Warren County Bible Records
Davis-Massenburg Bible

[page 4]
William married Miss Laura Eaton
Ed married Miss Maria Davis
Nic died single, Mary not married.
8th Mary Kearney Davis born 1802 married Mr. Jno. Williams. They had 4 children, Lizzie who married Dr. Peter Hawkins. Tom who married Miss Virginia Boyd. John died. Lucy married Col. Wm H. Polk a brother of President Jas. K. Polk.
9th Temperance W. Davis born 1804, died Aug 1854. She married Mr. Wm. Thorne. They had 10 children. Martha married Mr. Tom Nicholson. He died & left her with 3 sons & 3 daughters. The 2nd daughter married Mr. David Clark who is the father of Judge Walter Clark. then there is Edward, William, Sam & John, Lucy who also married a Nicholson – Marbelle married Plummer Alston. Dora married Al Alston. Tempie married Sam Clark & afterwards Jno. Buxton Williams.
10th Dr Thos. Davis born 1806 died in 1862. He was first married to Miss Mary Slade by whom there were 4 daughters, Bettie, Lucy, Tempie, and Laura & 3 sons, Dolphin, Tom, & Gus. He next married Miss Pattie Bachelor by whom he had 1 daughter & 3 sons, Mollie, Frank, John & Nic.
11th child of Archibald & Elizabeth Davis who was one of the best men that ever lived is John Calvin Davis – born 1808, died 1889. He married Miss Lucy Plummer Alston. They lived happily & raised 7 children viz. Baldy who married a Miss Charlotte Harris, Mary, married Bob Speed, Pattie married Rob’t Alston, Hodges married Geo. Jones & went to Texas where she died. Plummer married his cousin Mary Alston, Lula died after her papa & Alfred has never married.
12th Lucy Henry born Oct 11th 1811 married to Nicholas B. Massenburg Dec 8th 1831. They had 13 children – raised 9 to become grown.

Lucy Henry was the 12th child of Archibald & Elizabeth Davis was the youngest child. Her mother died when she was quite young – she had no recollection of her. Her father lived 4 yrs. after his wife’s death. He requested his oldest daughter Mrs. Nicholas Alston who was a widow to live there [page 5] & take charge of the children. 3 of his daughters were nearly grown. Dr. Tom, John, & Lucy were left at home. There were no Sunday Schools in those days & but little preaching. We lived far back in the country & perhaps several times during the year an Ironside Baptist might preach in the neighborhood, so had but few religious advantages but their sister was one of the best & most refined ladies that ever lived. I, Lucy, went to an old field school for a few months only, then so as --- to Mrs. Kearney’s to board & go to school to Mrs. Lucas. Mr. Wiley was the Male teacher. Lucy was very fond of Mrs. Kearney & said she was a good (torn) much like her own children Mrs. Kearney treated her. She went from Mrs. Kearneys to Warrenton to attend the school of Mr. & Mrs. Plunkett, (Mrs. P_ was a daughter of Mr. Mordecai[)] where she was kept at school for 4 yrs. She was there sent to Hillsboro to finish off her schooling. There she boarded in Lawyer Scott’s family. There were good pious Presbyterians & she was so much struck with their strict piety she thought when she joined a church she would be a Presbyterian. An Episcopal minister afterwards Bishop Green was Principal of the school. He was a pious christian gentleman an much beloved by the school. She returned from school & the good impressions lay dormant for she went out in gay company to Balls, Parties, Weddings, & c, learned to play cards & enter into all the amusements of the day, dancing, & c. Still good impressions followed & she would think at times she would stop.
She attended a Camp Meeting at Pearce’s Camp Ground in Halifax Co. in 1830. There was a great revival & a number of good ministers at work. Among them Dr. R. O. Burton Doggett, Stephen Jones & others. She & a number [page 6] of her companions professed religion (illegible) back to her home in Warren Co. & joined the church at Old Shady Grove – Rev. Stephen Jones baptized her (& also married her). She then in her 19th year made a vow to renounce the world & its vainties, took off her curals & her jewelry; quit playing cards & dancing. Has never played a game since & would never sit in a room & look on when such things were carried on. She was anxious to shun every appearance of evil. In her 20th year, she married Mr. Nicholas B. Massenburg on the 8th Dec 1831. He brought her to their home “Woodleaf” near Louisburg soon after & she has spent every Xmas since that time under the protecting roof of the dear homestead – where she spent 36 years of wedded bliss with the husband of her choice whom she adored & by whom she had 13 children. 4 died in infancy. Archibald, her oldest graduated at Randolph Macon College, Va. in his 20th year. He then went to merchandising in co-partnership with Mr. B. T. Ballard in Louisburg where he (unreadable) until the War broke out. He was commissary in Cook’s brigade, 15th Reg’t, N. C. Troops when the commissaries were abolished. He went into the ranks but was offered a Lieutenant’s place which he accepted. He was wounded in the battle of Bristow Station, Va. Came home where he was tenderly married & died in 10 mos.

Wiley Perry her 2nd son went to Texas soon after he became of age – where he farmed until the War. He was one of Terry’s Texas Rangers. He contracted severe rheumatism from exposure & had to come home – employed a substitute. He was married in Feb 1872 to Miss Panthea Boyd, a lovely woman, by whom he had 5 children, 3 died, 2 Boyd & Speed are now at school in Warrenton. Her third son Wm Edward also went to Texas & he (unintelligible) merchandising in Boston Bonnie Co. He married Miss Sallie Moss but when the war broke out he left his family & remained until the close of War. Escaped unhurt from leaden balls but contracted rheumatism which caused him to be a great sufferer [page 7] who he has prospered in business & is now an influential citizen in the city of Paris, Lamar Co. Texas. They had 14 children, Mary, Nicholas, Lucy, Eugenia, Robert, Walter, Willie, Hugh, Bev, Sallie, Augustus, Florence, & Bettie. [only 13 listed] Their first born died aged 3 das. Married Nicholas [sic]

Mary married in 18__ Mr. Lee M. Preston, a most excellent christian gentleman. They are living in Bonham, Texas. Lucy, a beautiful young lady much beloved, died in 1891 with dysentery. Nicholas is in California. The others are still with father & mother at their home in Paris, Texas.
 

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