Among the worthy citizens that Wales has furnished to this country is the
subject of this sketch, Henry Jenkins Davis, of Freedom, Illinois, who was
born in Cardiganshire, Wales, March 18, 1830, a son of Samuel Davis. The
latter brought his family of sons and daughters to the United States in
1841, making the voyage from Liverpool England, to Castle Garden, New York,
in the sailing vessel Batsford, which required four weeks to make the trip.
From New York they went up the Hudson river to Albany, thence by canal to
Buffalo, and to Newark, Ohio. Their first location was on a farm in Licking
county, Ohio, nine miles west of the city of Newark, where they lived five
years. Thomas Jenkins, one of the older sons, born in 1818, left the
parental roof in 1843, seeking a location on the fertile, frontier prairies
of Illinois, whither David, his brother, had preceded him. He reached
Chicago by boat and from there came on foot to Millington. In Green's mill,
at Dayton, Illinois, he secured employment, and for nine years remained in
Mr. Green's service. His acquaintance with the conditions and environments
of LaSalle county led him to advise the remainder of the family to come
further west, and they arrived in Freedom in 1846.
Samuel Davis, the
father, was in limited circumstances, and as cheap as land was at that date
he was unable to pay for more than a small tract. His farm was in section 5,
Freedom township, and on it he spent the rest of his life, devoting his
energies to its cultivation and improvement. He was twice married, his first
wife being a Miss Jones; his second wife, her sister. Miss Eleanor Jones,
who died in 1848. His children were as follows: Jenkins Davis, who died in
Iowa many years ago; Maria, the wife of Elias Jones, died in Ohio; John J.,
deceased; Thomas J., of the town of Ophir, Illinois; David J., deceased;
Rachel, deceased, was the wife of William Williams; Henry J., whose name
initiates this review; Evan J., of Iowa; Fred J., of Ottawa, Illinois; Mary,
who first married George L. Kinney; he died in 1870, and she is now the wife
of John Hoadley, and resides at Earlville, Illinois; with her lives her only
daughter, Miss Georgie L. Kinney, at present employed as bookkeeper; and
Jane, wife of Plinn Bears, Chicago, Illinois. The father of these children
died in 1859, at the age of seventy-seven years.
Henry J. Davis
received his education in the district schools of Licking county, Ohio, and
LaSalle county, Illinois, and in the broad school of experience. At nineteen
he left home and became a wage-worker on farms, at the rate of fifty cents
per day, among his employers being Mr. Hosford and John Henderson, prominent
farmers. With what he had saved from his earnings in four years he purchased
a forty-acre tract of land. But he had no team and had to hire the soil
broken. This cost him one dollar and fifty cents per acre, and it was not
until the second year after the purchase that he obtained a crop. He
continued to work and save and invest in land, and in a few years he found
himself with a quarter and then a half section of land. While he was buying
he was also improving, and at this writing there is perhaps not a farm in
LaSalle county that will excel his own in the cost of improvements and the
care and expense with which they are preserved.
June 15, 1854, Mr.
Davis married Miss Sarah Jane Crumpton, a daughter of William Crumpton, who
came from Maine to Illinois in an early day and became one of the pioneer
settlers of LaSalle county. Mrs. Davis has a brother, Samuel Crumpton, who
resides in Superior, Wisconsin. Of her sisters we record that Mrs. Ann Bangs
resides in Chatsworth, Illinois; and Mrs. Charlotte Davis, wife of Thomas J.
Davis, is a resident of Ophir township, LaSalle county. Mr. and Mrs. Henry
J. Davis began housekeeping in a primitive way, in keeping with their
circumstances, and for a period of forty-five years their lives have been
happily blended together.
Mr. Davis is a Republican, but has never
sought, nor would he accept, official position, his own private affairs
requiring the whole of his attention. He believes in expansion, protection
and all other doctrines that have made the United States prosperous and
powerful. Both he and his wife are noted for their genial hospitality and
are invariably referred to in the most generous and complimentary terms.
Extracted 13 May 2019 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 615-617.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
