FAMILY HISTORY -- 0 -- nFor our children's children and those who shall be descended from them.• Virgil. -- 0 -- With special emphasis on the ancestors of the brothers Philip Christopher Davis George Graham Davis Joseph Gamble Davis James Conrad Davis John Edward Davis 0 -- 9 "Ancestral glory is a lamp to posterity • Sallust Compiled by George Jacob Davis, Jr. 15 Pinehurst Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1955 FAMILY HISTORY PREFACE I began collecting data on the genealogy of my own and my wife's families many years ago. These notes are being published now to make them available to others who may find them useful as a base to which to add additional data. I regret that for most individuals the data are so brief. For those of the earlier generations the records have, in most cases, been lost and even 'in the cases of living persons the data are hard to obtain. Much of the information relating to the Jones and Donaldson families was supplied by John Penn Jones, Gertrude Jones, Ruth Jones Hutchinson, Harry Jacobs and Harry w. Lenig. Data on the Baskin family was supplied by Professor Raymond M. Bell. Data relating to the Stephens families is due to the research of Sarah Ellen (Trotter) Hildreth, and to R. G. s. Ruffner. That relating to the Gamble and Graham families was supplied by Joseph Graham Gamble, Bessie Boyd and Charles B. Gamble, Jr. Many others have kindly contributed data and other information. During recent years I have been given much help by my son, Philip Davis. The information in this book relates mostly to ancestors of my grandchildren and their families, with only a few exceptions of such collateral lines as Edmunds, Hale, Harvey, May, Powell, Stroud, Thomason, etc. To include other collateral lines would have been too great a task. Therefore, nothing is given on such families as Accola, Bell, Bond, of Virginia, Bossert, Culbertson, de Cover, English, Finckel, Hecht, Hendley, Hill, Hopkins, Jacobs, Marshall, Maxwell, Miller, Mitchell, Morse, Rice, Ruffner, Sigmund, Walcott, Walker, and others. If additional records or·traditions are available it would be appreciated if a copy would be sent to me for use 1n a supplement or later edition of this compilation. 0 -- "There are deeds which should not pass away, And names that must not wither. 11 Author unknown. 3 INTRODUCTION COMMENTS the red men for about fifty years after William Baskin and Jam.es Baskin were Penn's second visit of 1701. With skill brothers. Therefore, Joseph Jones and Maiy and kindly hospitality and accurate knowl­ Smith, his wife, were second cousins. edge of Indian character, he led the col­ ony along the paths of peace. He could FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR HEROES: not, or did not, however, avert the alien­ William Baskin Alexander Stephens ation of the Delaware tribe caused by a series of outrages upon their rights, the REVOLUTIONARY WAR HEROES: The following most noted of which was the Walking pur­ fought 1n the Revolutionacy War or other­ chase of 1737. wise assisted in establishing the indepen­ dence of the United States: The Lanni Lenape, to whom the whites Samuel Davis Adam Stephens gave the name of Delawares,. were members Moses Donaldson Edward Stephens of the Algonquian family. - - Having been John Gamble James Stephens conquered by the Iroquois, the Delawares John Jones John Stephens at this t ime {1742 } occupied a posit ion of Lewis Jones, Sr. Richard Stephens vassalage. (Dunaway, 8 A History of Penn­ Lewis Jones, Jr. William Stephens sylvania") William Lawson Thomas Tinsley Joseph Martin probably others. •A great convention was held 1n Phil­ adelphia, attended by all parties interest­ WAR OF 1812-J.4 HEROES: ed. - - the Iroquois judicially examined Samuel Young Davis the old deeds and the record of the walk Hiram Davis and pronounced judgment against the Min­ William Donaldson isinks, telling them that they had no right Two sons of John Jones, perhaps to make treaties and that they must immedi­ Benjamin and Joshua ately remove to the Susquehanna. The alli­ Thomas 0 1Neal May ance was too strong, and they, with bitter James Smith hearts, left their old home to the whites.• CIVIL WAR HEROES: 8 Their crowning grievance came in 1754 Johan Meyer Robert Gamble when at Albany, the proprietors purchased: John Jones Roger Gamble of the Iroquois, many of the Pennsylvania tribes being unrepresented, nearly the NATIONAL ORIGINS. Our ancestors, so whole of western Pennsylvania. To have all far as known, came from the north of Euro­ their ground sold over their heads and the pe; the Davis and Jones stems being of proceeds go to their feudal lords was bad Welsh extraction, the Tinsleys, Stephens enough, but those that were present came and Hildreths from England, the Grahams away with a belief that they had been de­ from Scotland, the Gambles, Nesbitts and frauded. - - Donaldsons from Ireland, the Sorgers and Meyers from Bavaria, the Seufferles and •The French ingeniously fanned the Herleys from Wurtemburg, the Sigmunds from flames, and when Braddock went down to de­ Stutgart, Germany, and the Ragatz from feat before Fort DuQuesne the next year, Switzerland. the long smouldering wrath of the Pennsyl­ vania Indlans found vent, and for the first Their reasons for coming to the "new time the frontiers were wet with blood.• World" varied. The following year, 1756, William Bas­ PIONEERS. A large number of the ances­ kin was killed and scalped by Indians on tors arrived in America in the early per­ his farm on Duncan's Island 1n the Susque­ iod of its settlement. Even some of those hanna River and his daughter, Margaret, and who came about the middle of the 19th cen­ a smaller brother were kidnapped and taken tury were pioneers in settling in the fron­ to the Ohio country~ west of Pennsylvania. tiers of the developing United States, such as Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakota and Cali­ -- 0 -- fornia. "Where nothing dwelt but beasts ot irey, "Those daring spirits who conquered our Or men as fierce and wild as they. wilderness and founded our cities and wrote (Author unknown) our laws and began our businesses - - They asked no security, and looked only to the The pioneers were not, so far as I strength of their arms and the keenness or know, troubled especially by beasts of pr­ their minds to meet their needs. It 1s of ey, but many of them were in close contact such forbears that American free enterprise with the aborigines, or Indians. In •Tb.e was born and such is its spirit•. Quakers 1n the .American Colonies", by Ruf­ Clarence B. Randall. us M. Jones, p. 501 it is stated James Logan was 1n charge of the relations with 4 FAMILY HISTORY EARLY SETTLEMENTS. In order to provide Pastorius, as agent of the Frankfort Land background for the conditions under which Company, composed of wealthy persons, chi­ our ancestors were living in America, a efely Pietists in Germany and Holland, set­ brief outline of the early settlements is tled a colony at Germantown in 1683. After given below. that, the number of German settlers increas­ ed rapidly. - - Many German emigrants set­ Dutch were the first to enter the re­ tled in Bucks, Berks, Montgomery, Lancaster, gion now known as Pennsylvania. Henry Hud­ and York Counties. son, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East India Co. entered Delaware Bay "In addition to the Germans, there was. in 1609 and went up as far as the Schuyl­ a large number of Scotch-Irish who came to kill. FUrther explorations in 1616 were Pennsylvania. They were so called because made by Captain Cornelia Hendricksen. In they were the descendants of Scots who had 1623 Captain Cornelia Jacobsen Mey (May) taken up their residence 1n the north of built Fort Nassau on the Jersey side of the Ireland. They were bold, enterprising, and River. This was the first Delaware Valley hardy, and favored a frontier life in pref­ settlement effected by Europeans. erence to settling in the more thickly pop­ ulated portions of the province. They dis­ In 1638 the Swedes established settle­ liked the Pope as heartily as they vener­ ments on the Delaware. ated Calvin and Knox. They had left Ulster 1n Ireland because of religious bigotry, In 1655 the Dutch conquered New SWeden. commercial jealousy, and oppression by the land lords. The Scotch bad been persuaded The Dutch surrendered to the Duke of to take up at very low rentals the lands York in 1644. forfeited by the Irish. By industry and frugality they prospered where the Irish About 1674 a small though steady im­ had eked out but a bare subsistence. This migration of English settlers began to be prosperity aroused the avariciousness of noticeable. At this time there were about the landlords, who, upon the expiration of 500 white inhabitants in Pennsylvania. The the leases, demanded higher rents. 'Pb.e significant story of settlement in Pennsyl­ Scotch refused to submit to this species vania begins with the founding of the Quak­ of extortion, while the Roman Catholics, er cormnonwealth. eager to regain their old lands upon almost any conditions, readily agreed to pay the In 1681 William Penn received his char­ higher- rentals. The Irish bid higher for ter from King Charles II. William Penn the lands than did the Scotch, and the landed at New Castle, Delaware October 27, latter were dispossed. Many of the first 1682. He went to Upland, (which he now Scotch-Irish emigrants settled 1n Bucks, called Chester), and then to Philadelphia. Chester and York Counties, and later in the Kittatinny valley.• Within a year of Penn's coming to the province there arrived at Philadelphia fif­ P • 414.