Difference between revisions of "William Davis"

Latest revision as of 18:00, 29 December 2017

William Davis is potentially the father of James Davis. Mary Palmquist, a member of ancestry.com, writes the following via email on April 27, 2015:

My husband corresponded with Charles C. Davis Jr. in 1985. Charles was the son of Charles C. Davis who was the 
son of Henry Clay Davis. Charles wrote the following in his letter to my husband "My notes indicate that William 
Davis was the father of James Davis who was born in 1805 and married Euphemia Wilson. William Davis (Welch) was a 
friend of Thomas Jefferson who Jefferson persuaded him (Davis) to move a foundry firm from Philadelphia to 
Washington, D.C. This foundry firm (owned by William Davis) built the first iron railing around the White House and 
other buildings. He later built the first bridge (iron) across the Potomac River. When almost finished a flash flood 
wiped out the bridge and William Davis (financially). He died shortly thereafter." I have been searching for a 
William Davis making a guess as to a possible birthdate but so far have been unsuccessful.

The bridge described in this letter may be the Chain Bridge, designed by Judge James E. Finley, built in 1808 (during Jefferson's presidency) and destroyed by flood in 1810 or 1812.

The 1885 Nebraska state census entry for James Davis gives his parents' birthplace as Pennsylvania.