My Genealogy Hound

Prof. George W. Davis, principal of the St. James High-school, is among the popular and successful educators of Phelps County, Mo., and has bent all his energies to perfect himself in his chosen calling; and it may be truthfully said that his labors have met with flattering success. He was born in Lake County, Ill., in 1853, and is a son of Alson W. and Hannah Davis, both of whom were born in Steuben County, N. Y., in 1828. Alson W. Davis removed to Lake County, Ill., when Chicago was a mere trading post, and was reared and married in that county. In 1859 he returned to Steuben County, N. Y., and while there enlisted in the First New York Artillery for three years, or during the war, and after about two years’ service with the Army of the Potomac was discharged on account of ill-health, but after about six months’ rest improved so in health that he again joined the army, enlisting in Company G, Twenty-second New York Cavalry. He was taken prisoner at Weldon Railroad, near Richmond, Va., in 1864, and was kept in captivity in Andersonville, Libby, Florence and Charleston prisons, and died a paroled prisoner at Annapolis, Md., April 4, 1865, and is buried in the National Cemetery. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, and was a son of Lemuel C. Davis, who was of Welsh descent, and a farmer of Connecticut, and died in Lake County, Ill. Judge Noah C. Davis, of the New York Supreme Court, who was appointed by President Grant, is his nephew. Our subject’s mother was a daughter of Samuel Davis, a brother of Lemuel C. The former was also a native of Connecticut, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He died in Steuben County, N. Y. In 1867 Prof. George W. Davis and his mother came to Phelps County, Mo., and here the mother is still living, the wife of Charles Baker, whom she married in 1867. Prof. Davis is an only child, and was reared on a farm, receiving a common-school education, until fourteen years of age. After coming to Missouri he was sick for a long period, which left him a cripple for life. From 1885 to 1888 he attended the Cape Girardeau Normal School, graduating from the “C” and “B” courses, and began his career as a pedagogue in 1874, and with the exception of one year, when he was in school, has taught up to the present time. He is entering on his second year’s work at St. James, and bids fair to become among the foremost educators of the day. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Big Spring Lodge No. 237, and in his political views supports the principles of the Republican party, his first presidential vote being cast for Hayes. His step-father, Mr. Baker, was born in Hampshire, England, in 1825, and as his parents were quite poor he was compelled to begin the battle of life for himself at a very early age, receiving but very little schooling. When about ten years of age he hired out as a shepherd boy, which occupation he continued for some five years, receiving about 4 shillings a week for his services, and the following four years worked at gardening. He was then employed in a dock-yard for about two years, at which time he had accumulated enough money to enable him to come to the United States (1850), and spent some years in various parts of the Western States and Territories trading with the Indians. He was engaged in carpentering in Illinois about ten years, and then came to Missouri in 1867, where he has since lived, actively engaged in agricultural pursuits.