Davis, Noah bio

Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County, Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States, and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890; page 631–632; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Noah Davis. This venerable gentleman, whose portrait is shown on the opposite page, was an early pioneer of this county, coming here more than fifty years ago, and the tract of wild land on which he then located on section 7, Union Township, he has ever since made his home, and is now enjoying its peaceful comfort in retirement from the hard labors of his early years, by which he developed here one of the fine farms for which this locality is noted.
Norfolk County, Va., is the native place of our subject, and June 29, 1805, the date of his birth. His parents were Benjamin and Sarah (Mathews) Davis. In 1809 his father removed with his family into the unbroken wilderness of Woodford County, Ky., and gave aid to its other pioneers in their work of developing it. About 1821 he again became a pioneer, taking up his abode in the then new country comprised in Jefferson County, Ind., and there his weary pilgrimage was brought to a close.
Mr. Davis, to whom these lines chiefly refer, was bred to the life of a farmer amid pioneer scenes, and received but a limited education. He was about four years old when his parents left the old home in Virginia and passed through the wild, primeval forests to seek a new dwelling in Kentucky, and he was sixteen years old when they became early settlers of Indiana. In 1836, he too became a pioneer, having been well prepared for his future task by his struggle with the rude forces of nature in Indiana wilds. On October 15, of that year he took possession of the quarter of section 7, Union Township, that he had purchased from the Government, receiving his warrant at the land office at Quincy.
Mr. Davis found this section of the country sparsely settle, and many were the privations and hardships he and his family had to endure before he had subdues the soil, bringing it to it present high state of cultivation and making the various improvements that have so greatly increased its value. He built a log house to shelter his wife and children, and entered upon the hard task before him bravely and with a sturdy determination to conquer all obstacles, and in the years that followed put his place in good order, and has a substantial, well-developed farm. Five years ago he rented his farm to his son, and retired to spend the declining years of a long and useful life in the enjoyment of the competency that he had secured by his industry.
As we have seen, Mr. Davis has contributed his quota in bringing about the present high standing of Union Township as an agricultural region of great productiveness, with many valuable, highly improved farms within its borders, and as an old settler hs name will ever be honorably mentioned in its history. His whole course has shown him to be shrewd, practical and capable as a farmer; kind-hearted and well-principled as a man, and loyal as a citizen. In politics he adheres to the Republican party, and it is a fact of which he may well be proud that he was a member of the Union League during the war.
Mr. Davis has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was united December 31, 1829, was Nancy Mings, a daughter of Aaron Mings, a farmer of Jefferson County, Ind. They had eight children, of whom the following seven are living: Aaron W., born in Indiana, and now a resident of Fulton County; Martha A., of Woodson County, Kan., widow of Andrew Ransom; Harriet A., who married James T. Babbitt, of Union Township; Mary E. wife of Gilbert M. Tompkins, of Avon; Malinda J., wife of William Brainard, of Neosho County, Kan.; Sarah L., wife of Thatcher Nickerson, who lives near Boston, Mass.; William D., who married Savina Simmons, and lives in Warren County. For forty-five years the wife of his early manhood and the mother of these children walked by his side, but October 10, 1874, death crossed the threshold of their home and she was removed from her family.
The marriage of our subject with his present estimable wife, formerly Mrs. Elizabeth Heston, widow of Oliver Heston, was consummated February 8, 1876. By her first marriage she had nine children, eight of whom are living and are named John W., Samuel B., Charles A., Eliza J., George W., Harriet M., Alvina and Oliver Wesley, all of whom are married, except Oliver, who lives at home.