Reverend Lewis Alexander Davis

DAVIS, THE SETTLERS OF SALEM, WEST VIRGINIA, by Susie Davis Nicholson, Salem, West Virginia, 1992. p. 21, 30, 47

When he was about eighteen years of age, he was baptized and became a member of the New Salem Church. In his twentieth year, he visited the Seventh Day Baptist churches in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and attended the annual session of the General Conference at Hopkinton, Rhode Island. He then visited Ohio, and pursued private studies for a short time under the tuition of a clergyman, whom he paid with a half month's labour. He was soon obliged to abandon his studies, however, when he returned to Virginia.

On February 18, 1821, he was granted licence to preach, and on January 15, 1824, he was ordained a Gospel minister. The ordination service was conducted by Rev. John Green, assisted by Rev. John Davis and Rev. Peter Davis. For some time, he engaged in general missionary labour in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, travelling from place to place on horseback.

Having decided to remove to Ohio for his home, a committee of the Lost Creek Church followed him after he had started, and induced him to return. He remained nearly a year longer in Virginia. He finally decided, however, to make his home in Ohio, and on August 16, 1833, the New Salem Church granted him and his wife, Rebecca, letters of dismissal to join the Pike Church of Ohio.

He soon devoted his entire time to the work of the ministry. To provide himself and his family with the means of sustenance, he sold his farm. When the proceeds of his farm were exhausted, he turned his attention to the study of medicine. After the necessary preparation, he practised medicine for a living, but continued to preach at the same time, achieving success in both professions.

His health failed, and he was obliged to relinquish his work for an imperative rest. After a vacation of a year or two, he resumed his professional duties. After a term of service at Jackson Centre, Ohio, and then at Farmington, Illinois, he finally removed to Welton, Iowa, where he died October 12, 1867.

His ministerial activities extended over a period of forty-five years. Two weeks before his death, he concluded a series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer. He compiled a volume of sacred hymns, which he called the Sacred Lyre. from A History of the Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia

By Corliss Fitz Randolph