Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/94

 Moreover, there is no John, or Thomas in all the Davis descent, as there would have been, had the brothers of Evan been so named. After he settled in Georgia and took up lands there, Evan Davis married a widow named Williams, whose maiden name had been Emory. She was of a Carolina family, and had two sons of her first marriage. Her son by the Davis alliance his father named Samuel, presumably in memory of his lost elder brother. In the Revolution, the two elder half-brothers of Samuel Davis went into the Continental Army; and later his mother sent that youth to their camp to carry clothing and home comforts to them. The fighting Welsh blood flamed into patriotism and Samuel ran away from home, after his return; joined the army and made a good soldier. When the effort was made to raise the siege of Savannah, he was in command of the company recruited by himself and made a good record. Thus the family of the Confederate President is triply American: continental, revolutionary and "rebel." Samuel Davis married Miss Jane Cooke; a Georgia girl of good North Carolina family and connected with–if not closely related to—the Hardins, who moved early to "the Dark and Bloody Ground" and for whom a Kentucky County was named. The pair had eight children during their Georgia life and then Samuel Davis–seeing larger and quick returns for the planter in newer and less crowded territory—followed his wife's friends. He had no inheritance, as his widowed mother lost her all in the trying days that followed the Revolution; so he removed to Kentucky and began life anew on a tobacco plantation in Christian County. There Ellen Mary was born, two years later followed the subject of this sketch. THE DAVIS FAMILY ROSTER. The eldest child of Samuel Davis and Jane Cook, was Joseph Emory Davis, born in Georgia but a lawyer and planter, residing at the "Hurricane" Plantation, Warren County, Miss. He married Miss Eliza van Benthysen. He was a great stay and aid to his father and. after his death, became its head and parent,