In the days of our ancestors, VERY large families were
common, probably because no one had to worry about how many seatbelts they had
or how they would pay for each child’s college education. Having built-in farm
labor was a bonus. If any of my families had more children than Mitchell and
Martha Ann Willson Davis, I do not know about it.
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| Mitchell Davis 1820-1892 |
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| Martha Ann Willson Davis 1833-1905 |
Mitchell Davis, born 1820 in Rockingham County, Virginia,
was the son of Leonard Davis Jr. and Frances “Fannie” Wyant and grandson of
Leonard Davis, a Revolutionary War patriot. The Davises and Wyants lived in a
community known as Beldor which today is just off Route 33 as you come off the
Skyline Drive.
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| Map of the Beldor area 1885 See "F Davis" in lower left, almost center - that would be Frances Davis, mother of Mitchell Davis. Mitchell's property was probably nearby. |
Mitchell’s mother was one of 13 children herself, but Mitchell
bested her by 2 with a grand total of 15 born over the course of 30 years. Coming
up with names for that many children must have been a challenge, especially
without the aid of a Baby Names book. Mitchell and his wife Martha have the
distinction of bestowing the most unusual names to the children in my database:
- Zedekiah DAVIS ( 14 Sep 1847 Rockingham Co, VA - 11 Jul 1863 Rockingham Co, VA )
- Ann C. DAVIS ( 02 Sep 1849 Rockingham Co, VA - 15 Jul 1863 Rockingham Co, VA )
- Zephaniah Leonard DAVIS ( 28 Mar 1851 Rockingham Co, VA - 10 Jan 1929 in Louisa Co, VA ) & m1) Anne E. BELLOMY (April 1850 – 1903) 1874 ; & m2) Mary Frances CRAWFORD 1905
- Jerusha L. DAVIS (05 Mar 1853 Rockingham Co, VA - 28 Jun 1863 Rockingham Co, VA )
- Melvina O. DAVIS ( 25 Sep 1854 Rockingham Co, VA - 31 Dec 1925 ) & Grattan MCDANIEL (1857 – Before 1910 ) 08 Oct 1876
- Josiah P. DAVIS ( 29 Jun 1856 Rockingham Co, VA - 28 Aug 1924 Martinsburg, Berkeley, West VA ) & Elizabeth Frances POWELL ( 25 Aug 1860 – 8 May 1944 Martinsburg, Berkeley, West VA ) 30 Nov 1879 Rockingham Co, VA
- Amaziah Nathaniel DAVIS ( 20 Feb 1858 Rockingham Co, VA - 22 Feb 1934 ) & Ann C. LONG (1844 - ) 20 Nov 1879
- Helena Hester DAVIS ( 22 May 1860 Rockingham Co, VA - 20 Nov 1902 Augusta Co, VA) & James L. TAYLOR ( Mar 1861 - ) 15 Jul 1888 Rockingham Co, VA
- Martha Eugenia DAVIS ( 13 Oct 1861 Rockingham Co, VA - 16 Mar 1928 Fairfax, VA ) & William H. WYANT ( 21 Oct 1855 Rockingham Co, VA - 16 Dec 1935 Fairfax Co, VA ) 7 Feb 1881 Rockingham Co, VA
- Zibiah Saloma DAVIS ( 19 Aug 1864 Rockingham Co, VA - 07 Oct 1936 ) & John Lewis MARSHALL (17 Sep 1863 – 28 Feb 1943 ) 17 May 1891 Rockingham Co, VA
- Walter Beriah Sylvester DAVIS ( 12 Sep 1867 Rockingham Co, VA - 31 Oct 1934 Page Co, VA ) & Mary Frances JOLLETT ( 10 Jan 1870 Greene Co, VA – 22 Feb 1950 Harrisonburg, VA ) 11 Feb 1890 Greene Co, VA
- Ida Mary Marshall DAVIS ( 25 Jun 1869 Rockingham Co, VA - ) & William Layton MORRIS ( 1874 Greene Co, VA – 3 Feb 1895 ) 09 Dec 1890 Elkton, Rockingham Co, VA
- Lorenza Ridell DAVIS ( 02 Sep 1871 Rockingham Co, VA - 11 Aug 1947 ) & Chillis Ann SHIFLETT (29 Dec 1872 Greene Co, VA - ) 22 Aug 1892 Greene Co, VA
- Justina Ruthella Frances DAVIS ( 08 Jun 1875 Rockingham Co, VA - 02 Oct 1936 ) & m1) William H. BRUCE (3 Nov 1883 Rockingham Co, VA – 13 Aug 1962 Harrisonburg, VA ) 12 Jan 1906 Rockingham Co, VA ; & m2) Unknown WITTIG
- Minnie B. DAVIS ( 15 Oct 1876 Rockingham Co, VA - 15 Mar 1957 Los Angeles, CA ) & Fred LEHMAN (1863 York, PA - 03 Jul 1939 Los Angeles, CA) 1902
Sadly, three of the youngest children died within weeks
of each other in 1863: Zedekiah (15), Ann (13), and Jerusha (10). I do not know
the cause of death, but it had to have been something they had in common
whether typhoid fever, injuries from a house fire, drowning, or other horrible
thing. Regardless of the cause, it had to have been devastating to bury a third
of the children living in 1863.
Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy
bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story
or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”
Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Can you imagine carrying, birthing, and caring for 15 children, all while doing farm and housework? Those male names are very interesting. My favorite is Amaziah.
ReplyDeleteMe too, my fave name is Amaziah. Very sad to think of those kids dying in a short period.
ReplyDeleteIf I did the math right Martha Ann had her first baby at the age of 14!! Wow! And the last one about 30 years later which would have had her around 44 which I guess would be about right for menopause, etc. Spacing is about right too with breast feeding and then weaning and then getting pregnant again. And Mitchell was 13 years older than Martha Ann and would have married her when she was a teenager. That certainly would be frowned with now (but I'm sure not uncommon back then). My mom came from a family of 10 children, my hubby's father from a family of 16 and she was born 1921, he born 1923.
ReplyDeleteThey did have interesting names too. I recognized a few from the Bible but not a lot. You do wonder how they came up with Amaziah, but I too like it.
betty
Kids 30 years apart??????? My kids went to school with a girl named Jerusha.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for the B-I-B-L-E for naming children in hopes they would live up to...or not...their holy namesakes. Poor Martha...30 years of childbearing...holy fertile moley! My Big Family post is fertile and biblical, too. LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteWell that is a large family with very interesting names!
ReplyDeleteConsidering the names of children in this family, I believe the boys' names are the most unusual, at least compared to the girls' names. I've never heard ... wait! Looking again, some of the names I thought were boys are girls, so maybe the girls' names are the most unusual.
ReplyDeleteLike Sue, above, I think about how many years pregnant, nursing, and diaper changing women with large families went through, and how constant it was. Hardly a break between one or the other of these activities for women with with so many children! They must have had a lot of stamina!
I agree there are names that must have refelcted someone they were named after...hopefully god=parents. I is so sad when epidemics took many family members at the same time.
ReplyDelete