← Israel Davis’s profile
The Davis Family Archive · 1924, 1926, and 1927 collections
History of Israel Davis and Family
A growing family-history room built from surviving issues of The Daniel Davis News.
The connection to the Dutton family
Four generations, one documented line.
The newsletter clarifies a relationship that is easy to compress by accident: Israel was Pearl’s grandfather, not her father. His son Levi Emanuel Davis was Pearl’s father.
The earlier Davis generation
Daniel Davis Sr.
Daniel was the father of Israel Davis and the namesake of the descendant association and newsletters preserved here. A 1911 account by his grandson Israel C. Davis adds a Tolpehocken Creek tradition and a story of a late War of 1812 draft to Carlisle Barracks. Both are retained as family research while supporting records are sought.
Open Daniel Davis Sr.’s profile ★Non-conflicting secondary leads
Small details worth investigating.
These items come from later private genealogies and third-party compilations. They enrich the research plan without outranking the newsletters or contemporary records.
Weaver, stone mason, and brick mason
A private genealogy describes Daniel in these civilian trades. No contemporary occupational source has yet been attached, so the detail is preserved as family context and a search clue.
Seventeen children named
A reproduced 1924 Bureau of Pensions summary names Elizabeth, John, Daniel, Christian, Adam, Jacob, Peter, Samuel, Emanuel, Henry, Jonathan, Susanna, Levi, Israel, Benjamin, Michael, and Sarah. The compilation cautions that the list is not in birth order.
Sarah Albright Davis near Salem
A secondary compilation places Sarah in a Lutheran cemetery in the Brinker Settlement near Salem, Ohio. This fits the known family geography, but the cemetery and burial still require confirmation from church, cemetery, or contemporary death records.
Newsletter transcription
Israel’s story as preserved in 1924.
Spelling and punctuation have been lightly regularized for readability. Names, dates, locations, and the substance of the account remain faithful to the newsletter.
Israel Davis, son of Daniel Sr. and Sarah (Albright) Davis, was born on the John Crain—or Crane—farm near Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio, on June 4, 1825. He was a twin to Levi. Israel’s mother died when he was about three years of age.
Israel’s father cared for his younger children for a few years, probably about five years, after the death of their mother. The younger children were then placed with other families. Israel was placed with a family named Steward. Emanuel was placed with David Carlyle. After a short time Israel became discontented and ran away to the home of David Carlyle.
When Daniel Davis Sr. returned from eastern Pennsylvania, where he had been visiting his older children, he took Israel and Benjamin to Carroll County, Indiana. He purchased 160 acres of government land on Wild Cat Creek, about seven miles south of Delphi, at $1.25 an acre.
Israel’s wife, Rebecca Pippinger, daughter of Peter and Esther (Cripe) Pippinger, was born near Dayton, Ohio, on February 20, 1825. John Metzger of the Church of the Brethren united Israel and Rebecca in marriage in August 1847 in Carroll County, Indiana. They were members of the Church of the Brethren, at least in later life.
After their marriage, Israel’s father turned the farm over to them. Their four children were born on this farm.
In 1865, encouraged by the prosperity of what was then called the western states, the family moved to Richland County, Wisconsin. In 1870 or 1871 they moved to Spring Valley, Fillmore County, Minnesota, where Israel’s brother Peter had lived from 1855 to 1869.
The great smallpox epidemic of 1872–1873 caught them. Israel and Rebecca both died in January 1873. Both were buried near Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Israel and Rebecca’s household
The first descendant branches.
The August 1924 issue records four children and begins tracing each line.
Susan Davis
Born 1 September 1848. Married Sidney Cram. Their children were Millie Anna, Charles William, Rebecca Ford, Armeada Belle, Emmett, Allan H., Kattie, and Sidney Elizabeth Cram.
Elizabeth Ann Davis
Born 12 November 1850; died in January 1921. Married Charles Marshall Atwood. Their children were Lillie Alveda, Marvin Ashley, and Elijah Francis Atwood.
Levi Emanuel Davis
Born 7 April 1854. Married Susan Catherine Caylor, born 29 June 1856. Their daughter Pearl connects this Davis family record directly to Walter Allen Dutton and their children.
Catherine “Kittie” Davis
Born 8 December 1856. Married Michael S. Cuskelly, born 26 December 1855. No children are listed beneath their entry in this issue.
Levi Emanuel’s family
The generation that included Pearl Davis.
Added from the August 1926 issue
Israel’s twin brother, Levi Davis.
The second newsletter expands the family sideways. This Levi Davis was Israel’s twin brother and must not be confused with Israel’s son Levi Emanuel Davis, Pearl Dutton’s father.
Levi Davis was born near Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio, on 4 June 1825, the same day as Israel. Their mother, Sarah Albright Davis, died when the twins were about three years old. Levi was later adopted by Thomas and Catherine Calahan of Salem and became a coal miner.
Levi married Anna Mary Stakemyre of the Greenford area of Mahoning County, Ohio. Their first children were born in Ohio. The family moved to Pennsylvania in 1861, then across the Ohio River to West Virginia in 1864. They later lived in Washington, Beaver, and Fayette counties in Pennsylvania. Levi died near New Salem on 27 January 1884; Anna died on 27 July 1892.
Children recorded in 1926George Thomas · John · Israel · Franklin · William Henry · Catherine Elizabeth · Jacob Wesley · Sarah Anna · Rosina J.
Family connections preserved in 1926
Three details worth carrying forward.
These entries connect the newsletter to the Dutton household and show how the Daniel Davis Association maintained a living descendant network.
Everett LaVerne Dutton
The birth list records Walter and Pearl Dutton of Sparta, Wisconsin, and their son “Everett La Verne,” born 26 October 1924. This contemporary family notice provides a stronger source for LaVerne Dutton’s birth date, while preserving the newsletter’s spelling of his name.
Two hundred eleven relatives gathered
The nineteenth annual Daniel Davis Association reunion brought together 211 members and several friends at the Williams County fairgrounds on 30 August 1925. The issue also announced the twentieth reunion for Memorial Park in Swanton, Ohio, on 29 August 1926.
Albert Edgar Davis at Fort Benning
The descendant address list places Albert Davis at Headquarters, 29th Infantry, Fort Benning, Georgia. The family tables identify him as Albert Edgar Davis, born 9 March 1892, a son of Franklin Davis in Israel’s twin Levi’s branch. Rank, dates, and duties are not given and remain research leads.
Added from the August 1927 issue
A family organization—and a wider family story.
The eleventh volume documents not only older Davis branches, but also how relatives such as Pearl Dutton helped keep the association and its newsletter alive.
Pearl Dutton supported the newsletter
“Mrs. Pearl Dutton” appears among the mail contributors to The Daniel Davis News between 17 August 1926 and 18 August 1927. The entry places Pearl within the active descendant network, not merely in a later reconstructed family tree.
Organized on 1 September 1907
The Daniel Davis Association was founded at Joseph Plimpton Davis’s home near Bryan, Ohio. The issue says yearly gatherings of Emanuel and Susanna Davis’s descendants—encouraged by Susanna’s wish that her family meet annually—inspired the larger association. Its 1926 reunion drew 167 members and several friends.
Israel’s sister Susanna Davis Sly
Susanna, a daughter of Daniel and Sarah Davis and an older sister of Israel, was born 24 May 1819. She married Levi Sly in 1849 and raised seven children in Jackson County, Ohio. Levi died after being burned in a coal mine in 1885; Susanna died at Chillicothe on 1 January 1910.
The surname does not prove a Welsh county
A 1926 letter reprinted from the Welsh-American newspaper The Druid explained that Davis and Davies families were widespread across Wales and could not be assigned to a particular county or occupation from the surname alone. Any Welsh origin for this line still requires person-specific records.
Davis family timeline
From Ohio to the Dutton family.
- Susanna Davis is born
Israel’s older sister later marries Levi Sly and establishes a seven-child branch in Jackson County, Ohio.
- Twins Israel and Levi are born
Born near Salem, Ohio, to Daniel Davis Sr. and Sarah Albright Davis.
- Israel marries Rebecca
They establish their household on the Wild Cat Creek farm in Carroll County.
- Four children
Susan, Elizabeth Ann, Levi Emanuel, and Catherine are born.
- Twin branches move in different directions
Levi’s family moves to Pennsylvania and West Virginia; Israel’s family remains in Indiana until 1865.
- Israel’s family moves to Wisconsin
The family relocates to Richland County.
- Spring Valley, Minnesota
Israel’s family moves to Fillmore County.
- Smallpox takes Israel and Rebecca
They die five days apart and are buried near Spring Valley.
- Pearl Davis is born
Israel’s granddaughter later marries Walter Allen Dutton.
- The Daniel Davis Association is organized
Descendants gather at Joseph Plimpton Davis’s home near Bryan, Ohio, to form the family association.
- Everett LaVerne Dutton is born
The birth is recorded in the 1926 Davis family newsletter.
- Family histories are published
Successive newsletter issues preserve Israel’s family, his twin Levi’s branch, Susanna Davis Sly’s branch, and the association’s history.
Original sources
Read all three complete newsletters.
Each download preserves the entire issue, including association news and collateral family material not fully transcribed on this page.
Identified family-history source
The Ancestry of One Atwood Family
Charles A. Atwood’s 1965 book preserves a two-page Davis family summary. Its useful location and relationship clues are retained with attribution; its conflicts remain clearly separated from the accepted timeline.