My Genealogy Hound

Caleb Davis, planter, Gum Log, Ark. The parents of Mr. Davis, Caleb and Catherine (Henderson) Davis, were natives of Maryland and South Carolina, respectively. The father was a farmer, and left Tennessee for Missouri in 1809, settled near New Madrid, where he experienced the earthquake shock two years later, his house being destroyed by the same. He followed farming, and died in 1816. The mother died at the same place in 1865. Both were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and reared their son Caleb to that belief. The latter was born in Tennessee in 1808, moved with his parents to Missouri in 1809, and there resided until 1831, when he came to Arkansas, settling in Pope County, on the same farm where he now resides, the following year. At that time the country was a wilderness, and in that year Mr. Davis built the first house in Gum Log Valley. He entered 900 acres of land, cleared 300 acres, and as his children grew up he gave them farms, so that at the present time he owns but a small portion of the original tract. He organized the first Sunday-school in this section in 1839, and has been superintendent of that school ever since, being elected annually since the first school. On the fiftieth anniversary of this school an entertainment was given, at which many Sunday-school workers from all parts of the State were present. He has also been an earnest advocate of public schools, and has been director for years. Mr. Davis was a soldier in the Mexican War, was on frontier duty, and was also a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. He raised a company and was in the battle of Pea Ridge, Corinth, Grand Gulf, Baker Creek, Black River, Iuka, and was through the siege of Vicksburg. He had been promoted to colonel, but during the siege he commanded a brigade. He was captured, paroled, and came home, after which he did not return to the army. He was married in Missouri, in 1827, to Miss Elizabeth Tackett, who bore him ten children, three now living: William P. (died at the age of thirty-five years), James Lewis (has been farming in California for fifty years), Andrew Jackson (died at the age of eleven years), John Alvin (died in Texas when forty years of age), George W. (a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South), Caleb Marion (killed on his way home after the war), Narcissus P. (died in 1884), Sarah E. (died at eleven years of age), one died in infancy, and Albert Q. (the youngest, a successful farmer on the old homestead). Mr. Davis has been a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church South for forty years, class leader for thirty years, and has always been a liberal contributor to church and Sunday-school. He was county judge for six years, first in 1847, serving two years, again in 1860, for two years, and still again in 1866, for two more years. He has been an extensive stock-raiser, a prosperous farmer, and ran a cotton-mill and gin for years. He had a horse-mill at first, and served the whole country. In 1874 he secured a special post route to Gum Log, once a week, and was the first postmaster at that place. They now have mail three times a week, and Mr. Davis has been postmaster all the time. He is one of the oldest and most eminently respected citizens of the county. Although considerably over three-score years and ten, the allotted age of man, time has dealt very leniently with him, and he is in comparatively good health, bidding fair to live many years longer.