JAMES McDAVlS, one of the most prominent citizens and farmers of Madison
township, Clinton county, Ind. Was born in Liberty township, Butler county,
Ohio, October 7, 1821, and is a son of William and Elizabeth (Sweet)
McDavis, natives respectively of Vermont and New York. Williarn McDavis
was born May 20, 1799, and Elizabeth
(Sweet) McDavis was born June 28, 1798. When James was five years old his
father moved into a hotel at Princeton, where the family lived three years,
then removed to a hotel at Bethany, where the father died one year later at
the early age of thirty-one years, leaving a wife and four children, of whom
James was the eldest. The mother continued in the hotel until her family
were grown to maturity, when she died, in October, 1874. The father lived at
his birthplace until nineteen years old, then emigrated to Butler county,
where he lived and died as before stated. The parents were of Scotch-English
ancestry. Mr. McDavis served a few months at blacksmithing and carpentering,
and was very skillful in the use of tools and made most of his own repairs.
He at one time kept a general store and dealt in agricultural implements at
Hamilton village. He also traveled over a great portion of the United States.
James McDavis came to this county in 1843 and settled in Madison township,
about one mile north of Mulberry, where he leased some land of James R.
Elliott, on which be lived eleven years. In 1854 he left the farm for two
years and purchased forty acres of his present farm and soon afterward
purchased sixty-two acres where he now lives, to which he has added from time
to time until he now owns 132 acres. He came to this county with only three
dollars in money in his pocket, and all he owned, includiug horses and wagon,
were not worth more than $150. He was first married August 20, 1843, in
Butler county, Ohio, to Miss Martha Fleming, daughter of John Fleming, who
was born in said county December 14, 1822. Miss Fleming's parents died when
she was ten years of age, and she was left to care for herself when very
young. Her death occurred September 10, 1865. and she was buried at Dayton,
Tippecanoe county, Ind. She left three children--Frances F., born April 21,
1847; Jessie A., born July, 24. 1860; Elizabeth A. was born September 14,
1861, and died at the age of six months. Frances E. was married, and died
July 14, 1874, leaving two children--Frank and Calvin. Jessie A. was married
to John Mattox and is living in Ross township. Mr. McDavis was married the
second time March 26, 1867
to Martha L. Lindley, daughter of Dodd and Sarah (Skillman) Lindley, the
former born in the state of New York in 1796, and died in 1846 in Butler
county, Ohio; the latter born in 1801 near Trenton, N. J., and died in the
same county in 1856. Mrs. McDavis was born in Butler county, Ohio, August
25, 1833, where her parents were also married. Mr. and Mrs. McDavis have one
child, namely, James. who was born September 14, 1871, and is one of the
representative young men of his township and has taken for his life partner
Miss Leonora Jacoby. Mr. and Mrs. McDavis are rearing an orphan girl named
Ella Hamilton, whose parents died when she was but eleven years of age. Mrs.
McDavis was reared a Baptist. Mr. McDavis is a Uni-versalist and politically
is a republican. He is president of the Dayton Gravel Road company and a
director in the Farmers' Fire Mutual insurance company, of Clinton. Carroll
and Tippecanoe counties.
Transcribed by Chris Brown from pages 778-781 of "A Portrait And Biographical
Record of Boone and Clinton Counties, Ind.," published in 1895 by A.W. Bowen
& Co. Chicago.