Nehemiah Davis, a pioneer and farmer, was born in 1827, in Gallia County, Ohio, the
eleventh of twelve children (four deceased) of Nehemiah, Sr and Mary (ALLISON) DAVIS,
the former of English stock, born in 1778 in Maine, and the latter born in January 1789, in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of Irish lineage.  The father lived in Marietta, Ohio, when a young
man, and cleared part of the site of Cincinnati.  The mother also lived there from the age of
three to ten in the old fort, and after the Indian war her father moved up the Muskingham
River about fourteen miles, where she was reared.  She married in April 1805.  After her
marriage they settled on Sugar Creek about four miles north of Athens, and after the birth of
their fifth child moved to Gallia County.  In 1839 they came to the wilderness of Hamilton
County, and settled near the Franklin line, where our subject’s brother, Rueben, is now living. 
Here, in 1854, after he had seen his family of twelve children all married and in homes, he
died.  The mother, when forty years old, began medical practice, and during her long fifty
years of practice never lost a patient of the more than 1000 births she attended.  She died in
October, 1882, at the age of ninety-four.  Our subject was educated in Hamilton and his native
Counties, and when of age began farming on his farm, the gift of his father.  In March 1857,
he sold this and moved to Centralia, Illinois, but a year later returned, and after a year of
renting moved to his present farm.  His wife, Mary, daughter of William and Sarah
(DABNEY) STURMAN, was born July 1830 in Hamilton  County.  There children are
William F. (deceased),  Louisa J. (wife of D. JOHNSON),  Lewis J (deceased in infancy)
twins,  Henry G.,  Sarah M. (wife of F. E. ALEXANDER),  Charles L.,  Joseph N., 
Adolphus M.,  Nehemiah J. (deceased) and Alvin E.  He owns 180 acres of land.  Formerly a
Democrat, he has been a Greenbacker since 1876.  He voted for Lewis Cass, also for Peter
Cooper.  For twenty years he has been an Odd Fellow, and filled all the chairs in the
subordinate lodges, which he represented in the grand lodge of the State.  He is a member of
the  F M B A, and his wife is a member of the Regular Baptist Church.    

[Extractor’s note:  There is a very lengthy history of this family in the obituary for Mary
ALLISON DAVIS, in “Legacy of Kin-Hamilton County, Illinois” compiled by Harold Felty.]