A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Euphemia Davis
From the Parks manuscript:
The third child of Walter and Martha Davis was Euphemia, who married Charles Donly. Of her early life I have not much information, except that she was a cheerful, amiable, and merry girl. She married when my mother was quite a child and of course she could tell but little of the girl-hood of her sister Euphy. I think, however, that she was one of the few of the family that had taste and talent for song. At an early period in the settlement of Kentucky, Uncle Donly and Uncle James Davis and perhaps Uncle Reeves removed from Virginia to Lincoln County, Kentucky. Uncle Donly settled in that county on the Hanging fork of Dick River, about four miles from the town of Stanford. There he died some years afterwards, leaving his wife and seven children, four daughters and three sons, and these she brought up to be men and women. Lincoln County was inhabited by those who had spent their early life in the wilderness, for the most part, consequently educational advantages were slender and manners rude. Of course their circumstances had their influence on the Donlys, yet by the prudence and energy of their mother, they grew up to be respectable men and women, with such education as the common schools of that rude country could give. Her sons she put out with respectable men to learn trades. James and Charles were carpenters, William a tanner. The third daughter, Sallie, died when young....
Some four or five years after my cousin’s marriage [referring to Polly Donley’s marriage to Benjamin Givens], my father moved to Kentucky, and spent the first winter in Lincoln County. I then became acquainted with my Aunt Euphemia. I found her a most genial and affectionate old lady near sixty years old, and from that time till near the close of her life, I was often with her, sometimes for months in the same house. She was a most amiable woman, cheerful and happy, fond of reading, and her temper uniformly good. I don’t think that in my acquaintance with her I ever saw the least manifestation of fretfulness or anger. In the year of 1819, Mr. Givens moved to Missouri. Aunt started with them they stopped for a few days at my father’s, who lived in Christian County, Kentucky. She being not well and very much fatigued concluded to remain with my mother until Mr. Givens would be settled. She remained there that winter, in which her son, William Donly, residing in Russellville, was married. He took her to live with him; she continued to remain until her death. She died in Russellville, I think about 1821, at the age of sixty-six.
The Cormode info lists her as Euphemia Davis? WFT 5 # 1914 spells her name Euphema.
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
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