NANCY (STAPP) DAVIS ~ DAUGHTER OF ACHILLES "KILLIS" STAPP AND ELIZABETH HAGLER

Nancy Stapp, who was born in North Carolina (presumable Wilkes County, ca 1818, possibly a twin to Jane Stapp) was taken as a babe to Monroe County, Tennessee. There she grew up, and was married to George Washington Davis. They had eleven children, seven of them born before the family migration to Missouri in 1852: Thomas, Caroline, James, Martha, Nancy, Susan and Achilles. William, Margaret, George and Alice were born in Missouri.

Nancy was the mother of three or more children when her own mother, Elizabeth (Hagler) Davis, died leaving small children. Nancy is said to have been a surrogate mother to these younger brothers and sisters, who remembered her with love. Her brother, Isaac Burton Stapp, named his daughter Nancy in honor of her aunt Nancy Davis.

The Davis family was a part of the wagon-train trek to Missouri in 1852. They settled in Finley Township, Christian County near Nancy’s sister Jane (Stapp) Smallin and her brother Granville Stapp and their families. Granville’s sons spoke in later years of “the Davis boys” with considerable affection. We were puzzled that this part of the extended family seemed to be completely lost. Then we made contact with Dixie (Riggs) Nelson, Nancy’s great-great-granddaughter, and learned that the Davis men fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Nancy’s brothers, Granville and Burton Stapp, both bore arms for the union, as did her sister Jane’s son Achilles Smallin. The severance of family ties was not unusual where loyalties were divided. All concerned suffered great hardship and grief. Nancy’s husband and her son James died in battle; Achilles Smallin was also killed. These circumstances may explain why the Davis cousins were “lost” for a hundred years.

It should be mentioned here that Nancy’s Christian character and motherly love transcended politics. We are grateful to Dixie Nelson for this story, “handed down” in their family:

“When a Federalist soldier stopped for a drink of water for the small girl riding behind his saddle, Nancy gave them food. In talking with the soldier, she learned that his wife had died, leaving him with the little girl. There were no relatives with whom he could leave her, so he was taking her back to camp. Nancy knew that an army camp was no place for a child and that camp followers were not the women to teach her, so she offered to keep the child. She told the soldier she would care for her as her own and if he came back he would know where to find her. The soldier did return after the war, and stayed to help about the farm of the widowed Nancy. It is said that he married one of Nancy’s older daughters, but which one is not known.”

The above is an excerpt from a wonderful book written by Mary Ellen (Stapp) Gifford, " Achilles Stapp, His Ancestors and Descendants", Chapter IV, Pages 24 & 25. This is a spiral-bound book published by the Dade County Genealogical Society, Box 155, Greenfield, MO 65561

~ Compiled Mary Ellen (Fallwell) Henderson, Great Great Granddaughter of Nancy (Stapp) Davis.