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Surnames: Davis, Coddington, Chrisman
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
Caleb Davis, my great-great-grandfather, was born in Ohio about 1820 and moved to Boone
County, Indiana with his parents, James Davis and Rhoda (Coddington) when Caleb was a
child. Caleb married Ann Maria Chrisman (b. Virginia 1822) in Boone County about 1842, and
they had 11 children, one of whom was George Cass Davis, my great-grandfather (b. 1849 in
Boone County). Caleb and Ann Maria migrated over the Oregon Trail to Linn County, Oregon
in 1853. Ann Maria died in 1865. The 1880 census finds Caleb married to "Winnie"
in Lane County, Oregon, and living with his youngest child, Leander J. (b. 1862 in Oregon)
and 3 stepchildren with the surname of Cummings. Ergo, it is assumed that his second wife
was a widow whose married name was Cummings and that she brought to this marriage at least
three dependent children ranging in age from 9 to 17.
I am trying to find more about Caleb's father, James Davis. He was born in Delaware
about 1794. Rhoda Coddington's lineage is well-documented on the internet. She was
born in New Jersey about 1797, and is a descendant of Stockdale Coddington, a very early
member of the Massachusetts Colony. James and Rhoda were married in Wayne County, Indiana
in 1818 -- but curiously, everything I have indicates that Caleb was born in Ohio in 1820;
so perhaps they went to Ohio from Wayne County Indiana, and then back to Boone County,
Indiana some time after Caleb's birth.
Any further information on this line of the Davis family in Boone County, Indiana will be
gratefully received.
Howard E. (Gene) Davis, Bellevue, WA