Mary Ann Lewis Davis
Generously Donated by James Pope
Who were Caswell Davis and Mary Ann Lewis??
They were the grandparents of Alice Carter Baker who was the wife of Levin Lindsey Baker. Mary Ann Davis nee Lewis was born March 24, 1819 in Caldwell Co. Kentucky. She was the daughter of Buford Lewis who came to Caldwell Co. from Lexington, Ky. as a pioneer and located on a farm about 3 miles East of Princeton, Kentucky. (The rest of the information I have is from an obituary that was published in the news paper in 1884 and was among the personal affects of Mary Alice Hollowell her great granddaughter.) At this place Mrs. Lewis was born and raised. On the 16th of June 1840 she was married to Caswell Davis, and they settled near her father’s home. In 1850, they moved to Christian County, Illinois. In 1854 she had a spell of sickness, known as “milk sickness” from which it is believed she never recovered. In 1858 they returned to their native State, and located on the farm where Col. William Carter now lives (1884). In later years they purchased a farm lying on Smith’s Mill road, four miles north of Princeton, and settled for life. There on the 8th of September she was seized by a violent congestion of the lungs and after a few days of suffering, she closed her eyes in death, and now sleeps sweetly in Jesus this 16th day of September, 1884. Mrs. Davis was the mother of three children, two sons and one daughter (Mary F. Davis) who died nearly 20 years or more ago. With the two sons, she leaves seventeen grandchildren, one great grandchild, and an aged husband to mourn her loss. Nothing, it seems will soothe their grief, except the hope of a reunion in a brighter world. (Editor’s note; Milk sickness sometimes referred to a disease contracted from drinking the milk from a cow that had eaten “snake root”. A government program in the early part of the twenties eradicated this dreaded weed.)
Mrs. Davis united with the Christian Church at Franklin, Monroe County, Illinois in 1857 under the preaching of Elder John S. Sweeney, now a resident of Paris, Kentucky, and has lived a consistent member ever since. In the closing scene of her earthly pilgrimage she expressed a plentitude of faith, and willingness to die, which assures us that she has the crown of the righteous, and her travels on earth were pleasing to the Lord. She was very patient in her sufferings and conscious until the last day of her life; she bore the pains of death with great fortitude and doubtless is regenerated in a brighter sphere. Mrs. Davis was a woman of unusual intelligence. Her influence over her children, relatives and friends was remarkable: her pleasant countenance carried sunshine wherever she went; her manners, hospitality and good nature are pictured on the memory of her neighbors never to fade. It is a great loss to give up so dear a friend, but when we think of the joys and pleasures of a celestial kingdom, we should be consoled with the assurance that she is in possession of its’ eternal blessings!
Mrs. Davis was very extensively known, and her friends will all regret to hear of her death. She will be missed by them all beyond measure, and especially in the family circle. We sympathize with the husband and children in their loss, offer a petition that they may be re-united in Heaven. On the evening after her death her remains were laid away in the family cemetery in the presence of a large audience, to await the resurrection morn. Peace to her ashes!
Farewell friends! Yet not farewell, For where I am you soon shall dwell. I am gone before your face, A moment’s time, a little space. When ye come where I have stepped, Ye will wonder why ye wept; Ye will know by wise love taught, That here is all and there is naught.
The bereaved husband and sons are deeply grateful to the ladies of the neighborhood for their kindness and attention to the deceased during her last illness.