Jesse Bean Davis

CAPTAIN JESSE B. DAVIS. For many years one of the best-known and most popular men of Montgomery county was Captain Jesse B. Davis of Norristown. His ancestors were Welsh and they were early settlers in America. The family is a large one and widely scattered over the counties of Chester, Montgomery and Bucks.

He was educated in the public schools of the vicinity and in the Mantua Military School, Philadelphia, graduating from the latter in 1842, with the rank of second lieutenant. He secured the position of bookkeeper in the wholesale grocery of Marshall & Kellogg, Philadelphia, remaining two years. He then took charge of his father's farm and managed it for several years. Having a military education, he joined Captain Mathey's Democratic troop and trained with it for seven years. He then organized a company of artillery called the "Washington Grays," being elected its captain. During twelve years that he held this command he served in the Native American riots in Philadelphia in 1844. Soon after the company disbanded, in 1855, he was elected clerk of the courts, on the Democratic ticket, serving three years. In the legislative session of 1858-9 he was appointed transcribing clerk of the state senate. Previously Captain Davis had been elected colonel of the One Hundred and Ninth Regiment Pennsylvania State Militia. He also served for a time as major of its First Battalion. Captain Davis was several times a candidate for the legislature, but was unsuccessful. In 1878 he was nominated and elected to the responsible office of county commissioner, serving three years. In 1868 he was named for prison inspector by judge Chapman, being reappointed by Judge Ross in 1871. Part of the time of his six years' service he was president of the board. He was an earnest and efficient advocate of retrenchment and economy. Having begun dealing in live stock in 1860, in 1868 he bought a lot and erected buildings at Jeffersonville. He soon became the leading drover of the vicinity.

Jesse B. Davis married Eleanor A., daughter of John and Hannah Shannon, of Norriton township. His wife was a member of an old and highly respected family in that section of the county. The couple had two children, John S. and Charlotte E., the latter now owning the old homestead of Captain Davis, No. 534 Swede street, and residing in it. Miss Davis has in her possession her grandfather's sword and his commission as surgeon's mate, as well as other cherished family relics, many of which have been handed down in the family by inheritance for more than a century. Captain Jesse B. Davis died November 18, 1896, and his wife passed away November 19, 1881. Both were interred in Montgomery cemetery.

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My library My History Books on Google Play Lives of the Eminent Dead: And Biographical Notices of Prominent Living Citizens of Montgomery County, Pa

Moses Auge The Author, 1879 - Montgomery County (Pa.) - 568 pages

update: A "J.B. Davis can be seen in Jeffersonville (earmarked to attached map) just above Ridge Pike

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