My Genealogy Hound

Willis Davenport, a farmer of Franklin County, was born in Greenville County, S. C., June 25, 1849, and is a son of Willis and Frances (Coker) Davenport. Willis Davenport, father of our subject was born in Ohio in 1812, and when young went with his parents to Greenville County, S. C.; he was a farmer by occupation, and died in 1881. The mother was a native of Greenville County, S. C., and was born in 1820. In this family were nine children: Charles, Willis B., Isaac (deceased), John, William, Joseph, James, Nancy (wife of S. J. Garrett) and Polly (who married John Garrett). The mother is still living in Greenville County, S. C., with one of her sons-in-law. Willis B. Davenport was reared on a farm in his native county, and received a limited common-school education. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate army, and participated in two battles in Virginia, and the Seven Days’ fight at Richmond; he was disabled, and returned home in 1864, but subsequently enlisted in the Sixteenth South Carolina Regiment, and was in active service until the close of the war, when he returned home, where he remained until 1868; he then engaged in farming in Alabama for seven years, when he returned to South Carolina for a short time, and in 1874 located in Arkansas. In 1881 he removed to his present farm, which consists of eighty acres. In 1867 he married Martha N. Copeland, who was born in Blount County, Ala., in 1851. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport are the parents of six children, viz.: Shirley Augustus, Charles M., Willie (deceased), Frances E., Kittie E. (deceased) and James. Mrs. Davenport is a member of the Baptist Church. Politically he is a Democrat.