Maj. George Smith Davis

Source: Memoirs of Georgia Containing Historical Accounts of the State's Civil, Military, Industrial and Professional Interests, and Personal Sketches of Many of Its People. Vol. 2. Atlanta, Ga.: Southern Historical Association, 1895. p. 870

MAJ. GEORGE SMITH DAVIS, agent for Standard Oil company, McRae, Telfair Co., Ga., was born in Somerton, Belmont Co., Ohio, Dec. 10, 1837. On his father's side he is of Welsh and on his mother's side he is of German descent, the Ball family being of the same lineage as that of Mary Washington. Although indebted to the common or public schools of Ohio for a good education in the rudiments, Maj. Davis' general literary and business proficiency is the result of subsequent study, observation and experience. In early manhood he taught common school and music about four years, and then engaged as clerk in a dry goods store at Malta, Ohio, one year. When hostilities began in 1861 and President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops, he was the first man in his county to volunteer. He served three months with the Seventeenth Ohio regiment, and then went home and raised a company for three years' service—Company D, Ninety-seventh Ohio regiment—of which he was elected captain, and with which he remained during the war. Early in 1864 he was commissioned major. He was in the army of the Cumberland and participated in all the battles fought by it. When Chattanooga was taken he was the first Federal to enter the town, and was made provost marshal. At the battle of Franklin, Tenn., he received four wounds, one of which took effect in the center of his forehead, causing the entire loss of the left and partial loss of the right eye. Sixteen days later, while still bandaged, he went into battle at Nashville, where he was wounded in the back of the head. On the termination of the war he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for personal gallantry. In 1870 he embarked in mercantile business at Athens, Ohio, but abandoned it to accept a position with the Standard Oil company, which he retained three years. He was a member of the firm of Chess, Carley company, southern branch of the Standard Oil company. After conducting that business two years, he organized a company to construct a railway from Mobile, Ala., to Helena, Ark., which, after building fifty miles, failed. Reengaging with the Standard Oil company, he has continued with them until the present time. He is a turpentine buyer for the state of Georgia. Maj. Davis came to Georgia in 1877, and in 1888 married Miss Beachum, of Appling county. The major is a master Mason and a member of the Baptist church.