Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 5th ed., 
1887, Jessamine Co.

THOMAS A. DAVIS was born in Madison County, Kentucky, November 9, 1831.
He comes from an old Welsh family, which, in the person of his great-
grandfather, Thomas Davis, immigrated early to the country and settled
in Virginia, where the old pioneer became the father of a family of 
twenty-one children by three marriages.  Among these children was Henry 
B. Davis, grandfather of our subject, who was born in 1764 of the second
marriage.  At a very early period he emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky
when only one log cabin occupied the present site of the prosperous city
of Lexington, and took up 100 acres of land on the Kentucky River, in 
Madison County. He married Nancy Fullilove and reared ten children to 
manhood and womanhood.  William Davis, son of Henry B. Davis, passed the
early portion of his life on the old place and then began farming in 
Madison County.  Subsequently he married Martha, daughter of Thomas 
Ricketts, and early settler from Maryland who located in Jessamine 
County and took up his residence on the old Ricketts homestead, where 
he passed an honorable and useful life as a farmer.  He was a consistent
member of the Baptist Church and a man of integrity and uprightness of 
character.  He died in 1875, aged seventy-five years; his widow is still
living at the age of eighty-two years, being a member of a family 
remarkable for longevity, her mother living to be ninety-two years of 
age and her brother, John Ricketts, being now eighty years of age.  To 
this worthy couple were born seven children, as follows: Maranda A. 
Davis, who married S. S. Magee, of Woodford County; Thomas A.;
Elizabeth M.; William M., who served in the Confederate army under Gen.
Morgan, was taken prisoner during the raid of that officer into Ohio,
and died in confinement there; Robert W., who resides in Fayette County;
and John P. and Luther A. Davis, each of whom if farming in Jessamine 
County.  Thomas A. Davis, the second of these children, came from 
Madison County with his father, at the age of five years, and grew up 
in Jessamine County, where he enjoyed the benefits of a common school 
education.  He was early inured to a life of toil on his father's farm,
and when he attained his majority worked by the year for other farmers 
for a short time.  At the age of twenty-three he rented a farm in 
Jessamine County, and for sixteen years paid toll to another for the 
use of his land, saving enough by economy and hard work to purchase at 
that time the Wallace McCampbell farm in Marble Creek precinct of 242 
acres, which he owns and occupies at the present writing.  This was 
formerly the old home of William T. Barry, the distinguished lawyer to 
whom a monument now stands, erected in the court yard at Lexington, and 
in the rear of Mr. Davis' dwelling house is still standing the 
antiquated wooden structure which Mr. Barry used for his law office.  
This was used in the days when the lawyers had to live near the people, 
and before the modern conveniences of transportation had made it easy 
for the client to seek his counsel at the county seat.  Mr. Davis has 
always confined himself to the legitimate pursuits of agriculture, and 
not engaged in the fancy farming so much in vogue in central Kentucky. 
He is a thoroughly self-made man and has worked his way to the front 
rank of the farmers of Jessamine County, not by the process of heredity,
but by close personal effort, industry and good business management.  
He is noted for his progressiveness, intelligence and moral worth, and 
although he has always been a consistent member of the Democratic party 
has never been a seeker after office.  He was, however, by the voice of 
his constituents of Jessamine County, elected in 1885 to represent them 
in the Lower House of the State Legislature, where he performed his 
duties in a faithful and intelligent manner.  He is a member of the 
East Hickman Baptist CHurch and has been deacon of that body for twenty 
years.  He married, May 19, 1853, Susan A., daughter of John and Dica 
Harris, and has had eight children, all of whom are living: Luther H., 
Emma J., Alice M., Bettie S., Thomas R., Cora L., Robert R. and Sudie 
M. Davis.

Davis Fullilove Ricketts Magee Harris Barry
=
Madison-KY Woodford-KY Fayette-KY MD VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jessamine/davis.ta.txt