The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-06

q planter and resided ct Canton, Miss
 He married Miss Susan sGuerly, and lei
 one son, General Joseph R. Davis, O } the Confederate army; and two grand 7 daughters. E
 The fifth brother ana youngest chil
 was Jefferson Davis. the President
 Anna Davis. the eldest daughter
 married Luther Smith of west FeIi
 ciana. and had a family of sex, two O
 whom were daughters; Joseph, Luther
 Gordon. Jedediah, Lucy and Amanda
 Amanda, her next sister, married Mir
 Bradford. of Madison Parish. Louis
 lana Her living children are .Jeff Da
 wis Bradford. an engineer now sta
 toned at Fort Moultrie in Chirlestor
 Harbor; Elizabeth Bradford White
 widowed and residing at New Orleans
 in winter and Kentucky in summer
 and Mrs. Lucy Bradford Mitchell, wid
 ow of pr. c. R. Mitchell. of Vicksburg l Mss.
 Lucinda Davis. the next sister mar,
 ried Mir. William stamps. of Woodvllle
 Miss. Her children all died and hei
 grandchildren are Mrs. Edward Far.
 rar and Mrs. Mary Bateson. of New
 York. and Mrs. William Anderson
 Hugh. Richard and Isaac Alexander
 and one great-grandchild Miss Josie | Alexander.
 Matilda. the fourth sister, died in chfldhood and the youngest and next in age to the later president, was his Iboyhoods companion and delight. Lit tie Polly" She was Mary Ellen Davis; who married-without changing her name-Robert Davis, of South Carolina; i; and left one daughter still living: Mrs Mary Ellen Davis Anderson, of Ocean Springs, Miss,
 It is another coincidence in the paral- lels of the lives of the two great lea ders in the civil war. that the Chris tain county birthplace Of Jefferson Da- wis was in the adjoining one to Hardin | county, In which Abraham Lincoln saw
 the light; few miles only separating the spots and only eight months the arrival of those famous stars in the great dramas of politics and war. ! Strange is 1t, too. that the two young men saw their first glimpses of war in the Black Hawk war; Davis as a lieutenant in the United States army and Lincoln as the captain of a com pany of volunteers he had raised and proffered: but which was never in ac- tual conflict. u
 It might be an odd study for the psycologist to study whe ether some in- | nate characteristics of both men, act ing upon circumstance-or acted upon | by it--may not have led to similar aspirations; and whether they were not shadowed out in the strange, yet url- mlstakable, likeness in their faces. Looking at their portraits in manhood's prime, 1t needs no Lavater to read that similar early surroundings education
 and pursuits might have softehed the .coarser lines of the one, or hardened the more delicate tone of the other into absolute similarity. And it is not least curious that the same causes drove the parents of one to the North and of the other to the South from ut tlr1f flnVs int
 In fSl1, when his youngest born was but three years old, Samuel Davis de- cided that Kentucky was not yielding him the returns hoped for when he left Georgia. He proposed to locate in Louisiana; but, finding the climate un- healthful for a young family, he de- cided upon Mississippi and bought. there his final family home. This was named Poplar Grove"-from its splendid growth of those stately trees--was picturesque and extensive site about a. mile and half. from Woodville, in Wilkinson County, Miss. There most of the younger family were reared, the daughters were married and some of their children reared by their vener- able grandmother, Mrs. Jane Cook Da- wis. Of these, was Ellen Mary, who never changed her name; and her ear ly orphaned child and namesake, Mrs. Anderson, today recalls the delight of her lie at the ''Poplars. |" @ >
 It was with this sister Polly" that the 6-year-old Jefferson first went to school, at a log house half mile away. two years later, when not years old Gin 1S15) he was sent on a ride through virgin forests of nearly 900 miles, to attend the St. Thomas Academy at Washington County. Kentucky. In three years more he was at Jefferson College. Adams County. Miss; and in hxgA aNl to Pennsylvania College. Lexington, Ky. He was an earnest and intelli- gent pupil; but gave little promise of the brilltance, aoumen, and erudition that illustrated his. later career.
 After , their fathers death, his brother, Joseph Davis, became the real head of the family; and it was he who gave special attention to the rearing of the youngest, and who directed his education. And by that time,. Joseph Emory Davis had become a power in the law and politics of his section. So, in 1924, he obtained through Congress- man Rankin, a West Point cadetship for his I6-year-old brother.
 At the academy, the youth was es- teemed as a careful, studious and dig ntfled cadet. rather. than an ambitious and flashing one;. yet he missedAno branch of useful requirement and came out fine rider, swordsman and tactlctan, as well as courteous and dignined officer. He graduated twen- ty-ive in class of thirty-th going into the brevet lieutenancy in the 21st infantry, then under Colonel Zachary Taylor; afterwards General and Presi- dent.
 This was in 1928. and before his ma jorfty. At the Point his intimates were Joseph B. Johnston, Robert B Lee. Professor Alex Dallas Bache, AL bert Sydney Johnston and others. with whom he held lifelong friendships, or-in rare cases-undying enmities.
 Lieutenant Davis served with credit at Fort Crawford, in which is now Illi- lena, and at Fort Winnebago, in Wis against the Indians in the closing of the Black Hawk war, in 1831-S3.s
 Then, when service needs created more cavalry. the 1st dragons was or- ganized and its Adjutant was Jefferson Davis, now promoted to first lieutenant, in 1884. But he held the post only a few ponths;, resigning in June of the next year.
 For some reason, never explained, "Old Zach" Taylor had taken q strong dislike to his subaltern; but the lat ter was deeply and seriously in love with the fair young daughter of his chief, Miss Knox Taylor. To the sur prise of everyone-and none more than her sire-Miss Taylor married the young soldier almost immediately on his resignation. Her father never for gave her; and he never saw her again. She went as a bride to the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Anna Davis, at