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Nehemiah Davis, a pioneer and farmer, was born in 1827, in Gallia County, Ohio, the eleventh of twelve children (four deceased) of Nehemiah, Sr., and Mary (Allison) Davis, the former of English stock, born in I778 in Maine, and the latter born in
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January, 1789, in Pittsburgh, Penn., of Irish lineage. The father lived in Marietta, Ohio, when a young man, and cleared, part of the site of Cincinnati. The mother also lived there from the age of three to ten in the old fort, and after the Indian war her father moved up the Muskingum River about fourteen miles, where she was reared. She married in April, 1805. After her marriage they settled on Sugar Creek about four miles north of Athens, and after the birth of their fifth child moved to Gallia County. In 1839 they came to the wilderness in Hamilton County, and settled near the Franklin line, where our subject's brother, Reuben, is now living. Here, in 1854, after he had seen his family of twelve children all married and in homes, he died. The mother, when forty years old, began medical practice, and during her long fifty years of practice never lost a patient of the more than 1,000 births she attended. She died in October, 1882, at the age of ninety-four. Our subject was educated in Hamilton and his native Counties, and when of age began farming on his farm, the gift of his father. When twenty-three he married and lived with his parents a year, and settled on a larger tract traded for with his father. In March, 1857, he sold this and moved to Centralia, Ill., but a year later returned, and after a year of renting moved to his present farm. His wife, Mary, daughter of William and Sarah (Dabney) Sturman, was born in July, 1830, in Hamilton County. Their children are William F. (deceased), Louisa, (wife of D. Johnson) and Lewis J. (deceased in infancy) twins, Henry G., Sarah M. (wife of F. E. Alexander), Charles L., Joseph N., Adolphus M., Nehemiah J. (deceased) and Alvin E. He owns 180 acres of land. Formerly a Democrat, he has been a Greenbacker since 1876. He voted for Lewis Cass, also for Peter Cooper. For twenty years he has been an Odd Fellow, and filled all the chairs in the subordinate lodges, which he represented in the
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grand lodge of the State. He is a member of the F. M. B. A., and his wife is a member of the Regular Baptist Church.