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Biography/History:
Alexander (Elic) Davis was born a slave in Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, in May of 1860. At a young age, he was sold to someone living near Mantee, Webster County, Mississippi, where an uncle, probably William Coleman, later raised him. Davis attended school until about the age of twenty, and he was living with his aunt, Kiziah Coleman Miller, by 1880. Alexander Davis married Della Watkins, a neighbor of his aunt, in 1882. The Davises had several children, including Lomie G. (b. 1895), Moses (Mose) Heander (1907-1975), and Jestanna (b. 1908).
By 1895, the Davis family was living near Maben, Oktibbeha County, where Alexander Davis operated a cotton farm and a sugar mill. He also conducted revivals as a Baptist minister. Della Watkins Davis worked as a laundress. The Davis family moved to Bolivar County, Mississippi, around 1902, settling on an eighty-acre farm six miles from Merigold that was probably owned by a member of either the Bowman or Mansfield family. Other relatives soon moved near the Davises, but around 1907, ten members of the Davis family, including Alexander Davis, moved to Weleetka, Oklahoma. There, Davis became a full-time minister. Sometime after 1913, he became involved in a black trading company established by Alfred (Chief) Sam, and Davis helped coordinate a gathering of several hundred blacks in Weleetka who wished to immigrate to Africa. In 1914, the group, including Alexander Davis’s family, relocated to Galveston, Texas, from which one ship, the Liberia, sailed to Africa with about sixty blacks. Alexander Davis remained in Galveston until his wife’s death in August of 1915. He left for the Gold Coast of Africa in 1920, landing in the vicinity of present-day Ghana, but except for a letter written in 1923, Davis was never heard from again.
Lomie G. Davis lived with her parents until they moved to Weleetka. She then eloped with Dearvie Brown, but after being mistreated by her husband, she left him to join his parents in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. Brown later moved to several other locations in Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City, where she became a nurse and married Arthur Swarns. She worked for Leecher and Emily Brown in the 1920s and moved with them to New York. At a later date, she left the Browns and returned to Oklahoma, marrying printer B. J. Wilson. Lomie Davis Wilson later left her husband and moved to Houston, Texas, marrying Sam Reed in 1931. She raised her nephew, Cecil Cade, in Houston until 1962. Lomie Davis Reed moved to Prairie View, Texas, around 1965, and her nephew, M. H. Davis, lived with her for a time.
Scope and Content:
This collection contains a family history, photographs, genealogical correspondence, genealogical records, and funeral and wedding programs relating to the Alexander Davis family and the allied Cade, Cain, Coleman, Dodd, Evans, Johnson, Reed, Rhodes, and Watkins families.
There is an indexed, paginated family history entitled "Alexander Davis and Della Watkins: The Story of One Black Couple from Mississippi, with Notes on Some of Their Descendants," which was edited by Cecil C. Cade and Mark A. Phillips. The families they researched include the Coleman, Davis, Reed, and Watkins lines. The family history includes photocopies of source material, an annotated map of several areas of Mississippi, genealogical charts, photocopies of research correspondence and photographs, and a narrative about numerous family members.
The original photographs are in black-and-white as well as in color, and many of them were also photocopied for the family history. Almost all of the photographs are identified, and they depict members of the Cade, Cain, Davis, Evans, Reed, Watkins, and allied families.
The genealogical correspondence was written to a number of family members and research institutions in order to compile the family history. Cecil C. Cade and Mark A. Phillips wrote most of the letters and conducted most of the research. Among the correspondence are several photocopies of a few miscellaneous certificates and other records.
The genealogical records include birth and death certificates and marriage licenses for several members of the Cade, Coleman, and Davis families. There is also an audiocassette of excerpts from a May 24, 1987, interview of Lomie Davis Reed by Cecil C. Cade and Mark A. Phillips. The same excerpts from the interview are transcribed in the family history beginning on page A-1.
There are a number of funeral programs for members of the Cade, Davis, Dodd, Johnson, Mitchell, and Rhodes families, and there is one wedding program for the marriage of Clarissa Jones and Henry Davis.
Series Identification: