Forefathers came from Wales, England in 1701
DAVIS FAMILY
RALPH DAVIS lived in Moore Co., N.C. (a will dated 1811 is recorded in the court house in Carthage N.C. to his sons, THOMAS and BUCKNER). My father told me that his grand-father was named RALPH and that he had two sons one named THOMAS and one MATHIS and a daughter Temperance who married Nathan Maples of N.C.
Ralph had a brother, MARTIN, who is the great-grandfather of Joseph S. Davis of Albany, Ga.
THOMAS DAVIS was born in Moore Co., N.C. in 1787, he moved to Burke Co., Ga. in 1821 and lived on Brier Creek, near Waynesboro and attended Shiloh Baptist Church.
THOMAS married NANCY OWEN who born in Burke Co. in 1808, a daughter of Elisia Owen, she had brothers Dave, John, Elisia and Elijah (twins) Isaac and sister Polly (Mrs. Avery Dye of Agusta Ga).
THOMAS & NANCY OWEN DAVIS were the parents of the following children; sons: Clinton Owen, Martin Fenton, Thomas Ralph, James Alexander, Isaac William, John Marvin, Joshua Columbus, David Baldwin, and Berrien Clay; Daughters: Francis Virginia, Nancy Mahalea, Mary Ann. This family lived in Burke county and I think the mother died there. The sons Jim, John and Isaac married and lived in Wilkinson Co.; other members of the family moved to what is now Mitchell Co., near Hopeful Church where the father THOMAS is burried, as well as some of his children. Lived here prior to the War between the States. When the war began the sons all volunteered for service in the army as they were old enough, and during the last year of the war, Berrien who was hardly 16 years of age ran away from home and entered in the state militia;his father who was 60 years old also served in the state militia the last year of the war. This was an unusual situation, a father and his NINE sons in the war at the same time, and the most remarkable was that all came out alive, and not handicapped by injury, although most of them served gallantly most of the four years. After the war was over MARTIN FENTON DAVIS met and married Lucy B. ADAMS, who had moved to that section from Newberry Co., S.C. She was born near Chappels, S.C., the daughter of FIELDS & ELIZABETH (SPEARMAN) ADAMS, her father had moved to this section, by wagon and carriage, after the death and burial of her mother, (she is buried between Newberry & Chappels in the old Spearman plantation grave-yard)
MARTIN FENTON was born in Burke Co., June 20, 1831 and LUCY BEHETHLAND ADAMS, born August 3, 1846, in Newberry Co., S.C. were married at Hopeful church in Mitchel Co., LUCY had the follwoing sisters and brothers: Archie, Lafayette, Silas, Frances Rhoda (Mrs. Daniel Palmer) and Susie (Mrs. John Maples), Archie, Silas and Mr. & Mrs. John Maples (Susie) moved to Texas where they married and reared large families, and have died. A half-brother, Rudolph married and lived in Jacksonville, Fla., until his death, and left several children; Ohrry, another half-brother went to Oklahoma, never married, died several years ago.
MARTON FENTON AND LUCY ADAMS DAVIS had the following children: Hettie Lucile (Mrs. Joe G. Crovatt) Mack Owen, Thomas Fields, Susan Elizabeth, (Mrs. T.C. Cleveland) Nannie Lucy (Mrs. Jim Williams) Isaac Jefferson, Dannie Frances (Mrs. Carl Maples) and John Alexander. All of the children were reared near Pleasant Church (which was on land donated by an uncle Lafayette Adams which was part of his plantation adjoining the Davis's about five miles from Camilla, on the highway towards Pleasant Hill Church. All of the Davis children attended the school at this place, and were members of this Baptist Church. The father & mother, T.F and Nannie, are burried there. Also grand-father FIELDS Adams, uncle Lafayette and aunt Frances (Mrs. Dan Palmer) besides George, the only son of Lafayette Adams, who was the first one entered here.
This is gathered from my father and other members of both families, besides copying the names of the Davis Family from grand-father's will which is inpossession of a cousin, Maggie Davis Willis in Bainbridge, Ga.
Written by Elizabeth Davis Cleveland, February 11, 1936.
Greenville, S.C. Mother of Green Harp and Theron Clair Cleveland.