Notes for: Capt. Jesse Davis
From: Roberta Whitacre [rwhita5761 at hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011
Subject: Jesse Davis Genealogy
Hi,
I descend from a Davis family also and ran across your site; unfortunately I have never gotten past Thomas B. Davis and his wife Thursa Fulks who lived in Knox Co. Ky. They were married abt 1835 and Thomas was b. 1814-1817; so of course I as well as many others have been researching many Davis lines in Ky. that have been there since the beginning. You may already have this but I saw you have Jesse Davis with a son named William M. Davis and even if this is not going to help me it may help you if you have not already found this; today I was browsing the Library of Congress and came across a letter written from Jesse Davis to Governor Isaac Shelby written in 1817 in regards to his son William Davis; in the letter to Governor Shelby Jesse is asking the Governor to recommend Wm. M. Davis for the position of an appointment of Register of the Land Office to be opened in the spring in the Missouri Territory.
Jesse mentions in this letter that he had a seat with Shelby at one of the conventions in Danville before there was a U.S. and Jesse Davis also mentions the Governor's wife and that Jesse is distantly related to the Governor's wife; the letter also mentioned that William M. Davis in early youth served as a volunteer in Governor Shelby's command during the upper Canada Campaign in 1813 and afterwards received an appointment in the U.S. Army and continued in the Army until disbanded after the war.
The letter was written in 1817 and I think from Nelson Co. it stated on the front of the letter it is addressed to Isaac Shelby Esquire Lincoln County Ky. It is in the American Memory Project “First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820” it is also part of the Filson Historical Society but I found all of this by going to the Library of Congress.
I do not know if it will help you or me but maybe it will if you do not already know but evidently somehow Jesse Davis, father of William M. Davis was distantly related to Mrs. Shelby so maybe one of us or others could find that connection. I do so wish I could find that he is the father of Thomas B. Davis or which Davis is but I hope you can use this info.
Sincerely
Roberta Whitacre