Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 949 - 951

WILLIAM W. DAVIS, a Lieutenant in the late Civil War, and one of the pioneers of Sedgwick County, is the subject of an interesting history which in its main points is as follows: His boyhood years were spent in Highland County, Ohio, where he was born April 15, 1835, at the modest homestead of his parents, William and Betsy (Elliott) Davis, who passed their peaceful and worthy lives engaged in the employments common to farm life. The father rested from his earthly labors in 1873, at the age of sixty-eight years. The mother, a highly respected old lady of eighty-two years, remains at the old homestead in Highland County, with her son, Thomas Dawson Davis.

             William Davis, Sr., the father of our subject, was a man who possessed many excellent qualities and took an intelligent interest in the welfare of the people among whom he lived and moved so many years, and by whom he was held in universal respect. In early manhood he belonged to the old Whig party, but upon its abandonment cordially endorsed Republican principles, supporting them until the day of his death. Both parents were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, although the father had been reared a Quaker.

             The subject of this sketch continued a member of his father's household until reaching his twentieth year, and then rented a farm near the old homestead. This, after operating a year, he abandoned and proceeded west into Louisa County, Iowa, where he farmed on rented land four years, then returned to the scenes of his childhood and worked at carpentering and farming four years and until the outbreak of the Rebellion. During the first year of that memorable conflict he enlisted in the 76th Ohio Infantry, under Capt. Nathaniel Morris, and upon the consolidation of the regiment was commissioned First Lieutenant, with which rank he was mustered out at Camp Denison, in 1864.

             Upon his retirement from the service Mr. Davis repaired to Champaign County, Ill., where he followed farming until the early part of 1877, and made his advent into this county February 19 of that year. He located on section 22, where he has since resided, and is now the possessor of 240 acres of valuable land, which is largely devoted to stock-raising, he handling principally Durham cattle and good grades of general-purpose horses. He was at once recognized as a valuable accession to the community, and in 1883 was elected Treasurer of School District No. 138, in Valley Center Township, which office he still holds, being re-elected in 1887. To the various enterprises calculated to develop the country and improve the condition of its people, he has ever lent a ready and cheerful assistance, and as a man of sound judgment and possessing a good fund of general information, be is one whose opinions are held in respect. 

            Mr. Davis, on the 19th of October, 1854, while a resident of Adams County, Ohio, was united in marriage with Miss Angelina Campbell, who was born in Adams County, Ohio, and died in that State in the fall of 1860; her remains were laid at rest in the cemetery at Mt. Carmel. Of this union there were born two children: Mary Caroline, and Sarah Agnes, who has died since the above was written; her death occurred March 13, 1888. The elder is the wife of Henry Sharp, to whom she was married on the 25th of December, 1876, and is the mother of two children--Charles and William; Sarah A. was married, Oct. 11, 1883, to Samuel Tracy, who is carrying on farming in Kingman County, this State.

             The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married Feb. 19, 1862, was in her girlhood Miss Lydia A. Gossett, who is a native of the same county as her husband, and was born Nov. 29, 1840. Mrs. Davis is the daughter of Levi and Isabelle Gossett, natives of Ohio and the father a potter by trade, and was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church for a number of years. Both parents are living and now retired from active labor. Their household included six sons and one daughter, namely: Morris Turner, John Wesley, William Henry, Joseph P., Lewis Clark, Charles Wilson and Lydia A. Of these four are living, and residents of Illinois, Kansas and Texas.

             Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two sons and two daughters living, and one daughter dead. The eldest, Emma Belle, was born Jan. 1, 1863, and is the wife of Isaac Walter, a well-to-do farmer of Valley Center Township; the first son, William Edgar, was born Dec. 6, 1864, and is completing his studies in the business college at Wichita, which he entered on the 1st of November, 1887; Mattie Irene was born Aug. 5, 1867, and with the younger children remains with her parents; Clara Clarinda was born Nov. 6, 1870, and died Dec. 13, 1873, when an interesting little girl three years of age; John Wesley was born Dec. 16, 1872.

             Mr. Davis had just reached his majority at the time of the organization of the Republican party, with which he at once identified himself and whose principles he has since supported. He has been a delegate to the Republican County Convention nine out of eleven years since a resident of this county. Both he and his estimable lady are devoted and efficient members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are the center of a large circle of warm friends.

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