traded the whole amount for a partly improved farm of 160 acres in Goshen Township, where he now resides. There was a little log cabin upon this land, which constituted almost the entire improvement, but this cabin has long since given way to a fine brick residence. He has also erected a good barn, and now has one of the best farms in this section, well stocked with a good grade of Short-horn cattle, and Clydesdale and Norman horses. The land is now under a high state of cultivation, and everything about the place denotes the owner to be a man of thrift and enterprise. The home is pleasantly situated about two and a half miles from Atalissa.

In 1863, when Mr. Davis returned from the war, he was united in marriage, in Muscatine County, with Mary E. Stotler, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Peter and Sarah ( Stoffer ) Stotler, who were also born in Pennsylvania. Her father followed the occupation of farming, and in 1854, emigrated to Muscatine County, settling in Pike Township, where he pre-empted and improved land. His death occurred in February, 1874, at the age of sixty-two years, and his wife departed this life in 1855, soon after her arrival in this county. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Davis : Edgar B., Sarah T., and Mary M. Politically our subject is a supporter of the Republican party, while socially he is a member of Charles Michener Post No. 362, G.A.R., of Atalissa. He has witnessed a greater part of the growth of Muscatine County, having become one of its residents when the settlers were so few that one person knew everyone else in the community. He drove to church with an ox-team and lived the life of a true pioneer, cheerfully enduring the hardships which come to those who make homes in a new country. In every enterprise for the public good he has taken a prominent part, and is numbered among the self-made men of the county, having gained all that he now possesses by his own honest, untiring energy and perseverance since his return from the war.


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