Luther Davis in Acton's Davis Blues

Experience has taught us that lists of military veterans are not always complete or correct.  Previous blog posts have highlighted several such cases in Acton.  See, for example, the stories of John Swift, Jonathan Hosmer (Deacon, his son and his grandson), James Emery, Isaac Ramsdell, and William Rodway.  We know to check sources carefully.  One would think that we would be used to confusion by now, but we recently came across a case that was quite a surprise.

James Fletcher’s Acton in History described the War of 1812 service of the Davis Blues, Acton’s militia company led by Captain Silas Jones.  The company was called up for the defense of Boston in September-October 1814.  The most exciting part of their service seems to have been their march through Boston to the cheers of onlookers.  The Davis Blues served in South Boston until the threat of invasion passed, and they returned home without seeing action.  Fletcher included in his history all the men on the company payroll (written in his father John Fletcher’s handwriting, as he was the clerk of the company at the time).  Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in the War of 1812, published as the official record of those who served, listed S. Jones’ company who served at Boston, probably using the same source (p. 100).   Though the list does not include Acton residents who enlisted in the army earlier in the War of 1812, it seemed to be a complete listing of those who went with the town militia to the defense of Boston in the fall of 1814.

Among the men listed as members of Silas Jones’ Davis Blues were Jonathan B. Davis, Ebenezer Davis, and Luther Davis.  The Davis Blues were named after Captain Isaac Davis, killed at the Concord battle on April 19, 1775.  Jonathan B. Davis was his nephew.   Ebenezer Davis and Luther Davis came from a different family that descended from Gershom Davis who bought about 664 acres of the north part of Acton and some other pieces of land from Thomas Wheeler in 1738.  Members of the Gershom Davis family for many years spelled their surname “Davies” to distinguish their family from others.  Over time, the Davies spelling mostly fell away.  By the 1800s, distinguishing among the Acton Davis families became increasingly complicated, and as time went on, there were marriages between their descendants.

Ebenezer Davis, Sr.’s life was described in an earlier blog post.  His second cousin Luther Davis (“Davies”) was born in Acton on Sept. 23, 1793 to David Davies and Mary/Polly Hildreth.  Luther had moved to Waltham, MA by the time he married Elizabeth Wiswall Trowbridge in Newton, MA on Jan. 19, 1823.  Their daughter Mary E. was born in Waltham in November 1823.  Their son David G. was born in Newmarket, NH about 1827.  The family then moved to Lowell where eighteen-month-old son Stephen T. died in Oct. 1830 and daughter Sarah T. was born about 1834.  The 1840 Lowell directory shows Luther living at Law St., near “Massaic Falls” (which, though spelled differently, seem to be on the Concord River).  His widowed mother Mary was living with him.  The 1840 census confirms that Luther was living in Lowell with three children (two girls and a boy), a female in her 30s and a female in her 70s. 

Luther Davis died of TB in Lowell on Nov. 16, 1842.  Probate documents list him as a laborer, but Lowell’s vital records list him as a speculator.  His personal estate, primarily home furnishings and a saw, amounted to $63.37.  Elizabeth never remarried.  Lowell directories show Mrs. Eliza W. Davis (with no occupation listed) in a house at North St. in 1844.  In 1845, D. G. Davis, a clerk, is listed as boarding at Mrs. E. W. Davis’.  In 1849, a Mrs. Elizabeth Davis was working as a nurse, living in a house on South St.  Continuing to work as a nurse, Mrs. Elizabeth was boarding at William Hale’s in 1851.  In 1853 she was living with her daughter Sarah who had married John York the previous year.

Our information about Luther and Elizabeth (Trowbridge) Davis would probably have run out at that point if we had not consulted pension records for the War of 1812.  There we came upon an index card for Luther Davis who served as a private in Capt. S. Jones’ Co., Massachusetts Militia from Sept 18, 1814-Oct. 29, 1814.  The card stated that he had died Nov. 15 or 16, 1842 in Lowell, MA.  He had married Elizabeth W. Trowbridge on Jan. 19, 1823 in Newton and left her a widow.  All of those facts match our research except for a notation on the pension index card that “Soldier served as substitute for Ebenezer Davis.”  (The practice of hiring substitutes had been used to fill quotas during the Revolutionary War and persisted into the Civil War.)  This was a surprise to us, because the official published list of War of 1812 veterans and the town history made no mention of it.  Taking this at face value, we conjectured that because Luther Davis was a relative of Ebenezer, he agreed to substitute for him, for reasons that we can only speculate about.  As so often happens with historical research, however, digging deeper into records upended our theories.

Complications Arise

Luther Davis’s widow Elizabeth W. applied for bounty land that she was entitled to under the Act of March 3, 1855.  She must have been shocked to receive a letter from the Pension Office dated at the end of 1856 that Luther Davis, veteran of Silas Jones’ 1814 Mass Militia company, had already been issued a warrant for 160 acres of land; her claim was inadmissible.  (Claim 115653)  By that time, Elizabeth had moved west with her daughter and son-in-law, first to Grant Co., Wisconsin and then to Manomin, Minnesota.  Elizabeth had to write for help to Acton where, fortunately, some members of the Davis Blues were still alive.  Those members sent affidavits on her behalf stating that another Luther Davis also served during the company’s 1814 service in Boston.  At the time, everyone in the company knew who he was and that he was a substitute, and throughout his service, he apparently had answered to Ebenezer’s name.  More than forty years later, Congress passed an act that made veterans of the war who had served at least 14 days (or in a battle) eligible for bounty lands.  The substitute named Luther Davis therefore applied for and received a warrant under his own name, not realizing that this would keep the member Luther Davis’s widow from obtaining the land warrant to which she was entitled.

Captain Silas Jones, clerk of the company John Fletcher, and the substitute Luther Davis all provided sworn statements explaining the situation.  (Ebenezer Davis, Sr. had died by that point.)  The company member Luther’s widow Elizabeth, daughter Sarah and son-in-law John York submitted documents confirming the details of Luther and Elizabeth’s married life and Elizabeth’s movements after being widowed.  The statements being consistent, Elizabeth eventually received the 160 acres to which she was entitled.  Official recognition of her claim was dated later, but Elizabeth and the Yorks apparently settled on land in Brooklyn Township in May 1856 (in today’s Brooklyn Park).  John York farmed on the sandy soil not far from the Mississippi River.  Elizabeth’s daughter Sarah died before 1875, and Elizabeth kept house for John.  John apparently gave up farming and worked as a teamster.  They were in Minneapolis in 1875.  In 1878, Elizabeth moved to Larned, Kansas.  From there, she applied for a widow’s pension to which she became entitled under the Act of 1878.  She lived with son David who was farming in Browns Grove (Burdett), Pawnee County, Kansas according to the 1880 census.  Elizabeth received a pension until her death in 1882.

Digitized Confusion Causes More Confusion

The actual pension file of the Davis Blues member Luther Davis did eventually clarify that a different Luther Davis, unrelated to the member Luther Davis and his second cousin Ebenezer, served in the Davis Blues as a substitute.  However, confusion is bound to continue.  As mentioned, published lists of the veterans of the War of 1812 and Captain Silas Jones’ company credit the service to Ebenezer Davis and do not mention a substitute.  The Luther Davis pension index card at the National Archives, digitized online, incorrectly indicates that the actual member of Silas Jones’ company was the substitute.  In fact, we did not find a military record that positively identified which Luther Davis was the substitute.  However, he was not hard to find.  When Elizabeth (Trowbridge) Davis needed help with her case in 1857-1858, she wrote to Acton and received affidavits from the substitute Luther Davis and others.  The only adult Luther Davis living in Acton, according to the 1855 state census and the 1860 federal census, was widower Luther Davis who lived across today’s Great Road from the land around Davis Road that had been farmed by generations of Ebenezer Davis’s extended family. 

Substitute Luther Davis was a brother of company member Jonathan B. Davis and a nephew of Captain Isaac Davis.   Making research even more confusing, he also married an Elizabeth (surname Horne).  They had two children, Luther and Alice.  At some point in the mid-19th century, they built a home at today’s 292 Great Road.  A farmer, Luther died in Acton in 1868 at the age of 81.  There is no evidence that he used the land he had applied for; presumably he sold off his right to it.

In honor of Veterans Day, we acknowledge the service of two Acton men who shared both a name and service with the Davis Blues in Boston in the autumn of 1814.

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Luther Davis house at 292 Great Road. Standing in front of the house is probably daughter Alice.