{"id":478,"date":"2012-08-17T19:52:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T23:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/obion2\/?page_id=478"},"modified":"2021-09-21T22:01:40","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T03:01:40","slug":"davis-francis-asberry-1821-1870","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/obion\/davis-francis-asberry-1821-1870\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis, Francis Asberry (1821-1870)"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRANCIS ASBERRY DAVIS
\n1821 \u2013 1870
\n\u00a9 Kay W. Davis<\/a> (2007)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Francis Asberry Davis was born August 21, 1821, in Indian Territory which later became Obion County, TN.\u00a0 When he was young he moved with his family to Dade County, MO where he lived for many years.\u00a0 Other siblings and his parents\u2019 names are unknown as of this writing.\u00a0 Family tradition claims he was an only child.<\/p>\n

Around 1844, Probably in Dade Co, Francis (Frank, F.A.) married Mary Rebecca Kendall who was born in Indiana in 1824.\u00a0 Although \u201craised on the banks of the Wabash\u201d, she too was partially raised in Missouri.\u00a0 They continued to live there for almost 20 years until the Civil War caused disruption in their lives.\u00a0 They raised crops, stock and children in or near Marion Township.<\/p>\n

Frank and Rebecca\u2019s six children were Mary Rachel (Davenport), Martha M. (Marable), Zacharias (who married Frances C. Martin), Henry Dee (who married Frances E. Kellis), Jefferson \u201cJesse\u201d (who married America M. Reed), and a daughter Rebecca Ann who died in childhood and is buried in Pippenger Cemetery (1853-1855) in Dade Co.<\/p>\n

According to other researchers reports, and multiple Dade Co., MO and McLennan Co, TX deed records, Frank owned about 2500 acres of land in Dade Co. until 1861 when Kansas Jayhawkers (anti-slavery guerillas) invaded the Davis family lands in Dade County.\u00a0 According to an autobiography by the eldest son Zachary , \u201cthey took 2 fine stallions, 15 saddle horses and robbed and pilfered the house of goods, furniture and bedclothing.\u201d\u00a0 For the next few years the Davis family lived in fear of being raided by the Jayhawkers, Union soldiers, or Indians, and by the winter of 1863 Frank herded his remaining stock to Texas in search of a new homeland.<\/p>\n

In the winter of 1863, Rebecca loaded up her younger children in a covered wagon drawn by oxen, abandoned their Missouri property, and left for Texas as well.\u00a0 It is known that the eldest sister Mary Rachel stayed in Missouri and married Terry W. Davenport (31 Dec 1861- Dade County) a Union sympathizer. By 1883 the Davenports had moved to California.\u00a0 The rest of the Davis family moved south to Texas during the winter of 1863 where they began new lives.<\/p>\n

Rebecca and her children stopped in Huntsville, AR, and rested for 4 weeks before weathering the rest of the trip to Texas.\u00a0 They stopped again and camped near Waco while trying to locate Frank and his herd.\u00a0 Soon Rebecca and son Zachary got a tip on Frank\u2019s whereabouts, mounted horseback and rode 30 miles northeast to Ash Creek about 4 miles east of Bold Springs [now called West] in the face of a severe Norther.\u00a0 There they finally located Frank and soon, after they were reunited, the family camped near Waco for awhile.<\/p>\n

The Davis family rented land in Hill County briefly and Frank returned to Missouri in the fall of 1864 to join the Confederate Army.\u00a0 He served in Shelby\u2019s Brigade, Price\u2019s Command, and fought in the Kansas-Missouri border wars.\u00a0 Family tradition claims he was a prisoner of the Yankees in 1864 for a short period of time but proof of this hasn\u2019t been found.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 1864, the family bought property in Bold Springs [West].\u00a0 Frank returned to the area after the war but his wealth was never to reach the grandness it had attained before the war years. Documents show that the Yankees nullified his land ownership in Dade Co, MO and it was returned to the Union. On October 28, 1870 Frank died of pneumonia which he contracted while on a cattle drive near Baxter Springs, KA.\u00a0 He is buried in the Baxter Springs Cemetery probably less than 25 miles from where he was raised in Missouri about 50 years before.<\/p>\n

Frank\u2019s wife, Rebecca, stayed in Texas following his death, and on Sept. 12, 1873 she married W.M. Oliphant.\u00a0 They lived with her sons Hank and Jesse, and near son Zachary\u2019s family and near daughter Martha Marable\u2019s family until Mr. Oliphant\u2019s death in 1886.\u00a0 Family tradition claims that the oldest daughter Mary Rachel married a Union sympathizer (T.W. Davenport) which was opposite the political beliefs of the rest of the Davis family.\u00a0 She continued to stay in touch with her family however, even after she moved to California.<\/p>\n

In 1889 son Henry (Hank) moved to the Sterling City, TX area in what was still Tom Green County at that time.\u00a0 Son Jefferson (Jesse) died in Bold Springs, TX at age 33, 12 days before his 7th<\/sup> child Jeffie was born in 1894.\u00a0 He and his child are both buried in the Bold Springs Cemetery.\u00a0 Son Zachary moved with his family to San Angelo, TX in 1901 where he and his wife later died and they were buried in Fairmont Cemetery.\u00a0 The mother of all, Rebecca Kendall Davis Oliphant moved to Snyder, TX to live with her second daughter, Martha (Matt) Marable.\u00a0 Rebecca died on February 18, 1903, and she and the Marables are all buried in Snyder Cemetery. Mary Rachel and the Davenport branch lived and died\u00a0 in Riverside, California.<\/p>\n

Research Notes:<\/h3>\n