James William Davis

  General Notes:

From www.ancestry.com:
When Col. James William Davis was born on May 17, 1817, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, his father, James, was 37 and his mother, Elizabeth, was 32. He married Martha Anna Rebecca Tucker on September 9, 1835, in Warren County, North Carolina. They had 11 children in 22 years. He died on August 25, 1878, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, at the age of 61.

The 1850 Federal Census for Southern District, Dinwiddie Co., Virginia, page 470A, dated July 16, 1850 records James W. (33 - VA) and Martha A. (32 - VA) Davis with their children Mary E. (13), Mildred A. (12), Catherine I. (10), Charles C. (7), Ann C. (4), James W. (2). Also listed in the household are Elizabeth B. Tucker (52 - VA), Thomas R. Davis (18), and William Davis (16). James is a farmer and has real estate valued at $1,814. Next door is Elizabeth Davis (65 - VA) as well as Wilkins Davis (42) and Mary D. Davis (50) with George C. Davis (15), Joseph S. Davis (12), Alonsa D. Davis (10), and Indianna W. Davis (8).

The 1860 Federal Census for District No1, Dinwiddie Co., Virginia, San Marino P. O., page 1, dated June 27, 1860 records James W. (43 - VA) and Martha A. R. (42 - VA) Davis with their children Catherine J. (19), Charles C. (17), Anna C. (14), James M. (12), Laurena (10). Also listed in the household are Elizabeth B. Tucker (60 - VA), Thomas E. Davis (8), Joseph E. Davis (5), and Bettie P. Davis (1). James is a farmer and has real estate valued at $2,325 and a personal estate valued at $20,000 including 23 slaves. Of those, 15 are listed as children and 16 as mulatto. Next door is Wilkins I. Davis (53) and Mary D. Davis (60) with Joseph T. Davis (23), Alonso D. Davis (18), and Indianna W. Davis (16).

The 1870 Federal Census for Darvilles, Dinwiddie Co., Virginia, Dinwiddie C. H. P. O., page 487B, dated August 11, 1870 records J. W. (53 - VA) and Martha (52 - VA) Davis with their children James M. (22), Louizianna (20), Thomas (17), and Betty (12). James is a farmer and has real estate valued at $2,624 and a personal estate valued at $400. James M. Davis is a Physician with a personal estate valued at $100.

  Research Notes:

From a digital copy of a transcription of a page from The James W. Davis Bible:
Location: Route #40, 7.7 miles west of McKenney, Virginia thence Route #613, 3 miles, thence Route #636, .5 mile, thence on a private lane.
Date: 1836
Owners: James W. Davis - 1845; Bettie P. Davis - 1937
Description: The back of the book and many leaves of inscriptions are missing. Mrs. Rives said her father took the Bible out to read while the slaves were at work, and one night he forgot to bring it in and it rained, which caused the condition.
Historical Significance: The following inscriptions were taken from the old bible:
Births:
Mildred A. Davis, was born September 12th 1838
Mary E. Davis was born September 27th 1836
Catherine J. Davis was born July 7th 1840
Martha A. R. Tucker was born May 14th 1816
Charles W. C. Davis was born December 6th 1842
Ann C. Davis was born October 10th 1845
J. M. Davis was born May 28, 1848
James W. Davis was born October 16th 1845
Levinia E. Davis was born May 10th 1851
Thomas C. Davis was born September 29th 1856
Joseph F. Davis was born July 5th 1851
Bettie P. Rives was born May 3rd 1858
Carleton Wilson Rives wass born (no date)
Deaths:
M. E. Davis dparted this life on the 30th day of July 1856
Source of Information: Mrs. Bettie P. Davis, Blackstone, Virginia, R. F. D. #2.

Note the birth dates of Levinia and Jospeg are 2 months apart .... impossible ... the one could be miss transcibed from an actual 4 (similar in appearance ... and the 1860 census record records Joseph's age as 5 ... thus this researcher will use 1854 as his year of birth.



The passage below is taken from http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Dinwiddie/NR_Dinwiddie_ButterwoodChurch_026-0111.pdf

Historical Background: The history of Butterwood goes back to the Bristol Parish that was
probably established around 1729 and is mentioned in correspondence between the Reverend George Robertson of the Parish and the Bishop of London in that year. The Parish grew as settlement extended westward and included three Church of England chapels in the territory that later became Dinwiddie County. These chapels were: Saponey built about 1728 (listed in the National Register of Historic Places), Hatchers Run built about 1740, and Butterwood constructed prior to 1762. Butterwood, being the most westerly of the three, was the last to be built. The Bristol Glebe, the rector's home, was located at Winterpock in what is now Chesterfield County. The distance of the western churches from the glebe caused problems and, in 1742, Bath Parish was formed in what later became Dinwiddie County. After its formation, a Reverend Pow until 1755 and the Reverend James Pasteur until 1763 served Bath Parish. These were troubled times in the State churches, and in 1757 members of the Parish petitioned the House of Burgesses complaining of illegal and arbitrary proceedings of the vestry. Their complaint was that vacancies in the vestry had been filled contrary to the wishes of the parishioners. Also that monies collected to purchase a glebe and public buildings, properties of the parish, had been pocketed by the vestry. A heated debate resulted in the Burgesses over this issue. Two years later, a petition was issued dissolving the vestry of the Bath Parish. This was the beginning of dissension against the Established Church, and the Virginia House of Burgesses ruled that any vestrymen that joined a dissenting congregation could not serve as vestrymen.
Devereux Jarratt was appointed Rector of the Bath Parish in 1763. He was born in New Kent County, Virginia, in 1733. He learned his father's trade of carpentry, but gave it up to teach school in Albemarle County. He decided to enter the ministry and selected the Presbyterian Church and traveled to Britain for theological training. In the end he was ordained in the Church of England.
On returning to Virginia he went first to Cumberland County and preached in the parish of an old friend. There he learned of a vacancy in the Bath Parish. Without letters of recommendation, he met with Mr. Leonard Claiborne, a member of the Bath Vestry, and a mutual friendship immediately developed. The following Sunday, Jarratt preached with great zeal on "the need for repentance," something new in the Established Church. This struck a responsive note in the hearts and minds of his parishioners, giving birth to the great religious concern, "What must I do to be saved?" Butterwood soon became too small to hold the crowds, and the church had to be enlarged.
Because of the fervor and concern of Jarratt for the salvation of the people in his parish, the congregation grew from less than a hundred to well over a thousand. Jarrett was also invited to help others who were disassociating themselves from the stablished Church. He attended his own churches on Sunday and spent his other days with the "breakaways." Other priests accused him of being unethical. As the tide was building against the Established Church, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian missionaries began to move in inaugurating an era was known as "The Great Awakening." It was largely due to Jarratt, that Methodism got its start in Dinwiddie. From the religious fervor there resulted organizations known as "societies." Jarratt welcomed Robert Williams, a well known Methodist minister, into his Parish. Even in 1772 Methodism in England had not broken away from the Established Church. Jarratt supported the Methodist Societies with the hope that through revival, the Established Church might be able to resist the inroads of the Baptists and Presbyterians and unite with the Methodists as the future Established Church. Even as late as 1774, with the addition of the Brunswick Circuit to the Bath Parish extending its territory, there was no thought that the Methodists would separate from the Established Church.
Religious revival was sweeping the county, however, and the Baptists and other denominations were establishing inroads in Dinwiddie. After independence was declared in1776, the question of an established church within Virginia was still a vital issue. The Baptists, now well established in the state, were adamant in their stand for absolute separation of church and state and for removal of church property from the control of the successor of the Church of England. The Methodists, however, did not consider themselves dissenters, but a religious society in communion with the remnants of the Church of England. The official organization of both the Protestant Episcopal Church of America and the Methodist Episcopal Church took place in 1784. Jarratt never officially aligned with the Methodists and remained loyal to Bath Parish until his death in 1801.
Records are not clear about Butterwood during this period. Jarratt may have continued with his Episcopal congregation in the old building while the Methodists met in another place. Rumor has it that a log Methodist meetinghouse existed across the road from the present church site. Maps of Dinwiddie County as early as 1827 show a meetinghouse on or near the present church. An 1854 map shows Butterwood Church on its present site, as does an 1864 map. A survey map, dated 1848, of 809 acres of land surrounding the church site shows a Butterwood Meeting House on the south side of the road, as did all previous maps. There are few records of Butterwood following Jarratt's death. Rectors were assigned to Bath Parish (which was later connected with St. Andrew's Parish in Brunswick) until 1827.
The history of the present church building begins with Henry Dickerson of Mecklenburg County who was elected captain of a company formed in his county at the beginning of the Civil War. While traveling through Dinwiddie County around 1863 he found property in the Darvills community to his liking and bought a farm called Diamond Hill a short distance from Butterwood Church. He moved his family there and they became instrumental in revitalizing Butterwood Church. A history of his family states that Henry Dickerson thought that the "shanty" that served as a meeting place for the Butterwood congregation needed to be replaced with a better house of worship. He selected William Randolph Atkinson, a neighbor, to design and build the present church sanctuary. It was completed in 1867 and enlarged in the mid-20th century. It is one of only a very few public buildings built so soon after the Civil War.
The history of Butterwood would stop there were it not for the advent of events and tensions that led to America's entrance into World War II. As early as the fall of 1940 there were rumors that the area around Butterwood Church was being considered for a military reservation since its terrain was similar to much of the region of Europe where conflict would likely occur. Members worried about the future of the church since the proposed area included the Butterwood property. After the declaration of war, in December 1941, it became certain that 48,000 acres in Dinwiddie, Nottoway, and Brunswick counties would be condemned for a temporary military training ground named "Camp Pickett" (later changed to Fort Pickett). Many of the homes and farms in the condemned area had been handed down through several generations and had been retained by family members through the recent Great Depression years. Many of these homesteads had family cemeteries. More than 300 families and 1,100 residents were impacted by the government's action.
Congress approved the construction of Camp Picket in 1942. The government offered landowners a price of only $8 to $10 an acre. Some families went to court but were forced to move before settlement of their grievance. A number of Butterwood families were affected and several relocated to farms and homes in new communities. The U.S. Corps of Engineers decided to exclude Butterwood Church from the edge of the military reservation and allowed it to enlarge its cemetery as a place to re-inter bodies from the White's Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery and home cemeteries throughout the Pickett reservation. The McKissick family donated the land for the new section to a board of trustees made up of Haynie B. Jones, John W. Rives, J. B. Morgan, Rufus A. Echols, and E. Bland Jones. The Hamner-Beville Funeral Co. was contracted to disinter and move the remains of 999 white graves and re-inter them at Butterwood. The remains from the cemetery of Poplar Lawn Baptist Church and home cemeteries of African-American families, numbering almost 2000, were moved to a different new cemetery designated by the government just off Rt. 613 about 2 miles south of Rt. 40 near Darvills.
Re-interred graves from the Whites Chapel Methodist Church are located primarily in the west cemetery at Butterwood. Many graves were unmarked and re-interred in graves identified as
"Unknown." The graves from home cemeteries were mainly re-interred back of the church and in the east cemetery. Many of the unknown graves are thought to include slaves and there is the possibility that some are of Native Americans.
Where grave markers had been originally placed at graves in the Camp Pickett area, these were moved to mark the new grave placements at Butterwood. Otherwise, metal markers identified known graves as well as unknown graves. One grave moved from the W. H. Riley farm contained an unknown soldier's body in what was described as a sealed metal "English coffin" with a glass panel.
The uniform epaulets, gloves, and a piece of boxwood were well preserved.

James married Martha Ann Rebecca Tucker on 9 Sep 1835 in Warren County, North Carolina. (Martha Ann Rebecca Tucker was born on 14 May 1818 in Virginia and died on 18 May 1903 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia.)

  Marriage Notes:

North Carolina, Marriage Index, 1741-2004
Name: James W. Davis
Spouse: Martha A. R. Tucker
Marriage Date: 9 Sep 1835
Marriage County: Warren
Marriage State: North Carolina
Source: Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT