Ephraim Welch Davis

The Morgan Davis Family left Tennessee about 1830. Thomas Morgan Davis and wife Nancy Welch Davis, three sons and daughters. They went to Illinois, leaving Tennessee when twins Ephraim and Morgan (William?) were about two years old. On the trip to Illinois the children all walked behind the wagon, taking turns carrying Ephraim while (twin) William (“Bill”) was held on his mothers lap, as he was a weekly-child. They resided in Illinois for a few (~10) years. Nancy Jane was born in Illinois. John the oldest son became ill. Ephraim was twelve years old, when they reached the place in Laclede County, a beautiful little valley close to a good sparkling spring on the north bank of Brush Creek, now known as the Lebanon Morgan road or Blacktop PP, East of the Brush Creek Bridge.

A short time later they filed on a hundred acre homestead. Mr. Davis secured work hauling freight with his oxen from Saint Louis to Springfield. John’s health continued to deteriorate and at the age of nineteen years succumbed to T.B. just west of the home site they established. At the Brush Creek Cemetery they laid John to rest, about 200 yards East of the Bridge that crossed Brush Creek, on the north bank, and can easily be seen from the road on the fenced Knoll of ground. The girls went willingly to work to raise and care for crops and garden. After a flood they found) a new home site. This time it was about ¼ of a mile north of the creek near another smaller spring, on a raised piece of ground. The father, Thomas Morgan Davis had been killed by his run away team, and had been laid to rest beside son John in the little Brush Creek Cemetery so near the first house place. The young ladies were courted and one by one left the family for homes of their own. After living several years all were gone but Mother, Ephraim and William and little Nancy Jane.

After the death of his Mother, Ephraim bought the shares of the other brother and sisters. Roy Ephraim Davis of Lebanon a grandson, has in his possession a deed, written in long hand-signed by two sisters, Patsy and Betsy (Patricia (Martha) and Elizabeth) and their husbands, his twin brother William (Bill) and his wife. It states that one sister received $45 for 40 acres of land. Ephraim met Mary Ann Thurman in the early 1850’s and he built a hewn log house farther down the river, near a large spring. This is now the home site of Leis Green, Eph’s grandson. About a year after their marriage Mary Ann got the measles and she and the child a son died in childbirth. Again another loved one was laid to rest in the little family plot at Brush Creek Cemetery.

A while later, Ephraim married Mary Ann Doty. He and Mary Ann had two sons, Harve and Alonzo. The Civil War was raging in the vicinity. A soldier had been killed across Brush Creek just south of his house. Ephraim was much concerned about his family. He decided to take his family to Illinois for a while so the wagon was loaded and they went to Illinois until the end of the Civil War. On the return trip Mary Ann got the measles and was very sick. Ephraim stopped for a while and Mary Ann gave birth to a third child, a girl, and both died. They were buried near their camping place, now known as White Hall Cemetery, just North of Rolla. Ephraim and the two little boys returned home alone. Harve and Lon (Harve and Alonzo) both contacted the measles after reaching home. A small building had been built for the purpose of church prayer meetings and the learning of the 3-R’s. This building was between the home site where mother lived with Nancy Jane and his home. It is now known as the Upper O’Dell School house. Ephraim took a third wife. Anna Mary Lowrance Haggard – widow of Captain Carrol Rufus Haggard, who had been killed in the Civil War. Anna Mary had five children, Carrol, Ellen, Martha, Jane Alice and Lora. Carrol married Unity Haggard. Ellen married Solomon O’Dell. Martha Jane married Armstead Jackson, Alice married C. Coffman, and Lora married Lama Coffman. Alice and Lora died soon after marriage, victims of T.B. These five children with Ephraim's two boys Harve and Lon (Alonzo) made a sizable family, but through the years the seven were joined by Rachael Anna, Margie Ellen, Ira Warren, Mary Celona, Myrtly Avra, his daughter and husband – Margie (Myrtly?) and Henry Hilton, Joel Ephraim, Eugene Welch. Eugene died in childhood, being 2 ½ years old. Born November 11, 1879 and dying April 4, 1880, he was buried in the Bear Thicket Cemetery the day the tornado blew Marshfield away. This being the burial place of Anna Mary’s family. In February 1883 Anna Mary died before the children were grown, and away from home. She too, was buried in Bear Thicket Cemetery.

Fourth wife Elorie (mistake?) Lowrance Davis: In January 1889 Ephraim married Hanna Catherine Lowrance, cousin of Anna Mary. On October 11, 1889 Elvira Lowrance Davis was born. The last child of Ephraim Davis, she married Charley Green and spent her entire life on the farm inherited from her father Ephraim and now owned by her son, Lewis and wife Audrey Green. Fifteen in all, the children were a close family and could scarcely tell which were brothers and were half or step brothers and sisters. Fourteen of them lived to be adults. a larger house was built, just about 50 feet from the first house (when) Lou (Joe?) about 4

Ephraim served as Judge of the county court (1873-1874) Ephraim and Bill (William) built a mill dam on the Osage River where the Davis Mill Bridge is now. On the Will Randolph Farm, Laclede County, Joe tells of riding a mule with corn across the mules back from the home place (now owned by Eph’s youngest daughter, Elice's (Elvira) son Lewis. One day while Bill (William) was in charge of the mill he looked out the window and saw his nephews, Harce and Law (Harve and Alonzo) Davis. Ephraim died April 29, 1911, and was laid to rest by the side of his third wife Anna Mary and little Eugene. Prior wives Alice and Lora were near by as were the family of Ellen and husband Sal O’Dell and some of their little ones. At the time of his death Ephraim owned 1,050 acres of good rich land along Brush Creek and the Osage River. Each of his children were given a farm, 40 to 50 acres and up.