Annie was a 5th cousin of American novelist, Louisa May Alcott.
(*See the bottom of this memorial page to see how.)

Annie Lovela Patrick May Davis' paternal grandparents were:
Hezekiah Huntington May, b. Jun. 10, 1810 and d. Apr. 7, 1882 &
Frances Antoinette (or Ann) Thatcher, b. Apr. 23, 1823 and d. Sept. 15, 1897.

Annie Lovela Patrick May Davis' maternal grandparents were:
William Patrick, b. Jun. 5, 1777 in Ireland and d. Aug. 22, 1830 in
Addison, Somerset County, PA. &
Anne Jameson Patrick, b. Nov. 2, 1785 in Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland and d. Jul. 1, 1857 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA.

Annie Lovela Patrick May Davis was the second of three children born to:
William Huntington May, b. Apr. 4, 1850 in Tionesta, Forest County,
PA. and d. Oct. 30, 1928 in Louisville, Jefferson County, KY. &
Annie Lovela Patrick, b. Jan. 21, 1856 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA. and d. Mar. 5, 1936 in Louisville, Jefferson County, KY.

William Huntington May and Annie Patrick were married on Oct. 21, 1873.
They had three daughters:
1. Barbara Huntington Davis, b. Feb. 20, 1903 in Louisville, Jefferson Co., KY. and d. Apr. 2, 1995. Barbara marr. 1) Thomas 'Tom' Otey Kesterson, 2) Edwin Menefee Clancy, 3) John Kemp Goodloe Fuller and 4) Ralph Cate.
2. Annie Lovela Patrick May, b. Dec. 1875 in KY. and d. Oct. 3, 1957 in Gatlinburg, Sevier county, TN. Annie marr. Willis Perkins Davis.
3. Virginia 'Virgie' Huntington May, b. Jun. 11, 1877 and d. Dec. 31, 1963. Virgie did not marry.

In the Jun. 5, 1880 U.S. census, 4 yr. old Annie May, b. in KY., was living at 266 Broadway East in Louisville, Jefferson, KY. with her
31 yr. old father, Wm. H. May, a coffin manufacturer, b. in PA.
24 yr. old mother, Annie May, keeping house, b. in PA.
5 yr. old sister, Pauline May, b. in KY.
2 yr. old sister, Virginia May, b. in KY.
53 yr. old widowed grandmother, Melinda Patrick, b. in VA.
23 yr. old unmarried aunt, Virginia Patrick, b. in PA.
19 yr. old unmarried aunt, Mary Patrick, b. in PA.
45 yr. old unmarried great-uncle, Elisha Ludington, a retired Army officer (Major), b. in PA.
23 yr. old servant, Rosa Graves, b. in IL.
40 yr. old servant, Lucinda Alexander, b. in KY.
William's father was b. in ME. and his mother in NY.
Annie's father was b. in PA. and her mother in VA.
Melinda's parents were both b. in NY.

According to her Jan. 18, 1900 U.S. passport application, Annie L. P. May was born Dec. 27, 1876 at Louisville, KY.
She was described as 24 yrs. old, 5' 7 3/4 " tall, with a low forehead, hazel eyes and straight nose. She had a full mouth, medium chin, brown hair, fair complexion and a full face.
Applicant desired that her passport be sent to: Blair & Co., 33 Wall St., New York.

In the 1900 U. S. census, 24 yr. old Annie L. P. May, b. Dec. 1875 in KY., was unmarried and living at 1305 Third St. in Louisville Ward 6, Jefferson, KY. with her
50 yr. old father, William May, (the owner or manager) of the National Casket Co., b. Apr. 1850 in PA.
45 yr. old mother, Annie L. P. May, b. Jan. 1855 in PA.
25 yr. old unmarried sister, Pauline L. May, b. Oct. 1874 in KY.
21 yr. old unmarried sister, Virginia H. May, b. Jun. 1878 in KY.
73 yr. old widowed grandmother, Linda L. Patrick, b. Aug. 1826 in VA.
39 yr. old divorced servant/housemaid, Jennie Carry, b. Apr. 1861 in KY.
38 yr. old divorced servant/cook, Alice Mitchel, b. Jan. 1862 in IN.
William and Annie had been married for 26 yrs. Annie was the mother of 3 children, all still alive by this census.
Linda was also the mother of 3 children, all still alive by this census.
William's father was b. in NY. and his mother in ME.
Annie's father was b. in PA. and her mother in VA.
Linda's parents were both b. in NY.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 5, Col. 4
Fri., Oct. 25, 1901
Excerpt from: RECEPTION FOR MISS WORTHINGTON
Belgravia was the Mecca for a large number of the younger members of society last evening, when Mrs. J. C. Worthington gave a reception from 7 to 10 o'clock in honor of her debutante daughter, Miss Hallie Worthington.
The house was charmingly decorated with cut flowers, with chrysanthemums in the parlor and roses and cosmos in the reception hall and dining room.
Miss Worthington wore white Paris muslin and lace, and carried white chrysanthemums.
Among those who accepted Mrs. Worthington's invitations were the following:
Misses: Pauline May, Virginia May, Annie May (and 66 other young ladies and 82 young men).

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 16, Col. 6
Sun., Jan. 12, 1902
Item from: ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mr. and Mrs. William Huntington May announce the engagement of their daughter, Miss Annie May to Mr. Willis Davis. The wedding will be solemnized at Christ Church Cathedral the early part of April.
Miss May is one of the most charming and cultivated girls in Louisville society. She is an active worker at the cathedral and in philanthropic as well as church work.
Mr. Davis is a member of the firm of Davis, Kelley & Co., and is a man who stands high in both business and social circles.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 16, Col. 1
Sun., Apr. 13, 1902
May-Davis Wedding Tuesday
One of the largest weddings of the season will take place Tuesday at high noon, when Miss Annie May and Willis Davis will be married at Christ Church Cathedral.
The ceremony will be performed by the Rev. Thomas U. Dudley, bishop of the diocese and the Rev. Charles Ewell Craik, dean of the cathedral.
It will be a choral wedding, the full vested choir of men and boys singing the wedding music, which will be played by the organist, Mr. Ernest A. Elmon.
Miss Pauline May, the bride's sister, will be the maid of honor, and the best man will be Mr. David Davis, of Cincinnati.
The wedding will be followed by a handsome breakfast to be given by the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Huntington May, of 1395 Third avenue.
Upon their return from their wedding trip, the couple will go to housekeeping at the Bullitt place, near Crescent Hill.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 10, Col. 4 & 5
Wed., Apr. 16, 1902
HANDSOME NOON WEDDING FOR MISS ANNA LOVELA MAY AND MR. WILLIS PERKINS DAVIS
Yesterday at high noon one of the simplest and most beautiful weddings of the season was solemnized when Miss Annie Lovela May and Mr. Willis Perkins Davis were married at Christ church Cathedral before a congregation that filled the edifice. The street in front of the church for a square was lined with carriages on both sides, and some time before the service began all the seats in the building were occupied.
The chancel was elaborately decorated with growing plants - palms, ferns, rubber trees, etc., with large clusters of Ascension lilies banked on the altar.
On either side of the chancel steps were huge jardinieres of sword ferns, and the altar railing was banked with green plants.
Bunches of Ascension lilies were fastened to the standing lights on the chancel by broad, white satin ribbon, and in the body of the chancel clusters of Ascension lilies were similarly arranged to the lights.
Two white Newel posts surmounted by Ascension lilies held the ribbon which divided the pews reserved for the relatives and intimate friends from the other seats. The little ribbon boys were Master Ewell and Oscar Craik, who wore little sailor suits of white flannel.
Mr. Ernest A. Simon played the wedding music, most of which was from Tannhauser, and before the bridal party entered he played several selections from the great Wagner opera.
At the appointed hour the full vested choir of men and boys, led by the crucifer, entered the church from the choir room, singing "O Perfect Love" to the tune of the popular Episcopal hymn, "Ancient of Days."
The choir boys, followed by the Rev. Charles Ewell Craik, dean of the Cathedral, and the Rev. Thomas Underwood Dudley, bishop of the diocese, filed down the side aisle to the front door, where they were joined by the bridal party.
The choristers then began singing the march from Tannhauser, which they continued until they were in their place in the choir stalls and the bridal party had arranged itself.
The choristers were followed by the ushers, Mr. Charles C. Carter and Mr. James Gamble, Mr. Hugh Courtney and Mr. R. M. Kelly, Jr., Mr. Breckinridge Cattleman and Mr. Eugene Knott, who took their stand on either side of the chancel just about the chancel steps.
Miss Pauline may, the bride's sister and only attendant, came next alone, and stood to one side in front of the chancel steps. The bride entered with her father, Mr. William Huntington May, and was met by Mr. Davis and his best man, Mr. David Davis, of Cincinatti, who approached the chancel from the choir room as the bridal party passed down the central aisle.
Bishop Dudley read the betrothal during which "The Evening Star" from Tannhauser was played by cello with organ accompaniment.
After the betrothal the bride and groom, maid of honor and best man, approached the altar railing, where Dr. Craik read the marriage service. The benediction was pronounced by Bishop Dudley, and the bridal party left the church to "The Pilgrim's Chorus" from Tannhauser. Mr. and Mrs. Davis were followed by Miss Pauline May and Mr. David Davis, then the ushers in the same order in which they entered the church. The choristers filed out from the chancel directly to the choir room.
The bride wore a beautiful gown of white Monition lace over white silk, with a collarette of pearls, and with pearls terminating in a white tulle rosette trimming the front of the corsage. She wore a tulle veil edged with lace and carried lilies of the valley.
Miss Pauline May was gowned in cream embroidered batiste made over green silk, trimmed in green ribbons, and wore a white lace hat trimmed in green flowers. She carried a bouquet of bride roses tied with broad green ribbon.
The ceremony was followed by a handsome breakfast given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Huntington may, of 1305 Third avenue. The house was beautifully decorated in Southern smilax, palms, ferns and cut flowers, each room carrying out a different color scheme.
The reception hall, with its graceful stairway festooned in green, was arranged with American Beauties.
The mantel in the parlor was banked with pink bridesmaid roses, and garlands of roses and smilax draped the large mirror above.
The green and white idea was carried out in the dining-room and library, which were decorated with Ascension lilies. There was no bride's table, but the refreshment table was round with white satin cloth draped in tule. In the center was a flat basket of Ascension lilies, and about it were beautiful candy designs in the shape of lilies, filled with fruit and confections. Tulle was draped from the chandelier to the edges of the table, and the ends were caught with clusters of lilies of the valley.
The bride's cake, which contained the thimble, ring, dime, etc. was arranged on another table. It was oblong and was trimmed with candied Ascension lilies and green and white candy ribbon. About two hundred guests were present at the breakfast.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis left yesterday afternoon on a short Southern trip, and upon their return home will go to housekeeping at the Bullitt place near Crescent Hill.
The wedding brought out many new spring toilettes, and the church was filled with handsomely gowned women.
Mrs. May, the bride's mother, was gowned in white lace over white silk trimmed in green ribbons, and wore a white chiffon hat trimmed in a lace veil.
Miss Virginia May wore white silk mull trimmed in medallions of Valenciennes lace and blue says ribbon, and she wore a white lace hat trimmed in blue ribbon and pink roses.
Mrs. Patrick, the bride's grandmother, wore a black lace gown over white, with a black and white hat.
Mrs. Virginia Montgomery was gowned in pale green crepe trimmed in broad bands of cream lace and black velvet ribbon. She wore a black chiffon hat.
Mrs. Percy Thomas wore a white silk brocaded in pink flowers and a black conventional design. It was trimmed in real lace and she wore a picture hat trimmed in pink roses.
Miss Anne Gosford, of New York, was gowned in white mignon crepe trimmed in lace, with a white picture hat trimmed in black.

Willis Perkins Davis and Annie Lovela Patrick May were married on Tue., Apr. 15, 1902 at Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, Jefferson, KY.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 4, Col. 6
Tue., Apr. 29, 1902
Item from: BRIEF POINTS ABOUT PEOPLE
Mr. and Mrs. Willis Davis, who have been to New Orleans and Mobile on their wedding trip, returned home yesterday, and are the guests of Mrs. Davis' parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Huntington May, for the present.

Willis and Annie Davis had two children:
1. Barbara Huntington Davis, b. 1903 in KY. She marr. 1) Thomas 'Tom' Otey Kesterson, 2) Edwin Menefee Clancy and 3) John Kemp Goodloe Fuller.
2. Jane Ludington Davis, b. Dec. 22, 1908 in KY. and d. Sep. 15, 2004 in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, CA. She marr. 1) William Clayton and 2) John Burnham Jr.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 4, Col. 6
Thu., Mar. 31, 1904
Item from: Points About People
Mr. and Mrs. Willis Davis and daughter, Miss Barbara Huntington Davis, have given up their home in the country and will move into the city to-day to be with Mrs. Davis' parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. May.

In the 1910 U. S. census, 30 yr. old Annie P Davis, b. in KY., was married and living on So. Third St. in Louisville Ward 6, Jefferson, KY. with her
63 yr. old father, William H. May, the proprietor of a casket company, b. in PA.
50 yr. old mother, Annie P. May, b. in PA.
31 yr. old unmarried sister, Pauline L May, b. in KY.
28 yr. old unmarried sister, Virginia May, b. in KY.
7 yr. old daughter, Barbara Davis, b. in KY.
1 yr. old daughter, Jane Davis, b. in KY.
49 yr. old husband, Willie (Willis) P. (Perkins) Davis, an iron and steel manufacturer, b. in IN.
82 yr. old widowed maternal grandmother, Linda Patrick, b. in VA.
30 yr. old servant, Maggie Schafer, b. in Germany
25 yr. old servant, Mabel Fitch, b. in IN.
32 yr. old servant, Stella Lehman, b. in IN.
Annie's father was b. in PA.
This was a first marriage for Annie and William May. They had been marr. for 33 years. Annie was the mother of 4 (3?) children, all still alive by this census.
This was also a first marriage for Annie and Willis Perkins Davis. They had been marr. for 9 years. Annie was the mother of 2 children, both alive by this census.
Linda was the mother of 1 children, still alive by this census.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 25, Col. 3
Sun., Sep. 24, 1916
Mrs. Willis P. Davis and daughters, Misses Barbara Davis and Jane Davis of Knoxville, will arrive October 1 to be the guests of Mrs. Davis' parents, Mr. and Mrs. William May.

The Tennessean (Nashville, TN.), P. 26, Col. 6
Sun., Dec. 23, 1917
Mrs. W. P. Davis, who has been visiting her mother in Louisville for several weeks, has returned home, accompanied by her daughter, Miss Barbara Huntington Davis, who is attending school at Nashville and who will spend the holidays with her parents.

In the 1920 U.S. census, 43 yr. old Owene (Anne) P. Davis, b. in KY., was living in a boarding house on Whittle Ave. in Knoxville Ward 16, Knox, TN. with her
46 (60) yr. old husband, Willis P. Davis, a self-employed manufacturer in the pottery mills business, b. in KY.
11 yr. old daughter, Jane L. Davis, b. in KY.
17 yr. old daughter, Barbara H. Davis, b. in KY.
Willis' parents were both b. in KY.
Anne's parents were both b. in PA.

Knoxville News Sentinel
Jan. 25, 2009
Excerpt from:
Knoxville's Legacy to Smokies
Naturalist Henry Lix, in a 1958 history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, described its founding with clarity when he wrote: "The very beginning of the Great Smoky Mountains park idea appears to be as tenuous and vague as the rugged Smokies floating in a sea of shifting mist. Not one person, but a number of people share the credit for originating kindred ideas separately."
True, the park movement itself seemed as challenging as the area's far-reaching boundaries. Over the park's more than decade-long formation, there were political shenanigans, court battles, fisticuffs among prominent citizens, squabbles between large political forces and condemnation proceedings to seize the land of farmers and descendants of early settlers.
But Lix, who worked in the 1940's with Arthur Stupka, the park's first chief naturalist, failed to fully consider two tenacious people who would ensure that the project became a reality in the face of many setbacks.
Without Knoxville's forward-thinking Mayor Ben Morton, an irrepressible activist named Anne Davis, and a satchel of Knoxville taxpayer money, there would be no park today.
Morton and Davis, with the support of Knoxvillians, pushed through the prerequisites of the mammoth undertaking in the face of rising odds, including the Tennessee Legislature's scuttling in 1925 of an initial bill to purchase land for preservation.
Lawmakers wanted to save the acreage for timbering. Had that notion prevailed, the great park of more than a half-million acres likely would be a wasteland of development instead of a national treasure.
A force to be reckoned with
Anne Davis and her industrialist husband, Willis P. Davis, arrived in Knoxville in 1915 from Louisville, KY.
Willis Davis took over Knoxville Iron Co. and became a leading civic power in the community. He was also well connected to influential Washington politicians.
At a time when women were viewed as ornaments, dressed in long, cumbersome dresses, hats with large feathers and elbow-length gloves, Anne Davis was a rebel.
A national park movement had already swept the West with the setting aside of hundreds of thousands of acres in Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia. Now it was rippling Wast.
The Davises were well familiar with the Smokies, having become frequent visitors just after moving to Knoxville.
In 1923, after a trip to the Western national parks, Anne Davis told her husband that the mountain lands of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina were equally beautiful and should be preserved.
W. P. agreed. As a prominent member of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, he went to work convincing his colleagues and friends to make Anne's dream a reality. He also wrote hundreds of letters to politicians and philanthropists.
"You had this great battle going on between those who wanted a national park and those who wanted a national forest," said Steve Cotham, Knox County historian and director of the McClung Historical Collection.
Over 85 percent of the land that would become the park was owned by 18 lumber companies.
Knoxville lawyer James B. Wright became an ardent foe of Tennessee park advocates, pushing relentlessly in Nashville for the Smokies land to be included in a national forest so that the lumber companies could continue taking out virgin timber.
Anne Davis pushed back, urging her husband to lobby for preservation. She and Mayor Morton encouraged Col. W. B. Townsend, owner of Little River Lumber Co., which held the deeds of 76,500 acres of land in what is now the park, to sell the whole lot as a kind of seed stock of Smokies acreage.
As a friend of the Knoxville mayor, Anne Davis won a Republican House seat in the General Assembly in 1925. She was one of the first women elected to the Legislature.
One of Davis' main goals was to pass a bill that would provide state money to buy Townsend's timber holdings. But the measure failed in April 1925, with the help of broad timbering lobbyists.
Anne Davis then huddled with Morton and Chapman on a new strategy - using Knoxville taxpayer money. The only way a Tennessee bill could pass was for Morton to convince Knoxville's City Council to pay one third of the cost of the Little River land.
Together, Davis, Morton and Chapman made Gov. Austin Peay this offer: Knoxville would pay one third of the costs for Townsend's holdings if the state would pay the remainder.
The governor went for it, and Townsend eventually sold his land for $273,557, or $3.57 per acre.
Wright fought the park right up until the time Congress made it official in 1934, passing legislation setting aside the Smokies for administration.

The Tennessean (Nashville, TN.), P. 3, Col. 4
Thu., May 29, 1924
Excerpt from: Republican Women of Tennessee Organize
Knoxville, Tenn., May 28 - The Tennessee League of Republican Women and the Knox County Women's Coolidge Club of Knoxville were organized here this afternoon with Mrs. James A. Fowler of Knoxville as president of the league and Mrs. R. B. Layman of this city as president of the club.
Mrs. Willis P. Davis of Knoxville was elected treasurer of the league.

In the 1930 U.S. census, 54 yr. old Annie L. P. Davis, b. in KY., was living at 401 Lyons View Pike in District 8, Knox, TN. with her
40 yr. old son-in-law (head-of-household), T. (Thomas) O. (Otey) Kesterson, the secretary and treasurer of a cemetery company, b. in TN.
28 yr. old daughter, Barbara H Kesterson, b. in KY.
6 yr. old grandson, T O Kesterson Jr., b. in TN.
70 yr. old husband, W. P. Davis, the president of a banking corporation, b. in KY.
21 yr. old daughter, Jane L. Davis, b. in KY.
27 yr. old servant & child's nurse, Leola Jones, b. in TN.
25 yr. old cook for a private family, Lillie Bragg, b. in TN.
W. P. Davis was 42 years old and Annie was 26 at the time of their marriage.
W.P. Davis' father was b. in Switzerland and his mother in NC.
Annie's parents were both b. in PA.
T.O. Kesterson's parents were both b. in KY.

On Aug. 15, 1931, Annie's husband, Willis Perkins Davis died in Edgartown, MA.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 14, last column
Sun., Sep. 20, 1931
Davis-Clayton
Miss Jane Davis and Mr. William Clayton to Be Married.
Mrs. Willis Perkins Davis of Lyons View Pike, Knoxville, Tenn., formerly of Louisville, announces the engagement of her daughter, Miss Jane Davis, to Mr. William Clayton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Clayton of Pasadena, Calif. Miss Davis was educated in Eastern schools and is a member of the Junior League of Knoxville. Mr. Clayton was educated in Lawrenceville and Lausanne, Switzerland. The wedding will take place early in November in New York.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 21, Col. 1
Thu., May 28, 1942
Item from: The Social Side
Mrs. Willis Perkins Davis will leave today to return to her home in Gatlinburg, Tenn., after a visit of several weeks to her sister, Miss Virginia H. May.

Naugatuck Daily News (Naugatuck, CT.), P. 4, Col. 3
Sat., Oct. 5, 1957
Deaths
MRS. WILLIS P. DAVIS
Gatlinburg, Tenn. - Mrs. Willis Perkins Davis, 81, who was instrumental in forming the Great Smoky Mountains National park, died Friday of cancer.

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY.), P. 6, Col. 4
Thu., Feb. 13, 1958
Davis Ridge Named for Louisvillian
She, Husband, Large Credited With Establishing Smokies' Park
Davis Ridge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park last month was named in honor of the late Mrs. Ann Davis, a former Louisvillian.
She and her husband, the late Willis Perkins Davis, were largely responsible for establishment of the park. Five years ago Mount Davis, a mountain 5,020 feet high, was named in honor of Davis.
The Louisville couple left here in 1915 when Davis became manager of the Knoxville Iron Company. Mrs. Davis, whose maiden name was Ann Lovela Patrick May, died at her home in Gatlinburg, Tenn., last October. Davis died in 1931. Both are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
Mrs. Davis' sister, Miss Virginia H. May, lives at 2110 Cherokee Parkway.
In a memorandum issued in January, the United States Board on Geographic Names of the United States Department of The Interior, National Park Service, approved the naming of davis Ridge.
The memorandum stated that Mrs. Davis, after a 1923 tour of Western national parks, suggested to her husband that a national park be established in the Smokies. David enlisted the support of business and civic leaders and the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association was formed.
When Mrs. Davis was a representative to the Tennessee Legislature in 1925, she introduced the bill that provided for purchase of the first large tract of land bought for Great Smoky Mountains National park.
Carlos C. Campbell, Knoxville secretary of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association, wrote in a letter enclosing the U.S. Board on Geographic Names memorandum: "This park which stands as a living memorial to the two Louisville natives, has long been the most heavily visited of all 23 national parks.
Since 1952, he said, more than 2,000,000 people have visited the park each year. Last year there were 2,943,732 visitors.
Referring to Mrs. Davis' suggestion to her husband that a national park be established in the area, Campbell commented:
"The suggestion so impressed Mr. Davis that he spent most of _?
Referring to Mrs. Davis' successful promotion of the park movement. Without what they did, there would have been no national park in the Great Smokies."
The Davises are survived by two daughters, Mrs. Barbara Davis Kesterson, Gatlinburg, and Mrs. Jane Davis Turnham, San Marino, Cal. Last November the daughters gave official documents, letters, and photographs pertaining to the establishment of the park for a museum that soon will be built near Gatlinburg.

Smoky Mountain Living
Celebrating the Southern Appalachians
Excerpt from: The First Family of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
June 1, 2011
Th establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was an extraordinarily complicated and difficult task. Tennessee and North Carolina each had their own heroes and heroines in the great task. In Tennessee, W. P. and Ann Davis were the primary progenitors of the park movement.
The genesis
The story goes that Ann Davis got the idea of a national park in the Smoky Mountains during a vacation to Yellowstone National park in the summer of 1923.
Mrs. Davis wrote as follows: On the train returning east I said to Mr. Davis "We have seen some beautiful country. Grand mountains but nothing more majestic than our own great Smokies. Why should there be national parks in the West and only one tiny one (Arcadia [sic] in Maine) in the east? Mr. Davis replied, "If that is the way you feel about it, I will see what I can do."Regardless of whether or not Ann Davis had a truly original idea regarding the establishment of a national park in the Smoky Mountains, there is no doubt Mr. Davis took his wife's perspective to heart and doggedly set about to make it happen.
W.P. Davis was an active force in the Knoxville business community in the 1920s. The general manager of the Knoxville Iron Co., a large manufacturing operation in the city, and a member of the city's Chamber of Commerce board of directors and affiliated with other business-oriented organizations, Mr. Davis was in a good position to champion the idea of a Smoky Mountains national park. Nevertheless, according to Carlos C. Campbell 's rendering of the story in Birth of a National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains, few Knoxvillians took the notion seriously in the first few months after he and Mrs. Davis' returned from that fateful 1923 summer vacation. Undeterred, Mr. Davis presented the idea to Dr. Hubert Work, U.S. Secretary of the Interior soon after his return home. By the end of the year Davis had convinced members of the Knoxville Automobile Club to form the organization that would soon thereafter be named the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association. W.P. Davis was elected the group's chairman and Campbell its secretary, a position that the latter would subsequently hold for 20 years.
"What W.P was about was seeing the statistics on the money that visitors brought to the regions around national parks," notes Dan Pierce, professor and chair in the History Department at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and author of The Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat to National Park. "It was an economic development thing."
Mr. Davis and the Knoxville contingent were not the only people to solicit Secretary Work for the establishment of a national park in their area, however, and Work created a committee to study some 30 areas in the Southern Appalachian region for their potential in this regard. The committee members decided to visit a select number of these Southern Appalachian locales, including the area around Grandfat her Mountain and Linville Gorge. Before the decision was made to have a national park that spanned part of both states, Western North Carolina was Eastern Tennessee's nearest rival for the coveted designation.
Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association Chairman W.P. Davis and others refused to let that be the final word, though. He, along with fellow Conservation Association member Col. David C. Chapman, issued another impassioned plea to the committee and managed to get a half-hearted invitation to come to Asheville to make their case in person when committee members visited there.

Mr. Davis and other influential Knoxvillians put together a nine-person delegation to meet with the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee. The group's presentation, including the striking photos taken by brothers Jim and Robin Thompson, convinced the committee members that the area around the nearly 6,600-foot elevation known as Mt. LeConte was worth a look. A hike was arranged and two members of the Washington committee made the trek. The result: this Tennessee portion of the Great Smoky Mountains would be considered for a new national park after all.
Eventually Mrs. Davis was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives where she worked to build support for a bill authorizing the state of Tennessee to purchase land for use as part of a national park. Mr. Davis was in regular contact with her. A long letter dated Jan. 28, 1925, lays out for her a fact-laden and well thought-out argument in favor of establishment of the state park in East Tennessee to ultimately become a national park and urges her to "… do all you can in your position as a member in the Legislature to back up Gov. Peay's proposition to buy the Little River Lumber Company property for a state park."
In the history of this decade-long effort to create a national park hereabouts, Col. David C. Chapman is usually referred to as the "father" of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But perhaps W.P. Davis deserves recognition as the true patriarch of the park. Mr. Davis, after all, was the indisputable original driving force in the birth of the movement in Tennessee. He was the initiator and first chairman of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association in those first crucial couple of years. His group was clearly the most instrumental in initiating the nascent public movement on the East Tennessee side of what would eventually become a complementary two-state effort for the establishment of a national park in the Smoky Mountains region. And he was the one who convinced Chapman, an early skeptic, of the virtue of establishing a national park at Knoxville's back door.
Perhaps part of the reason W.P. Davis hasn't received quite the acclaim he might have is captured in a tribute article, written shortly after his untimely death in 1931 by a former Knoxville Journal managing editor. W.M. Clemens described Davis as "self-effacing to a fault" and wrote that because "… of his own insistence, his name seldom appeared in print in connection with the remarkable campaign that resulted in the adoption of hundreds of thousands of acres by the Federal Government as the Great Smokies [sic] National Park."
"In the beginning it's him," Professor Pierce says of W.P. Davis. "He was going around to every business group in Knoxville and East Tennessee promoting this idea and he makes a convert of Chapman. W.P. Davis was the guy in the beginning, for sure."
The Mother
If the patriarchal lineage of Great Smoky Mountains Park is a bit hazy, the matrilineal connection is clear. Ann Davis not only gave her husband inspiration to pursue national park status in the Smoky Mountains, but more importantly she led the initial effort in the Tennessee Legislature that secured the state's pivotal purchase of land for that purpose.
Ann was not very active in the initial stages of making her national park idea a reality, nor in politics in general. Indeed it was a shock to W.P. Davis, according to a later account by their daughter Barbara Davis Kesterson, when Mrs. Davis ran for an open seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1925. "Dad almost fainted when she decided to run," recalled Kesterson, as quoted later in a Knoxville newspaper.
But run she did, and win she did. Remarkably, the soft-spoken Knoxville matron, who had just become a grandmother, was only the third woman to ever be elected to the Tennessee Legislature and the first female Republican ever to do so. Her election victory came only four years after the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that had made refusal of voting privileges based on gender illegal. Many have said she pursued the office for the sole purpose of furthering the state's efforts to establish a national park, but she suggested otherwise in at least one newspaper report.
"I have never been interested in politics just for the sake of playing the political game but I have always been interested in women and their advancement along all lines," she was quoted in a 1925 Knoxville newspaper. "… I saw in this a way to make an opening for the women of my section of Tennessee in state politics" and called for more women to be elected to the state legislature. Ann went on to state that she was "very much interested in getting the National park for this section and am for the University of Tennessee appropriation."
Whether it was one issue or many that enticed Ann to run for office, she certainly was instrumental in introducing a bill early in the 1925 session that would authorize the state of Tennessee's purchase of the first parcel of land for the park—a 76,507-acre tract held by Little River Lumber Co. near the Little River Gorge. The U.S. government had by then made it clear that if a national park was to be established it would cover ground in both Tennessee and North Carolina and that both states would need to secure deeds for 150,000 contiguous acres. This first bill aimed at beginning to meet that requirement encountered stiff opposition in the Legislature. It passed in the Senate but failed in the House. Gov. Peay, as determined as Mr. and Mrs. Davis to make the park happen, reintroduced the bill the very next day with the stipulation that Knoxville pay one-third the cost of the land purchase. The governor signed it into law on April 10, 1925, using a quill pen he then presented to Rep. Ann Davis.
Ann would by choice serve only one two-year term in the Tennessee General Assembly. "She took this very active political role and then she disappeared back into the woodwork," noted historian Pierce. "She did what she set out to do and then that was it."
Davis' daughter, Barbara Davis Kesterson, would later observe that her mother "… was never anything but a housewife until the park thing came up and once she got what she wanted that was what she was again."
Returning to Knoxville after her brief, but meaningful, political career she ended up moving to Gatlinburg, Tenn. to be closer to her beloved mountains after her husband died in 1931. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially authorized on June 15, 1934. Davis continued to be active in civic life but never again ran for public office. She died in 1957 at the age of 81. The then named Great Smoky Mountains National Park was averaging more than 3 million visitors a year at the time of her death.
It had taken more than a decade and the extraordinary efforts of thousands of people in Tennessee and North Carolina to make Mrs. Davis' good idea a reality. Few, if any, had been more instrumental in giving the park a fighting chance early on than Ann and W.P Davis, the first family of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

According to her TN. death certificate, Annie Lovella Patrick (May) Davis, widow of Willis Perkins Davis, was born in KY. She died on Oct. 4, 1957 at the age of 81 on Roaring Fork Rd. in Gatlinburg, Sevier county, TN., where she had been a resident for 23 years.
Her parents were: William Huntington May and Ann Lovella Patrick.
The informant was her daughter, Mrs. Barbara Kesterson of Gatlinburg, Sevier, TN.
The immediate cause of death was carcinoma of the left breast (interval between onset and death unknown), with general metastasis.
Burial was Oct. 7, 1957 at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY.

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Annie's father, William Huntington May & Louisa May Alcott were 4th cousins.
Annie's grandfather, Hezekiah Huntington May & Louisa's mother, Abby May were 3rd cousins.
Annie's great-grandfather, Hezekiah May & Louisa's grandfather, Joseph May were 2nd cousins.
Annie's 2nd gr.-grandfather, Eleazer May & Louisa's great-grandfather, Samuel May were 1st cousins.
Annie's 3rd gr.-grandfather, Hezekiah May and Louisa's 2nd great-grandfather, Ebenezer May, were brothers.
Hezekiah & Ebenezer's parents were: John May Jr. & Prudence Bridge.
Hezekiah & Ebenezer's grandparents were: John May Sr. & Sarah Brewer.