Warner Davis was the sixth of 13 children of Jesse Davis & Elizabeth Reynolds. He married 3 March 1814 in North Carolina to Milly Hodson; she died in 1863, age 71. They had 13 children: Alice, Elizabeth, Jane, Joel, Caroline, Irena, twins Rumina & Ruhama, John, Jesse, Mary, twins David & Reuben.

Warner & Milly and their seven unmarried children moved from Indiana to Henry County, Iowa, in 1849. They farmed 2-1/2 miles northwest of Salem, Iowa, and were members of the Salem Quaker Meeting.

About 5 a.m. on the morning of his death, Warner heard a noise in the smokehouse adjoining his residence. He went out to investigate, and soon afterwards his wife heard two or three heavy blows. She ran out to find her husband helpless and insensible, lying on the flagstones outside the smokehouse door. She ran about 60 rods to the residence of her two sons to seek their assistance. They carried their father into the house, where he lingered until about 9 a.m., when he died without speaking or gaining consciousness. An examination found his skull fractured in three places by heavy blows. Warner was 71 years old.

At the time, the unknown murderer or murderers were thought to be thieves intent on stealing Warner's freshly-slaughtered beef when he surprised them in the act. But half a century later, in 1911, a death-bed confession revealed the murder was premeditated, a ruse to cover up more dire crimes by silencing Warner Davis.

Dying Man's Confession Clears Murder Mystery
(From Burlington Hawkeye newspaper in 1911)
The mystery surrounding the death of Warner Davis, a farmer living near Salem, in 1861 (sic, 1859), is apparently cleared by the death bed confession of Wallace Godfrey, a former Iowan, who died in Oregon recently. According to Godfrey's statement, Davis was killed by Clark Osborn, a former resident of Salem.
The confession clears up one of the old murder mysteries of Henry county, a mystery forgotten except by the oldest residents of the vicinity where the tragedy occurred. Pioneers also are recalling the days when a gang of counterfeiters were operating near Salem, the band always being associated with the death of Davis, who was a much respected citizen in the old days.
Davis was killed one night in the fall of 1861 (sic, 1859) when he went to investigate a disturbance in his smokehouse on his farm two miles northwest of Salem. The pioneers relate that his wife heard a blow struck and on investigating found her husband lying on some flagstones in front of the smokehouse door, bleeding and unconscious. It is supposed that he was hit by a hickory broom handle in the hands of a man who was hidden back of the door. Davis was carried to the house where it was found that his skull was crushed. He died a few hours later. The assailant made his escape.
The whole countryside was aroused, excitement grew intense, many rumors became current, many different people were accused, but no definite clue was ever obtained, and no arrests were made. The old residents of the vicinity declare that the motive for the killing lay in Davis' knowledge of a band of counterfeiters who were working in the vicinity, Davis' appearance at the smokehouse giving someone an opportunity to cut off any source of information which might lead to the arrest of the makers of spurious coin.
Davis gained his knowledge of the counterfeiters because his cows broke out of the pasture one fall day preceding his death. Smoke, rising from a hollow, while he was searching for the beasts, attracted his attention. Making his way noiselessly through the bushes, he found three or four men making counterfeit money, the smoke coming from a small furnace they were using in the manufacture of the spurious coins. He recognized the men, according to the history of the case, which is now being recalled by the residents of the vicinity, but he did not make his presence known to them. (or so he thought!)
On returning home he stopped at the home of Joel Jones, a member of the grand jury, and told Jones he had something for him which he would give out before the next term of court. On arriving home he told his wife however. Two weeks after he discovered the counterfeiters, he was killed.
Recently Mrs. Louisa Maxwell of Story county, a former resident of Henry county, returned from Oregon where she had been visiting her half-brother, Asa Llewellyn, formerly of Henry county. While on her visit in the west, she learned from her half-brother of the death of Godfrey and of his confession. Clark, accused by Godfrey on his death bed as being the murderer of Warner Davis, has been dead for ten or twelve years, not having resided in Salem vicinity for a number of years preceding his death. Godfrey was never suspicioned of having any knowledge of the tragedy.

The smokehouse, under the projecting roof of which Davis met death, is standing today (1949) though it has been moved to the farm now owned by John Bicksler, one half mile north of Salem. It has the same walnut door, the same weatherboarding and the same strips of oak as bars across the two small windows, one on each side of the door."