Francis T. Davis
Francis T. Davis has been a
resident of Clayton county for nearly half a century, has
here exerted his energies effectively along normal lines
of industrial and business enterprise and for nearly a
quarter of a century he and his wife have maintained
their home on their splendid farm of four hundred and
eighty acres, in Section 5, Sperry township. Their first
domicile on this now finely improved estate was a log
house of the true pioneer type, and their present
commodious and modern residence is an ideal home in which
they are enjoying peace and prosperity as the shadows of
their lives begin to lengthen from the golden west.
Mr. Davis claims the old Empire state as the place of his
nativity, was about twenty years of age at the time when
he accompanied his parents to Minnesota, from which state
he soon afterward went forth as a Union soldier in the
Civil war, after the close of which he came to Clayton
county, Iowa, where he has maintained his home during the
long intervening years that have crowned his labors with
large and well-merited success. Mr. Davis was born in the
city of Utica, New York, on the 7th of July, 1840, and in
the schools of his native state he gained his early
educational training. He is a son of Josiah and Emily
(Wadsworth) Davis, the former a native of New Jersey and
the latter of Connecticut, and in 1861 he accompanied his
parents on their immigration to Minnesota, where they
became pioneer settlers on a farm near Winona, and where
his honored father and mother passed the remainder of
their lives. Of their six children only two are now
living.
Soon after the family home had been established in
Minnesota the Civil war was precipitated, and Francis T.
Davis forth with manifested his youthful patriotism by
enlisting in Company I, Eleventh Minnesota Volunteer
Infantry, in which he was made corporal of his company.
Corporal Davis proved a loyal and valiant soldier and his
active service as such covered a period of one year, at
the expiration of which he was mustered out and accorded
an honorable discharge. In later years he has vitalized
the memories and association of his military career by
maintaining affiliation with the Grand Army of the
Republic. Mr. Davis was mustered out in the city of St.
Paul and thereafter he was employed in a flour mill in
Minnesota until 1868, when he came to Clayton county and
assumed a position as a skilled miller in the only flour
and grist mill that was then operated at Elkader, the
county seat. There he continued his services in this
capacity for a period of fourteen years, at the
expiration of which he and his wife purchased and removed
to their present farm, which has been their home during
the years that have since elapsed.
Mr. Davis has always given unqualified allegiance to the
Republican party, has been loyal and public-spirited as a
citizen, but has had no ambition for public office,
though he served a number of years as a member of the
school board of his district. His wife holds membership
in the Baptist church, and prior to her marriage Mrs.
Davis had been a successful and popular teacher in the
schools of Clayton county, the fine farm on which she now
lives having been the old homestead of her parents.
Francis T. Davis and wife
On Oct. 23d, 1871, was
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Davis to Miss H. Eliza
Cummings, who was born in Vermillion county, Illinois,
and who is a daughter of Frederick G. and Sophia
(Douglas) Cummings, both natives of the state of Maine
and representatives of sterling families that were
founded in New England in the colonial period of our
national history. The parents of Mrs. Davis became
pioneer settlers in Vermillion county, Illinois, where
they established their home about the year 1838 and where
they remained four years. For the ensuing four years they
continued their pioneer experience in the state of
Wisconsin, and they then came to Clayton county, Iowa,
and settled on the pioneer farm which has been developed
into the splendid modern homestead now owned and occupied
by Mr. and Mrs. Davis. Here the parents passed the
residue of their lives, and of their seven children four
are now living.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis became the parents of three children,
of whom the youngest, Edwin W., died at the age of six
years; Frederick now has the active management of the old
homestead farm, is married and has two children; Jennie
is the wife of Thomas A. Kitterman, of this county, and
they have three children.
pg 85-87
source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 85-87
-OCR scanned by Sharyl Ferrall
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