Re: Captain John H. Davis in Montana, ca. 1866
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In reply to:
Captain John H. Davis in Montana, ca. 1866
Robert Graham 7/07/06
John H. Davis Biography
History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894
USGENWEB Montana Archives
May be copied for non-profit purposes.
Captain John H. Davis, the oldest and most prominent
hotel man of Virginia City came to Montana in 1866,
just after having served his country faithfully and
well in the great Civil War.Captain Davis is a native
of Kentucky, born near Sterling, August 28, 1829. His
father, Job Davis, was born in Ireland and when a boy
came to America and settled in Kentucky where he married
Eliza Rama, a native of Virginia and a member of one of
the old families of that state. They became the parents
of eleven children, all of whom are still living. He was
a Kentucky farmer and Methodist preacher, spent the whole
of his life
in that state and died in 1886, in the eighty-third year
of his age.
Captain Davis is the oldest of the family. He was reared
and educated in his native state and remained there until
he was twenty-three years of age, when he emigrated to
Illinois, then a new country, and with a warrant given
him by his father, took claim to a tract of land near
Taylorville, which he improved and on which he resided
until the spring of 1858. In 1858 he sold out, and
with a mule team crossed the plains to Colorado.
Denver was then in its infancy, and this whole western
country was wild and unsettled. Obtaining a mining claim,
he went to work and continued there successfully until
the spring of 1861 when he returned to Kentucky to visit
friends.
It was while he was visiting in Kentucky that Fort Sumter
was fired upon. The whole country was in the highest
degree of excitement. He returned to Illinois and
enlisted in Company A, Eighth Illinois Infantry, for
a term of three months, and after that term had
expired he again enlisted, this time in Company B,
Forty-first IllinoisVolunteer Infantry. Of this
company he was elected First Lieutenant and was
with it in all the engagements in which it participated.
At the capture of Fort Donelson he had command of the
company and at the battle of Shiloh he received a musket
ball in his shoulder. This ball he still carries. At the
battle of Vicksburg he was wounded in the thigh by a shell,
from the effects of which he is slightly lame, and from
which he still suffers. For gallant service at Vicksburg,
he was promoted to the captaincy. He was at the capture of
Atlanta
and was in command of a pioneer corps that went in advance
of Sherman's forces in the memorable march to the sea.
The war over, he went to Chicago, from whence, in 1866 he
came with his private conveyance to Montana, and selected
Virginia City as a place of location. For five years he was
engaged in mining, meeting with the usual reverses and
successes of the miner. During his best year in the mines
he took out $6000. The last claim he worked became flooded
with water and after abandoning it he leased some stock and
a ranch on the Upper Ruby. This stock ranch he ran for
about five years, raising a great many cattle but finally
selling them on a declining market. Then he again turned his
attention to mining, and still owns mining interests.
In 1880 he engaged in the hotel business at Puller Springs.
IN 1888 he returned to Virginia City and took charge of the
Madison House which he conducted successfully five years,
and since 1893 has been proprietor of the Easton House. His
generous and genial nature,especially fit him for this
business. He knows how to run a hotel in a way to gain the
good will and patronage of the traveling public and such has
been his life in Montana that he enjoys the esteem and
confidence of all who know him.
Captain Davis was married in Kentucky in 1850 to Jane Bolton,
a native of his own town. She died in Illinois in 1857, in
the twenty-seventh year of her age, leaving two children,
Thomas W. and Viola, both now residents of Kansas, the
latter being the wife of Jesse Cox. In December 1866,
Captain Davis married Minerva Tuller, a native of
Indiana. They had five children, Blanch, wife of James
Cowan; Jessie, wife of Robert Cowan; Olive, wife of Amos
Wiles and John Arthur--all residents of Montana. The
mother of this family died in 1884 and in 1888 Captain
Davis married Mrs. Amelia North, sister of his second
wife, and widow of Robert North, who lost his life in
the Union army.
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Re: Captain John H. Davis in Montana, ca. 1866
Robert Graham 7/09/06