Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), born Roane County, TN, was the son of Henry and Elizabeth "Betsy" Miller Davis.
The Dec. 1863 Murray County, Georgia Confederate Militia record, from District 1013 (McDonald's), records A.J. Davis as age 47 and 2 months, born in Overton County, Tennessee. The 1894 widow's pension application in Eastland County, Texas of Sarah O. Davis, says that her husband was born on the Tennessee-Georgia line.
By 1834, the Henry and Elizabeth Davis family (a household of fifteen) lived at Pleasant Valley (now Eton) in Murray County, Georgia. Henry Davis is on a list of land winners in the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, when Cherokee lands were given to white settlers by the State of Georgia.
The book, Volunteer Soldiers in the Cherokee War, 1836-1839, published by Mountain Press in 1995, records four Davis men from Murray County, all serving in the same company. The records were compiled from muster rolls of each unit, now in the National Archives.
Davis, Alfred J., Pvt., Georgia, Derricks Co. – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia
Davis, Dobson, W. – same company as above – probably older brother to A.J. Davis
Davis, Henry, same company as above, dates of Dec. 1, 1837 to July 14, 1838.
Davis, John, 3 Sgt., GA – also Derricks Company – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia.
These Davis men in Lindsay's Company, Georgia Mounted Militia from Murray County served during the Cherokee disturbance or removal, which has come to be known as the Cherokee Wars, 1836-1839. This tragic event resulted in the brutal roundup and removal of the Cherokees in 1838 and the deadly winter march to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, known as "the trail of tears."
Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908) at age 68 and living in 1894 in Eastland County, Texas, filed an application for a Widows Pension (Indian Wars - Claim of Widow for Service Pension Under Act of July 27, 1892) on 29 May 1894, in Eastland County, Texas, based on her husband's service in the Murray County, Georgia Militia in the "Cherokee Indian Disturbance of 1837/38". George W. Williamson and James J. Barber signed as witnesses on 29 March 1894, saying they resided in Eastland County and knew that Alfred J. Davis was the husband of Sarah O. Davis, and that they knew Sarah O. Davis for 29 and 30 years, respectively. In the application, A.J. Davis is described as 19 or 20 years of age in 1837, height 5'9", blue eyes, black hair, fair complexion, a farmer by occupation, born on the Tennessee–Georgia line. The Treasury Department record of service returned from Washington, D.C. on 2 May 1894, regarding Indian Wars Claim No. 5412, states that A.J. Davis enrolled Dec. 1, 1837, at Elijay, Georgia, Derrick's Company, Georgia Volunteers, and was discharged July 14, 1838, at New Echota, Georgia, paid for two days of travel to his home 40 miles from place of discharge. The pension application stated that A.J. Davis resided about 26 years in Murray County, Georgia, after his service ended in 1838, and about 5 years in Crenshaw County, Alabama, where he died on Aug. 15, 1869, near Rutledge, Alabama.
Attached to the pension application is a notarized affidavit and a handwritten copy dated May 18, 1895 from the Clerk of the Superior Court of Murray County of the marriage record of A.J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Georgia, by Rev. William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel.
In the 1860 Murray County Census, District 1013 Georgia Militia, Hassler's Mill post office, William P. Swanson, age 60, with wife Emily, age 60, both born in North Carolina, was a cabinet maker and Baptist preacher.
Two slave sale receipts, written in the hand of A.J. Davis, were attached to the pension application and give that A.J. Davis bought slaves in two sales on April 1st, 1864 in Murray County. By notarized affidavit in Eastland County dated 18 May 1895, in regard to Claim No. 5412, the very legible and excellent handwriting on the two slave receipts is sworn to be the handwriting of A.J. Davis, husband of Sarah O. Davis. The affidavit states further that A.J. Davis received a land warrant for his militia service probably in Murray County, but Sarah Davis had no further information in regard to the land warrant.
Chilion Packard (1791-1851) moved to Pleasant Valley in 1840, with daughter Sarah Olive, about age fifteen. Chilion's wife, Sarah Gordon Roulain Packard had died at Aiken, SC in 1839 and his 21-year-old son, Charles Chilion Packard Jr., had died at Aiken in early 1840. By August 1840, Chilion Packard and daughter Sarah Olive moved to Pleasant Valley (now Eton), Murray County, GA and bought land from A.J. Davis, then about age 22. This may suggest that Henry Davis died in 1840. At Pleasant Valley, Chilion Packard was a land owner, store merchant, and postmaster and had considerable personal wealth. He held seven slaves in 1850.
Miss Sarah Olive Packard (1825-1908), about age 17, married Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), age 24, on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Murray County, Georgia, by William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel, Baptist preacher and cabinet maker.
Georgia
Murray County
To any Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the Superior Court, Justice of the Inferior Court, or Justice of the Peace, you are hereby authorized to join Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard in lawful bonds of Matrimony agreeable to the Constitution and Law of this State of Georgia under my hand and Seal this 16 day of August 1842.
Thomas O. Austin C.C.O.
Georgia
Murray County
I certify the foregoing was duly executed before me this 10 day of August Eighteen hundred and forty two.
Wm. P. Swanson MG
A.J. Davis was postmaster at Pleasant Valley in 1851-1852 (from book Murray County Heritage), but the post office closed in the late 1850's.
By 1860, A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis had a nice farm and house at Pleasant Valley, inherited from her father, Chilion Packard. They had a family of one son and five daughters.
A.J. Davis was a supporter of the Confederacy, a slave owner, while his brother, Henry Bazzle Davis in Cleveland, TN was a supporter of the Union. In 1862, young Charles Chilion Davis, age 18, enlisted in the 39th Georgia Infantry and saw at least two brutal years of the war, including fighting around Chattanooga and at the Siege of Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge. During the 1863-64 winter, he was encamped with his regiment outside Dalton, building fortifications and waiting for the advance of the Union Army.
Dangerous and threatening events of the war in the spring of 1864 in Murray County caused A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis, taking their five daughters, to flee Murray County, and they never returned. They lost property and wealth. They traveled by train, until the train reached Greenville in Butler County, Alabama, where there was a fire on the train. Some of their possessions were burned. A.J. Davis went to nearby Barber's Crossroads (now Rutledge in Crenshaw County, after Butler County was reorganized in 1867). He made an agreement with planter and store owner Jared Phelps Barber (1812-1893) to live in a slave cabin on the Barber land, to survive the war. He bought land from J.P. Barber that year of 1864. After the war ended in 1865, the son Charles Chilion Davis (1844-1923) reunited with his family at Rutledge, having been a prisoner of the Union Army, but paroled and ordered to "stay north of the Ohio River."
The Sarah O. Davis Bible records that A.J. Davis died August 15, 1869 in Crenshaw County, Alabama. The 1908 obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis says that she was overjoyed when her husband was converted in a church meeting in 1868. See the Find A Grave Memorial of Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908), Eastland Cemetery, Eastland, Eastland County, Texas.
Grandmother Sarah O. Davis moved from near Rutledge in Crenshaw County, AL to near Staff in Eastland County, Texas in October 1889, with the family of Peyton and Tallulah Davis Barber. Margaret Corinne Davis (1857-1932), a schoolteacher came with the family. Peyton and Tallulah bought a farm on the north side of Round Mountain, near the Leon River and the developing Staff Community and Peyton became a cattle farmer, later putting up some of the first barbed wire in the area.
__________________________________________________
The Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Packard Davis Bible
Marriages:
Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard were united in marriage August 16th 1842
E.T. Williamson and Ary Ann Davis were united in marriage May 16 1867
Peyton P. Barber and Tallalah A. Davis were united in marriage Nov. 14th 1867
Charles C. Davis and Adelle Cross were united in marriage June 11th 1871
Julius G. Cross and Olive Davis were united in marriage Sept 28th 1871
Peyton P. Barber and M. Corinne Davis were united in marriage July 1st 1907
Births:
Alfred J. Davis, son of Henry and Elisabeth Davis was born in …
Sarah O. Packard, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard was born in Charleston S.C. Sept 25th, 1825
Charles Chilion Davis, son of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Ga. June 16th 1844
Ary Ann Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia July 8th 1846.
Olive Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia December 10th 1848
Tallulah Agnes Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 9th 1851
Sarah Emma Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia March 6th 1853.
Margarette Corinne Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 14 1857
Deaths:
Sarah Packard, mother of S.O. Davis died at Aiken, S.C. November 15th 1839 Aged 53 years
Chilion Packard, father of S.O. Davis died at Pleasant Valley Murray Co. Georgia February 6th 1851 Aged 60 years
Alfred J. Davis departed this life in Crenshaw Co. Alabama August 15th 1869
Sarah Emma Davis died in Crenshaw County Alabama February 27th 1873 Aged 20 years
Ara Ann Williamson, daughter of S.O. Davis, died in Eastland Co. Texas January 14th 1880 Aged 33 years.
Tallulah Agnes Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis died in Eastland Co. Texas May 24 – 1906. Aged 55 years.
Sarah Olive Davis, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard, died in Eastland Co. Texas March 6 – 1908. Aged 82 years.
Charles Chillion Davis died in Montgomery County Alabama September 3rd 1923. Aged 79 years.
Peyton Phelps Barber died in Eastland County, Texas November 26, 1929, Aged 80 years.
Margaret Corinne Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis, died at Plainview, Texas February 12, 1932, Aged 75 years.
========= End of Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Davis Bible Record ============
The Obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis (1825-1908)
March 6, 1908
Staff, Eastland County, Texas
Davis – Mrs. Sarah Olive Davis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 25, 1825. She was the daughter of Dr. Chilion and Mrs. Sarah Packard. Her parents moved to Aiken South Carolina, when she was quite young. There her mother died and soon after an only brother, leaving her and her father alone. They again moved to Murray County, Georgia, where she met and married Alfred J. Davis, August 16, 1842. She was mother of seven children. Six lived to be grown, one dying in infancy. Three daughters preceded her to the home beyond. She went home March 6, 1908, leaving one son, two daughters, a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was converted and joined the M.E. Church before the division of 1844, after which she went with the Southern branch. According to her own statement, the first years of her life were spent in doubtings and fears, cheating herself out of the joys of religion by looking at her own weaknesses and failures. But in 1868, during a revival meeting, when in answer to prayer, her husband was converted, she "cast to the wind" her fears and "stepped out on the promises of God," and ever after, so those who knew her best testify, and especially during the time the writer knew her, her faith was marvelous. The great attraction about grandma's life was her sunny disposition and sweet spirit. Always happy and joyful and optimistic with reference to all questions or undertakings, with a heart brimful of love to God and all mankind, she was a lasting benediction to every life with which she came in contact. To know her was to love her and to be with her was to get a blessing from her life. She came as near as any person I ever knew of fulfilling the command – love everybody – especially, during the latter years of her life. She never failed to talk during a testimony meeting, and she always responded, that she did not say "I love everybody." Her motto in life seemed to be: Be helpful – a test that her very life quoted every day, it seemed to me, in everything she did. This fact stands out plainly in her attendance in the Sunday-school. She was a member of the writer's class, and while she must have been cognizant of the fact that she knew more about the Bible than either teacher or pupils, yet she took a lively interest. I always felt like, from a sense of duty, that she might be helpful to somebody. Left a widow about forty years ago, yet she never grew despondent, but with a sweet, submissive spirit and a faith in God that never wavered, she looked forward with much joy to that happy reunion in the glory land. J.A. BRASHEAR
*John Alfred Brashear (1872-1964), writer of the Sarah Olive Davis obituary, was the husband of Bessie Corinne Barber Brashear (1877-1926), daughter of Peyton and Tallulah Barber. He was a grocery merchant in Eastland about the year 1900. He was active in the Methodist Church.
--Biography by Norman L. Alford, contributed June 1, 2019.
The Dec. 1863 Murray County, Georgia Confederate Militia record, from District 1013 (McDonald's), records A.J. Davis as age 47 and 2 months, born in Overton County, Tennessee. The 1894 widow's pension application in Eastland County, Texas of Sarah O. Davis, says that her husband was born on the Tennessee-Georgia line.
By 1834, the Henry and Elizabeth Davis family (a household of fifteen) lived at Pleasant Valley (now Eton) in Murray County, Georgia. Henry Davis is on a list of land winners in the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, when Cherokee lands were given to white settlers by the State of Georgia.
The book, Volunteer Soldiers in the Cherokee War, 1836-1839, published by Mountain Press in 1995, records four Davis men from Murray County, all serving in the same company. The records were compiled from muster rolls of each unit, now in the National Archives.
Davis, Alfred J., Pvt., Georgia, Derricks Co. – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia
Davis, Dobson, W. – same company as above – probably older brother to A.J. Davis
Davis, Henry, same company as above, dates of Dec. 1, 1837 to July 14, 1838.
Davis, John, 3 Sgt., GA – also Derricks Company – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia.
These Davis men in Lindsay's Company, Georgia Mounted Militia from Murray County served during the Cherokee disturbance or removal, which has come to be known as the Cherokee Wars, 1836-1839. This tragic event resulted in the brutal roundup and removal of the Cherokees in 1838 and the deadly winter march to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, known as "the trail of tears."
Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908) at age 68 and living in 1894 in Eastland County, Texas, filed an application for a Widows Pension (Indian Wars - Claim of Widow for Service Pension Under Act of July 27, 1892) on 29 May 1894, in Eastland County, Texas, based on her husband's service in the Murray County, Georgia Militia in the "Cherokee Indian Disturbance of 1837/38". George W. Williamson and James J. Barber signed as witnesses on 29 March 1894, saying they resided in Eastland County and knew that Alfred J. Davis was the husband of Sarah O. Davis, and that they knew Sarah O. Davis for 29 and 30 years, respectively. In the application, A.J. Davis is described as 19 or 20 years of age in 1837, height 5'9", blue eyes, black hair, fair complexion, a farmer by occupation, born on the Tennessee–Georgia line. The Treasury Department record of service returned from Washington, D.C. on 2 May 1894, regarding Indian Wars Claim No. 5412, states that A.J. Davis enrolled Dec. 1, 1837, at Elijay, Georgia, Derrick's Company, Georgia Volunteers, and was discharged July 14, 1838, at New Echota, Georgia, paid for two days of travel to his home 40 miles from place of discharge. The pension application stated that A.J. Davis resided about 26 years in Murray County, Georgia, after his service ended in 1838, and about 5 years in Crenshaw County, Alabama, where he died on Aug. 15, 1869, near Rutledge, Alabama.
Attached to the pension application is a notarized affidavit and a handwritten copy dated May 18, 1895 from the Clerk of the Superior Court of Murray County of the marriage record of A.J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Georgia, by Rev. William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel.
In the 1860 Murray County Census, District 1013 Georgia Militia, Hassler's Mill post office, William P. Swanson, age 60, with wife Emily, age 60, both born in North Carolina, was a cabinet maker and Baptist preacher.
Two slave sale receipts, written in the hand of A.J. Davis, were attached to the pension application and give that A.J. Davis bought slaves in two sales on April 1st, 1864 in Murray County. By notarized affidavit in Eastland County dated 18 May 1895, in regard to Claim No. 5412, the very legible and excellent handwriting on the two slave receipts is sworn to be the handwriting of A.J. Davis, husband of Sarah O. Davis. The affidavit states further that A.J. Davis received a land warrant for his militia service probably in Murray County, but Sarah Davis had no further information in regard to the land warrant.
Chilion Packard (1791-1851) moved to Pleasant Valley in 1840, with daughter Sarah Olive, about age fifteen. Chilion's wife, Sarah Gordon Roulain Packard had died at Aiken, SC in 1839 and his 21-year-old son, Charles Chilion Packard Jr., had died at Aiken in early 1840. By August 1840, Chilion Packard and daughter Sarah Olive moved to Pleasant Valley (now Eton), Murray County, GA and bought land from A.J. Davis, then about age 22. This may suggest that Henry Davis died in 1840. At Pleasant Valley, Chilion Packard was a land owner, store merchant, and postmaster and had considerable personal wealth. He held seven slaves in 1850.
Miss Sarah Olive Packard (1825-1908), about age 17, married Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), age 24, on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Murray County, Georgia, by William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel, Baptist preacher and cabinet maker.
Georgia
Murray County
To any Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the Superior Court, Justice of the Inferior Court, or Justice of the Peace, you are hereby authorized to join Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard in lawful bonds of Matrimony agreeable to the Constitution and Law of this State of Georgia under my hand and Seal this 16 day of August 1842.
Thomas O. Austin C.C.O.
Georgia
Murray County
I certify the foregoing was duly executed before me this 10 day of August Eighteen hundred and forty two.
Wm. P. Swanson MG
A.J. Davis was postmaster at Pleasant Valley in 1851-1852 (from book Murray County Heritage), but the post office closed in the late 1850's.
By 1860, A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis had a nice farm and house at Pleasant Valley, inherited from her father, Chilion Packard. They had a family of one son and five daughters.
A.J. Davis was a supporter of the Confederacy, a slave owner, while his brother, Henry Bazzle Davis in Cleveland, TN was a supporter of the Union. In 1862, young Charles Chilion Davis, age 18, enlisted in the 39th Georgia Infantry and saw at least two brutal years of the war, including fighting around Chattanooga and at the Siege of Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge. During the 1863-64 winter, he was encamped with his regiment outside Dalton, building fortifications and waiting for the advance of the Union Army.
Dangerous and threatening events of the war in the spring of 1864 in Murray County caused A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis, taking their five daughters, to flee Murray County, and they never returned. They lost property and wealth. They traveled by train, until the train reached Greenville in Butler County, Alabama, where there was a fire on the train. Some of their possessions were burned. A.J. Davis went to nearby Barber's Crossroads (now Rutledge in Crenshaw County, after Butler County was reorganized in 1867). He made an agreement with planter and store owner Jared Phelps Barber (1812-1893) to live in a slave cabin on the Barber land, to survive the war. He bought land from J.P. Barber that year of 1864. After the war ended in 1865, the son Charles Chilion Davis (1844-1923) reunited with his family at Rutledge, having been a prisoner of the Union Army, but paroled and ordered to "stay north of the Ohio River."
The Sarah O. Davis Bible records that A.J. Davis died August 15, 1869 in Crenshaw County, Alabama. The 1908 obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis says that she was overjoyed when her husband was converted in a church meeting in 1868. See the Find A Grave Memorial of Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908), Eastland Cemetery, Eastland, Eastland County, Texas.
Grandmother Sarah O. Davis moved from near Rutledge in Crenshaw County, AL to near Staff in Eastland County, Texas in October 1889, with the family of Peyton and Tallulah Davis Barber. Margaret Corinne Davis (1857-1932), a schoolteacher came with the family. Peyton and Tallulah bought a farm on the north side of Round Mountain, near the Leon River and the developing Staff Community and Peyton became a cattle farmer, later putting up some of the first barbed wire in the area.
__________________________________________________
The Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Packard Davis Bible
Marriages:
Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard were united in marriage August 16th 1842
E.T. Williamson and Ary Ann Davis were united in marriage May 16 1867
Peyton P. Barber and Tallalah A. Davis were united in marriage Nov. 14th 1867
Charles C. Davis and Adelle Cross were united in marriage June 11th 1871
Julius G. Cross and Olive Davis were united in marriage Sept 28th 1871
Peyton P. Barber and M. Corinne Davis were united in marriage July 1st 1907
Births:
Alfred J. Davis, son of Henry and Elisabeth Davis was born in …
Sarah O. Packard, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard was born in Charleston S.C. Sept 25th, 1825
Charles Chilion Davis, son of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Ga. June 16th 1844
Ary Ann Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia July 8th 1846.
Olive Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia December 10th 1848
Tallulah Agnes Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 9th 1851
Sarah Emma Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia March 6th 1853.
Margarette Corinne Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 14 1857
Deaths:
Sarah Packard, mother of S.O. Davis died at Aiken, S.C. November 15th 1839 Aged 53 years
Chilion Packard, father of S.O. Davis died at Pleasant Valley Murray Co. Georgia February 6th 1851 Aged 60 years
Alfred J. Davis departed this life in Crenshaw Co. Alabama August 15th 1869
Sarah Emma Davis died in Crenshaw County Alabama February 27th 1873 Aged 20 years
Ara Ann Williamson, daughter of S.O. Davis, died in Eastland Co. Texas January 14th 1880 Aged 33 years.
Tallulah Agnes Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis died in Eastland Co. Texas May 24 – 1906. Aged 55 years.
Sarah Olive Davis, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard, died in Eastland Co. Texas March 6 – 1908. Aged 82 years.
Charles Chillion Davis died in Montgomery County Alabama September 3rd 1923. Aged 79 years.
Peyton Phelps Barber died in Eastland County, Texas November 26, 1929, Aged 80 years.
Margaret Corinne Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis, died at Plainview, Texas February 12, 1932, Aged 75 years.
========= End of Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Davis Bible Record ============
The Obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis (1825-1908)
March 6, 1908
Staff, Eastland County, Texas
Davis – Mrs. Sarah Olive Davis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 25, 1825. She was the daughter of Dr. Chilion and Mrs. Sarah Packard. Her parents moved to Aiken South Carolina, when she was quite young. There her mother died and soon after an only brother, leaving her and her father alone. They again moved to Murray County, Georgia, where she met and married Alfred J. Davis, August 16, 1842. She was mother of seven children. Six lived to be grown, one dying in infancy. Three daughters preceded her to the home beyond. She went home March 6, 1908, leaving one son, two daughters, a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was converted and joined the M.E. Church before the division of 1844, after which she went with the Southern branch. According to her own statement, the first years of her life were spent in doubtings and fears, cheating herself out of the joys of religion by looking at her own weaknesses and failures. But in 1868, during a revival meeting, when in answer to prayer, her husband was converted, she "cast to the wind" her fears and "stepped out on the promises of God," and ever after, so those who knew her best testify, and especially during the time the writer knew her, her faith was marvelous. The great attraction about grandma's life was her sunny disposition and sweet spirit. Always happy and joyful and optimistic with reference to all questions or undertakings, with a heart brimful of love to God and all mankind, she was a lasting benediction to every life with which she came in contact. To know her was to love her and to be with her was to get a blessing from her life. She came as near as any person I ever knew of fulfilling the command – love everybody – especially, during the latter years of her life. She never failed to talk during a testimony meeting, and she always responded, that she did not say "I love everybody." Her motto in life seemed to be: Be helpful – a test that her very life quoted every day, it seemed to me, in everything she did. This fact stands out plainly in her attendance in the Sunday-school. She was a member of the writer's class, and while she must have been cognizant of the fact that she knew more about the Bible than either teacher or pupils, yet she took a lively interest. I always felt like, from a sense of duty, that she might be helpful to somebody. Left a widow about forty years ago, yet she never grew despondent, but with a sweet, submissive spirit and a faith in God that never wavered, she looked forward with much joy to that happy reunion in the glory land. J.A. BRASHEAR
*John Alfred Brashear (1872-1964), writer of the Sarah Olive Davis obituary, was the husband of Bessie Corinne Barber Brashear (1877-1926), daughter of Peyton and Tallulah Barber. He was a grocery merchant in Eastland about the year 1900. He was active in the Methodist Church.
--Biography by Norman L. Alford, contributed June 1, 2019.
Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), born Roane County, TN, was the son of Henry and Elizabeth "Betsy" Miller Davis.
The Dec. 1863 Murray County, Georgia Confederate Militia record, from District 1013 (McDonald's), records A.J. Davis as age 47 and 2 months, born in Overton County, Tennessee. The 1894 widow's pension application in Eastland County, Texas of Sarah O. Davis, says that her husband was born on the Tennessee-Georgia line.
By 1834, the Henry and Elizabeth Davis family (a household of fifteen) lived at Pleasant Valley (now Eton) in Murray County, Georgia. Henry Davis is on a list of land winners in the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, when Cherokee lands were given to white settlers by the State of Georgia.
The book, Volunteer Soldiers in the Cherokee War, 1836-1839, published by Mountain Press in 1995, records four Davis men from Murray County, all serving in the same company. The records were compiled from muster rolls of each unit, now in the National Archives.
Davis, Alfred J., Pvt., Georgia, Derricks Co. – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia
Davis, Dobson, W. – same company as above – probably older brother to A.J. Davis
Davis, Henry, same company as above, dates of Dec. 1, 1837 to July 14, 1838.
Davis, John, 3 Sgt., GA – also Derricks Company – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia.
These Davis men in Lindsay's Company, Georgia Mounted Militia from Murray County served during the Cherokee disturbance or removal, which has come to be known as the Cherokee Wars, 1836-1839. This tragic event resulted in the brutal roundup and removal of the Cherokees in 1838 and the deadly winter march to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, known as "the trail of tears."
Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908) at age 68 and living in 1894 in Eastland County, Texas, filed an application for a Widows Pension (Indian Wars - Claim of Widow for Service Pension Under Act of July 27, 1892) on 29 May 1894, in Eastland County, Texas, based on her husband's service in the Murray County, Georgia Militia in the "Cherokee Indian Disturbance of 1837/38". George W. Williamson and James J. Barber signed as witnesses on 29 March 1894, saying they resided in Eastland County and knew that Alfred J. Davis was the husband of Sarah O. Davis, and that they knew Sarah O. Davis for 29 and 30 years, respectively. In the application, A.J. Davis is described as 19 or 20 years of age in 1837, height 5'9", blue eyes, black hair, fair complexion, a farmer by occupation, born on the Tennessee–Georgia line. The Treasury Department record of service returned from Washington, D.C. on 2 May 1894, regarding Indian Wars Claim No. 5412, states that A.J. Davis enrolled Dec. 1, 1837, at Elijay, Georgia, Derrick's Company, Georgia Volunteers, and was discharged July 14, 1838, at New Echota, Georgia, paid for two days of travel to his home 40 miles from place of discharge. The pension application stated that A.J. Davis resided about 26 years in Murray County, Georgia, after his service ended in 1838, and about 5 years in Crenshaw County, Alabama, where he died on Aug. 15, 1869, near Rutledge, Alabama.
Attached to the pension application is a notarized affidavit and a handwritten copy dated May 18, 1895 from the Clerk of the Superior Court of Murray County of the marriage record of A.J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Georgia, by Rev. William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel.
In the 1860 Murray County Census, District 1013 Georgia Militia, Hassler's Mill post office, William P. Swanson, age 60, with wife Emily, age 60, both born in North Carolina, was a cabinet maker and Baptist preacher.
Two slave sale receipts, written in the hand of A.J. Davis, were attached to the pension application and give that A.J. Davis bought slaves in two sales on April 1st, 1864 in Murray County. By notarized affidavit in Eastland County dated 18 May 1895, in regard to Claim No. 5412, the very legible and excellent handwriting on the two slave receipts is sworn to be the handwriting of A.J. Davis, husband of Sarah O. Davis. The affidavit states further that A.J. Davis received a land warrant for his militia service probably in Murray County, but Sarah Davis had no further information in regard to the land warrant.
Chilion Packard (1791-1851) moved to Pleasant Valley in 1840, with daughter Sarah Olive, about age fifteen. Chilion's wife, Sarah Gordon Roulain Packard had died at Aiken, SC in 1839 and his 21-year-old son, Charles Chilion Packard Jr., had died at Aiken in early 1840. By August 1840, Chilion Packard and daughter Sarah Olive moved to Pleasant Valley (now Eton), Murray County, GA and bought land from A.J. Davis, then about age 22. This may suggest that Henry Davis died in 1840. At Pleasant Valley, Chilion Packard was a land owner, store merchant, and postmaster and had considerable personal wealth. He held seven slaves in 1850.
Miss Sarah Olive Packard (1825-1908), about age 17, married Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), age 24, on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Murray County, Georgia, by William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel, Baptist preacher and cabinet maker.
Georgia
Murray County
To any Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the Superior Court, Justice of the Inferior Court, or Justice of the Peace, you are hereby authorized to join Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard in lawful bonds of Matrimony agreeable to the Constitution and Law of this State of Georgia under my hand and Seal this 16 day of August 1842.
Thomas O. Austin C.C.O.
Georgia
Murray County
I certify the foregoing was duly executed before me this 10 day of August Eighteen hundred and forty two.
Wm. P. Swanson MG
A.J. Davis was postmaster at Pleasant Valley in 1851-1852 (from book Murray County Heritage), but the post office closed in the late 1850's.
By 1860, A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis had a nice farm and house at Pleasant Valley, inherited from her father, Chilion Packard. They had a family of one son and five daughters.
A.J. Davis was a supporter of the Confederacy, a slave owner, while his brother, Henry Bazzle Davis in Cleveland, TN was a supporter of the Union. In 1862, young Charles Chilion Davis, age 18, enlisted in the 39th Georgia Infantry and saw at least two brutal years of the war, including fighting around Chattanooga and at the Siege of Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge. During the 1863-64 winter, he was encamped with his regiment outside Dalton, building fortifications and waiting for the advance of the Union Army.
Dangerous and threatening events of the war in the spring of 1864 in Murray County caused A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis, taking their five daughters, to flee Murray County, and they never returned. They lost property and wealth. They traveled by train, until the train reached Greenville in Butler County, Alabama, where there was a fire on the train. Some of their possessions were burned. A.J. Davis went to nearby Barber's Crossroads (now Rutledge in Crenshaw County, after Butler County was reorganized in 1867). He made an agreement with planter and store owner Jared Phelps Barber (1812-1893) to live in a slave cabin on the Barber land, to survive the war. He bought land from J.P. Barber that year of 1864. After the war ended in 1865, the son Charles Chilion Davis (1844-1923) reunited with his family at Rutledge, having been a prisoner of the Union Army, but paroled and ordered to "stay north of the Ohio River."
The Sarah O. Davis Bible records that A.J. Davis died August 15, 1869 in Crenshaw County, Alabama. The 1908 obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis says that she was overjoyed when her husband was converted in a church meeting in 1868. See the Find A Grave Memorial of Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908), Eastland Cemetery, Eastland, Eastland County, Texas.
Grandmother Sarah O. Davis moved from near Rutledge in Crenshaw County, AL to near Staff in Eastland County, Texas in October 1889, with the family of Peyton and Tallulah Davis Barber. Margaret Corinne Davis (1857-1932), a schoolteacher came with the family. Peyton and Tallulah bought a farm on the north side of Round Mountain, near the Leon River and the developing Staff Community and Peyton became a cattle farmer, later putting up some of the first barbed wire in the area.
__________________________________________________
The Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Packard Davis Bible
Marriages:
Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard were united in marriage August 16th 1842
E.T. Williamson and Ary Ann Davis were united in marriage May 16 1867
Peyton P. Barber and Tallalah A. Davis were united in marriage Nov. 14th 1867
Charles C. Davis and Adelle Cross were united in marriage June 11th 1871
Julius G. Cross and Olive Davis were united in marriage Sept 28th 1871
Peyton P. Barber and M. Corinne Davis were united in marriage July 1st 1907
Births:
Alfred J. Davis, son of Henry and Elisabeth Davis was born in …
Sarah O. Packard, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard was born in Charleston S.C. Sept 25th, 1825
Charles Chilion Davis, son of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Ga. June 16th 1844
Ary Ann Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia July 8th 1846.
Olive Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia December 10th 1848
Tallulah Agnes Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 9th 1851
Sarah Emma Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia March 6th 1853.
Margarette Corinne Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 14 1857
Deaths:
Sarah Packard, mother of S.O. Davis died at Aiken, S.C. November 15th 1839 Aged 53 years
Chilion Packard, father of S.O. Davis died at Pleasant Valley Murray Co. Georgia February 6th 1851 Aged 60 years
Alfred J. Davis departed this life in Crenshaw Co. Alabama August 15th 1869
Sarah Emma Davis died in Crenshaw County Alabama February 27th 1873 Aged 20 years
Ara Ann Williamson, daughter of S.O. Davis, died in Eastland Co. Texas January 14th 1880 Aged 33 years.
Tallulah Agnes Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis died in Eastland Co. Texas May 24 – 1906. Aged 55 years.
Sarah Olive Davis, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard, died in Eastland Co. Texas March 6 – 1908. Aged 82 years.
Charles Chillion Davis died in Montgomery County Alabama September 3rd 1923. Aged 79 years.
Peyton Phelps Barber died in Eastland County, Texas November 26, 1929, Aged 80 years.
Margaret Corinne Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis, died at Plainview, Texas February 12, 1932, Aged 75 years.
========= End of Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Davis Bible Record ============
The Obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis (1825-1908)
March 6, 1908
Staff, Eastland County, Texas
Davis – Mrs. Sarah Olive Davis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 25, 1825. She was the daughter of Dr. Chilion and Mrs. Sarah Packard. Her parents moved to Aiken South Carolina, when she was quite young. There her mother died and soon after an only brother, leaving her and her father alone. They again moved to Murray County, Georgia, where she met and married Alfred J. Davis, August 16, 1842. She was mother of seven children. Six lived to be grown, one dying in infancy. Three daughters preceded her to the home beyond. She went home March 6, 1908, leaving one son, two daughters, a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was converted and joined the M.E. Church before the division of 1844, after which she went with the Southern branch. According to her own statement, the first years of her life were spent in doubtings and fears, cheating herself out of the joys of religion by looking at her own weaknesses and failures. But in 1868, during a revival meeting, when in answer to prayer, her husband was converted, she "cast to the wind" her fears and "stepped out on the promises of God," and ever after, so those who knew her best testify, and especially during the time the writer knew her, her faith was marvelous. The great attraction about grandma's life was her sunny disposition and sweet spirit. Always happy and joyful and optimistic with reference to all questions or undertakings, with a heart brimful of love to God and all mankind, she was a lasting benediction to every life with which she came in contact. To know her was to love her and to be with her was to get a blessing from her life. She came as near as any person I ever knew of fulfilling the command – love everybody – especially, during the latter years of her life. She never failed to talk during a testimony meeting, and she always responded, that she did not say "I love everybody." Her motto in life seemed to be: Be helpful – a test that her very life quoted every day, it seemed to me, in everything she did. This fact stands out plainly in her attendance in the Sunday-school. She was a member of the writer's class, and while she must have been cognizant of the fact that she knew more about the Bible than either teacher or pupils, yet she took a lively interest. I always felt like, from a sense of duty, that she might be helpful to somebody. Left a widow about forty years ago, yet she never grew despondent, but with a sweet, submissive spirit and a faith in God that never wavered, she looked forward with much joy to that happy reunion in the glory land. J.A. BRASHEAR
*John Alfred Brashear (1872-1964), writer of the Sarah Olive Davis obituary, was the husband of Bessie Corinne Barber Brashear (1877-1926), daughter of Peyton and Tallulah Barber. He was a grocery merchant in Eastland about the year 1900. He was active in the Methodist Church.
--Biography by Norman L. Alford, contributed June 1, 2019.
The Dec. 1863 Murray County, Georgia Confederate Militia record, from District 1013 (McDonald's), records A.J. Davis as age 47 and 2 months, born in Overton County, Tennessee. The 1894 widow's pension application in Eastland County, Texas of Sarah O. Davis, says that her husband was born on the Tennessee-Georgia line.
By 1834, the Henry and Elizabeth Davis family (a household of fifteen) lived at Pleasant Valley (now Eton) in Murray County, Georgia. Henry Davis is on a list of land winners in the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, when Cherokee lands were given to white settlers by the State of Georgia.
The book, Volunteer Soldiers in the Cherokee War, 1836-1839, published by Mountain Press in 1995, records four Davis men from Murray County, all serving in the same company. The records were compiled from muster rolls of each unit, now in the National Archives.
Davis, Alfred J., Pvt., Georgia, Derricks Co. – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia
Davis, Dobson, W. – same company as above – probably older brother to A.J. Davis
Davis, Henry, same company as above, dates of Dec. 1, 1837 to July 14, 1838.
Davis, John, 3 Sgt., GA – also Derricks Company – Lindsay's, Georgia Mounted Militia.
These Davis men in Lindsay's Company, Georgia Mounted Militia from Murray County served during the Cherokee disturbance or removal, which has come to be known as the Cherokee Wars, 1836-1839. This tragic event resulted in the brutal roundup and removal of the Cherokees in 1838 and the deadly winter march to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, known as "the trail of tears."
Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908) at age 68 and living in 1894 in Eastland County, Texas, filed an application for a Widows Pension (Indian Wars - Claim of Widow for Service Pension Under Act of July 27, 1892) on 29 May 1894, in Eastland County, Texas, based on her husband's service in the Murray County, Georgia Militia in the "Cherokee Indian Disturbance of 1837/38". George W. Williamson and James J. Barber signed as witnesses on 29 March 1894, saying they resided in Eastland County and knew that Alfred J. Davis was the husband of Sarah O. Davis, and that they knew Sarah O. Davis for 29 and 30 years, respectively. In the application, A.J. Davis is described as 19 or 20 years of age in 1837, height 5'9", blue eyes, black hair, fair complexion, a farmer by occupation, born on the Tennessee–Georgia line. The Treasury Department record of service returned from Washington, D.C. on 2 May 1894, regarding Indian Wars Claim No. 5412, states that A.J. Davis enrolled Dec. 1, 1837, at Elijay, Georgia, Derrick's Company, Georgia Volunteers, and was discharged July 14, 1838, at New Echota, Georgia, paid for two days of travel to his home 40 miles from place of discharge. The pension application stated that A.J. Davis resided about 26 years in Murray County, Georgia, after his service ended in 1838, and about 5 years in Crenshaw County, Alabama, where he died on Aug. 15, 1869, near Rutledge, Alabama.
Attached to the pension application is a notarized affidavit and a handwritten copy dated May 18, 1895 from the Clerk of the Superior Court of Murray County of the marriage record of A.J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Georgia, by Rev. William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel.
In the 1860 Murray County Census, District 1013 Georgia Militia, Hassler's Mill post office, William P. Swanson, age 60, with wife Emily, age 60, both born in North Carolina, was a cabinet maker and Baptist preacher.
Two slave sale receipts, written in the hand of A.J. Davis, were attached to the pension application and give that A.J. Davis bought slaves in two sales on April 1st, 1864 in Murray County. By notarized affidavit in Eastland County dated 18 May 1895, in regard to Claim No. 5412, the very legible and excellent handwriting on the two slave receipts is sworn to be the handwriting of A.J. Davis, husband of Sarah O. Davis. The affidavit states further that A.J. Davis received a land warrant for his militia service probably in Murray County, but Sarah Davis had no further information in regard to the land warrant.
Chilion Packard (1791-1851) moved to Pleasant Valley in 1840, with daughter Sarah Olive, about age fifteen. Chilion's wife, Sarah Gordon Roulain Packard had died at Aiken, SC in 1839 and his 21-year-old son, Charles Chilion Packard Jr., had died at Aiken in early 1840. By August 1840, Chilion Packard and daughter Sarah Olive moved to Pleasant Valley (now Eton), Murray County, GA and bought land from A.J. Davis, then about age 22. This may suggest that Henry Davis died in 1840. At Pleasant Valley, Chilion Packard was a land owner, store merchant, and postmaster and had considerable personal wealth. He held seven slaves in 1850.
Miss Sarah Olive Packard (1825-1908), about age 17, married Alfred Jasper Davis (1818-1869), age 24, on August 16, 1842, at Pleasant Valley, Murray County, Georgia, by William P. Swanson, Minister of the Gospel, Baptist preacher and cabinet maker.
Georgia
Murray County
To any Minister of the Gospel, Judge of the Superior Court, Justice of the Inferior Court, or Justice of the Peace, you are hereby authorized to join Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard in lawful bonds of Matrimony agreeable to the Constitution and Law of this State of Georgia under my hand and Seal this 16 day of August 1842.
Thomas O. Austin C.C.O.
Georgia
Murray County
I certify the foregoing was duly executed before me this 10 day of August Eighteen hundred and forty two.
Wm. P. Swanson MG
A.J. Davis was postmaster at Pleasant Valley in 1851-1852 (from book Murray County Heritage), but the post office closed in the late 1850's.
By 1860, A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis had a nice farm and house at Pleasant Valley, inherited from her father, Chilion Packard. They had a family of one son and five daughters.
A.J. Davis was a supporter of the Confederacy, a slave owner, while his brother, Henry Bazzle Davis in Cleveland, TN was a supporter of the Union. In 1862, young Charles Chilion Davis, age 18, enlisted in the 39th Georgia Infantry and saw at least two brutal years of the war, including fighting around Chattanooga and at the Siege of Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge. During the 1863-64 winter, he was encamped with his regiment outside Dalton, building fortifications and waiting for the advance of the Union Army.
Dangerous and threatening events of the war in the spring of 1864 in Murray County caused A.J. and Sarah Olive Davis, taking their five daughters, to flee Murray County, and they never returned. They lost property and wealth. They traveled by train, until the train reached Greenville in Butler County, Alabama, where there was a fire on the train. Some of their possessions were burned. A.J. Davis went to nearby Barber's Crossroads (now Rutledge in Crenshaw County, after Butler County was reorganized in 1867). He made an agreement with planter and store owner Jared Phelps Barber (1812-1893) to live in a slave cabin on the Barber land, to survive the war. He bought land from J.P. Barber that year of 1864. After the war ended in 1865, the son Charles Chilion Davis (1844-1923) reunited with his family at Rutledge, having been a prisoner of the Union Army, but paroled and ordered to "stay north of the Ohio River."
The Sarah O. Davis Bible records that A.J. Davis died August 15, 1869 in Crenshaw County, Alabama. The 1908 obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis says that she was overjoyed when her husband was converted in a church meeting in 1868. See the Find A Grave Memorial of Sarah Olive Davis (1825-1908), Eastland Cemetery, Eastland, Eastland County, Texas.
Grandmother Sarah O. Davis moved from near Rutledge in Crenshaw County, AL to near Staff in Eastland County, Texas in October 1889, with the family of Peyton and Tallulah Davis Barber. Margaret Corinne Davis (1857-1932), a schoolteacher came with the family. Peyton and Tallulah bought a farm on the north side of Round Mountain, near the Leon River and the developing Staff Community and Peyton became a cattle farmer, later putting up some of the first barbed wire in the area.
__________________________________________________
The Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Packard Davis Bible
Marriages:
Alfred J. Davis and Sarah O. Packard were united in marriage August 16th 1842
E.T. Williamson and Ary Ann Davis were united in marriage May 16 1867
Peyton P. Barber and Tallalah A. Davis were united in marriage Nov. 14th 1867
Charles C. Davis and Adelle Cross were united in marriage June 11th 1871
Julius G. Cross and Olive Davis were united in marriage Sept 28th 1871
Peyton P. Barber and M. Corinne Davis were united in marriage July 1st 1907
Births:
Alfred J. Davis, son of Henry and Elisabeth Davis was born in …
Sarah O. Packard, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard was born in Charleston S.C. Sept 25th, 1825
Charles Chilion Davis, son of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Ga. June 16th 1844
Ary Ann Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia July 8th 1846.
Olive Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia December 10th 1848
Tallulah Agnes Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 9th 1851
Sarah Emma Davis daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia March 6th 1853.
Margarette Corinne Davis, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis was born in Murray Co. Georgia January 14 1857
Deaths:
Sarah Packard, mother of S.O. Davis died at Aiken, S.C. November 15th 1839 Aged 53 years
Chilion Packard, father of S.O. Davis died at Pleasant Valley Murray Co. Georgia February 6th 1851 Aged 60 years
Alfred J. Davis departed this life in Crenshaw Co. Alabama August 15th 1869
Sarah Emma Davis died in Crenshaw County Alabama February 27th 1873 Aged 20 years
Ara Ann Williamson, daughter of S.O. Davis, died in Eastland Co. Texas January 14th 1880 Aged 33 years.
Tallulah Agnes Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis died in Eastland Co. Texas May 24 – 1906. Aged 55 years.
Sarah Olive Davis, daughter of Chilion and Sarah Packard, died in Eastland Co. Texas March 6 – 1908. Aged 82 years.
Charles Chillion Davis died in Montgomery County Alabama September 3rd 1923. Aged 79 years.
Peyton Phelps Barber died in Eastland County, Texas November 26, 1929, Aged 80 years.
Margaret Corinne Barber, daughter of A.J. and S.O. Davis, died at Plainview, Texas February 12, 1932, Aged 75 years.
========= End of Alfred Jasper Davis and Sarah Olive Davis Bible Record ============
The Obituary of Sarah Olive Packard Davis (1825-1908)
March 6, 1908
Staff, Eastland County, Texas
Davis – Mrs. Sarah Olive Davis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, September 25, 1825. She was the daughter of Dr. Chilion and Mrs. Sarah Packard. Her parents moved to Aiken South Carolina, when she was quite young. There her mother died and soon after an only brother, leaving her and her father alone. They again moved to Murray County, Georgia, where she met and married Alfred J. Davis, August 16, 1842. She was mother of seven children. Six lived to be grown, one dying in infancy. Three daughters preceded her to the home beyond. She went home March 6, 1908, leaving one son, two daughters, a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was converted and joined the M.E. Church before the division of 1844, after which she went with the Southern branch. According to her own statement, the first years of her life were spent in doubtings and fears, cheating herself out of the joys of religion by looking at her own weaknesses and failures. But in 1868, during a revival meeting, when in answer to prayer, her husband was converted, she "cast to the wind" her fears and "stepped out on the promises of God," and ever after, so those who knew her best testify, and especially during the time the writer knew her, her faith was marvelous. The great attraction about grandma's life was her sunny disposition and sweet spirit. Always happy and joyful and optimistic with reference to all questions or undertakings, with a heart brimful of love to God and all mankind, she was a lasting benediction to every life with which she came in contact. To know her was to love her and to be with her was to get a blessing from her life. She came as near as any person I ever knew of fulfilling the command – love everybody – especially, during the latter years of her life. She never failed to talk during a testimony meeting, and she always responded, that she did not say "I love everybody." Her motto in life seemed to be: Be helpful – a test that her very life quoted every day, it seemed to me, in everything she did. This fact stands out plainly in her attendance in the Sunday-school. She was a member of the writer's class, and while she must have been cognizant of the fact that she knew more about the Bible than either teacher or pupils, yet she took a lively interest. I always felt like, from a sense of duty, that she might be helpful to somebody. Left a widow about forty years ago, yet she never grew despondent, but with a sweet, submissive spirit and a faith in God that never wavered, she looked forward with much joy to that happy reunion in the glory land. J.A. BRASHEAR
*John Alfred Brashear (1872-1964), writer of the Sarah Olive Davis obituary, was the husband of Bessie Corinne Barber Brashear (1877-1926), daughter of Peyton and Tallulah Barber. He was a grocery merchant in Eastland about the year 1900. He was active in the Methodist Church.
--Biography by Norman L. Alford, contributed June 1, 2019.
Gravesite Details
Unmarked grave, Vernledge Methodist Cemetery
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