It
was almost a week ago (4 Nov 2017) when I wrote about Martha (Davis)
Alkire who lived to be 103. James Nelson Davis was her older brother,
born 15 May 1849 in Mahaska County Iowa to Isaac S and Rebecca (Bond)
Davis. So he also was a 1st cousin of my gt-grandfather,
John Howard Bond. That makes him my 1st cousin 3 times
removed.
James
was another of my relatives who traveled the Oregon Trail. He would
have celebrated his 4th birthday in 1853 on the way to the
Oregon Territory where his parents settled a 320 acre Donation Land
Claim in the Coast Fork Precinct of Lane County Oregon. This was
about 6 miles west of the current city of Creswell.
His
father was declared insane near the end of 1860. By the 1870 census
his mother and brothers and sisters were living in the Springfield
Township of Lane County, next to Isaac's brother Nelson, who was
married to Rebecca's sister Elizabeth. By this time, James was 21
years old and was still at home. The census showed his occupation as
“hires out to work.” As the oldest son, I expect James was a help
to his mother.
The
Western States Marriage Index showed that James, age 30, married
Ellen Lewis, age 16, on 12 Aug 1879 in Nez Perce County Idaho. The
1880 census showed them at Camas Creek Precinct in Nez Perce County
with James shown as a farmer. Since most of the 1890 census has been
destroyed, the next census is 1900. By then they were living in Pine
Creek Precinct in Latah County Idaho and had 8 children: Edith,
Adolphus, Oscar, Eugene, Glen, Rosetta, Bennie and Laura. Ellen's
name was shown as Ella. She appeared to continue to use that name as
she and James were in the 1910 census in Cambridge Precinct in
Washington County Idaho with the 4 younger children listed in 1900
plus 2 more: Ford and Joseph. Ella reported that she had had 10
children and all were still living. James was listed as a farmer on
his own farm.
They
were still listed in Cambridge Precinct on the 1930 census, with
James age 80 and Ella 67 and James' occupation continued to be a
farmer. From the 1940 census we learn that they were still living in
the country in 1935, but had moved into the town of Weiser Idaho by
1940 and were living on 3rd Street in a house they owned,
valued at $1000. It was after the census was taken in April that
James, age 90, died on 30 Jul 1940 in Weiser and was buried at
Hillcrest Cemetery.
Posted
10 Nov 2017
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