Davis vs. Davis, 1890

I was recently browsing the Chancery cases on the Library of Virginia's website when I came across a case in Page County titled Jno. B. Davis & Others vs. Thos. J. Davis & others. Among the surnmames listed as parties to the case was the name Maiden, so this caught my eye. A quick search at the family tree on Ancestry.com found that Thomas J. and John Barton Davis were brothers of Anna (or Anne) Elizabeth Davis, wife of John Tyler Maiden and my great-great-great grandmother! So, this was obviously a case that involved our family and was worth looking into. Luckily the Library of Virginia had scanned in all of the pages associated with this case, and I was able to find out all of the details of the case and a lot of new things about that branch of our family tree.


First, some background on Barbara Ann Smith Davis and her family, which this case involved:

• Parents: James Smith (1783-1828) and Elizabeth Miller (1780-1850)
• Born August 23, 1814 in Rockingham County (part of which became Page County in 1838)
• Married James S. Davis, 1834 in Rockingham County (again probably in the area that became Page County)
• Their children were:
• Sarah Clementine (1837 - 1887), married George Rothgeb
• John Barton (1838 - 1905)
• William Henry (1841 - 1888)
• James Francis Marion (1843 - 1916)
• Anna Elizabeth (1847 - 1890), married John Tyler Maiden
• Mary Catherine Davis (1849 - 1933), married George Samuels
• Thomas J. (1852 - 1932)

The documents in this case contain a wealth of information. They lay out the names of all of the children as well as the names of all of the grandchildren in the cases where one of Barbara's children had preceded her in death.

The first pages outline the reason for the case. The complainants, John Barton, James F. M., Mary C. and her husband George Samuels, begin by stating that Barbara Ann Davis did indeed die intestate (no date is given, however) and then all of her heirs are listed, children as well as grandchildren in the three cases where the child preceded the mother. They then write that

"the real estate of said Barbara Ann Davis consists of two.. ..tacts containing, in the aggregate about 21 acres and that [same?] is not susceptible to division or partition among so many heirs" and that the land "should be sold and the proceeds of sale, after the payment of the costs of this suit and expenses of sale, shall be divided among the heirs according to their respective weights together with any personal estate left after the payment of all just debts against said estate."
 

They also state that they have included the deeds for the properties and that they acknowledge that they cannot sell the estate without permission from the court or the other heirs.

It seems that the estate sale did go forward as planned, but not until April of the following year, 1891. Included in the case files are the two advertisements below that appear to have been printed in or by the Town of Shenandoah's Herald of Progress newspaper.

There were two tracts of land, one of five acres and another of 16 acres with a "good dwelling house". Other documents tell us that the first parcel fetched a mere $52.50 at auction. It was sold to Geo B. Rothgeb (son of Mary Catherine Davis Rothgeb?), H.F. Davis (Hiram Franklin - photo at left) and W. J. Davis, both sons of John Barton Davis, so it did stay in the family. The larger fetched $701 from a name I can't quite make out.

The deeds are also included for these two parcels of land. The 16 acre parcel was purchased by James and Ann Davis for $700 on December 30, 1872. It is described in the deed as "lying on the north side of Naked Creek in the said county of Page adjoining the lands of Geo W. Price and others". The boundary descriptions generally use trees and rocks, but the first one is particularly useful: "beginning at the highest point of a limestone rock, marked 'A' near the middle of Naked Creek nearly opposite the mouth of Stony Run and just above the 'Cold Spring'". An old "patent line" is also described, but I'm not sure what this means.

The smaller, 5 acre parcel, was deeded to Barbara Ann Davis on June 5, 1885, after her husband James had died. It was purchased for $140 from Geo. W. and Bettie Price (not sure if they are related to our Prices). This land "adjoined the lands of the Shenandoah Iron Works Company, Joseph M. Price, and others." The only landmark mentioned in the boundary description was "Black Rocks [could also be Works?] Road". The land sale flyer above describes the land as being in the eastern part of the city of Shenandoah. I was unable to find a Black Rocks or Black Works Road.

So, where exactly was the land with the dwelling house? Presumably this is where Barbara and James lived, at least after 1872. Luckily, we already have some clues. This section of an 1885 Page County atlas clearly shows Ann Davis (and Wm. Davis, her son) as living east of Verbena, right on Naked Creek near the mouth of Stony Run, just like the deed describes! Click the image to make it larger.

Below is the area where we think that Barbara Davis lived as seen on Google Maps today. Stony Run is the creek running east and nearly parallel to Fleeburg Road. Naked Creek runs from east to west.




View Larger Map

One final note. I noticed on Google Maps that there was a house exactly where the marker denoting Ann Davis was located on the 1885 map. I did some research on Page County's GIS, and the house in quesetion was built in 1853! That is plenty old enough to be the residence of the Davis family in their later years. Here is a photo of the house from the GIS site.

 

 

One final bit of useful information comes from this case. Up until finding this, we did not know when Barbara Ann Davis died. The date of the case gives us a rough estimate, but we can get a better idea from looking at the disbursements list from the case itself. This list shows all of the costs associated with disposing of the estate. Included in the list is the cost of purchasing a coffin ($20 paid to Warren and Woodward), but also the date of the purchase (April 22). Presumably, the coffin would be purchased immediately after the death, so we can probably narrow her date of death down to a couple of days in April of 1890.

 

There is too much information to include in one post, so please view the pages yourself at the Library of Virginia's website!

Ledger showing the disbursements from the estate of Barbara Ann Davis