37<-- BACK FORWARD -->along the trail to Oregon from Measles. I am inclined to believe that she did not die on the trail but that she died eight months after reaching the settlement in Oregon. In a cemetery located about a mile south of Monmouth Oregon are four graves with markers for David, Hannah, Rachel and Rebecca. The engraving found in the stone for Hannah reads: HANNAH WIFE OF D.D. - DIED JUNE 15, 1848. If her death happened along the trail, then this date was wrong. There is but one other remote possibility - David could have wanted to provide a fitting memorial for her in the settlement area and had a stone prepared and placed upon an 'empty grave on that date. This is very un-likely.
***************** * JANE DAVIS * *****************The next six years were very eventful for David and others of his family. On August 6, 1849, Jane, the seventeen year old daughter, married John F. Winters and left the Davis home to make her own with her husband. The couple had their first child born in 1850 and she was named Samantha Jane. In 1852 the second one was born and she was named Sarepta Ellen. Late in the following year, December 3, 1853, Jane (Davis) Winters died at a youthful age of twenty-one or twenty-two leaving her husband and two young daughters.
************************** * REBECCA AND RACHEL * **************************Rebecca, the third daughter of David and Hannah, died in 1851. She was just sixteen years old. Then in 1854, another young daughter, Rachel died and she was about ten years old. And so, with the death of his wife Hannah and the passing of three daughters within about six years, David had his share of sorrow.
*********************** * HANNAH ANN DAVIS * ***********************Hannah Ann, the second daughter of the Davis family, had taken over a big share of the household chores after her mother died and then even more after her sister Jane got married. On August 4, 1851, Hannah Ann married Caswell Hendricks and moved to Lane County. She was perhaps the most fortunate one of all her family. You will remember that it was Hannah Ann who was nearly killed by the Indians while the wagon train was encamped in the Fandango Valley but she survived. She lived on and enjoyed a good life and became the mother of ten children.
Here's more info on Hannah Ann (Davis) Hendricks: Hannah Ann (Davis) Hendricks **************************** * SARAH A. BOWMAN * * DAVID'S SECOND WIFE * ****************************
A woman's hand was needed around the Davis place after Hannah Ann left. There were only four of the children around by that time but they were young. Meshach was about fourteen while Tom was about twelve and Elizabeth was around nine while William was around four. A woman's attention was needed to take care of the house, the children needed someone to look after them and David needed some one to love and share his life. Such a woman was Mrs. Sarah A. Bowman, widow of William Bowman and a mother of six children. Sarah and David had a good deal in common. Both of these people had families with children of about the same age and both had been left alone after the departure of a spouse a few years earlier. They needed each other and so they married in 1852.
Sarah had been a traveler to Oregon with her late husband by way of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. It is possible that the Davises and Bowmans had been friends and neighbors for several years in the Soap Creek Settlement. The Bowman's older daughter, Talitha, married James O'Neal, good friend and associate of David Davis. Some of the other Bowman children must have moved
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