Americana & the U.S.

In 1963, I rode my bike out to Auglaize Acres nursing home to interview living history. An elderly man named Skip Davis said to me, “Jim, want to see an original 1860s photo of a Revolutionary War soldier?” I was of course expecting to see a Civil War photo, but when he laid it down I was looking at an 1860s photo, but it was an elderly man in a naval jacket. He turned it over and I read: Justice Davis, Born Falls River, Massachusetts, Bristol County Age 98.

Skip’s voice cut thru my confusion. “This photo was passed to my dad from Albert Davis, who’d inherited it from his father David Davis. Justice Davis in this photo is in powder monkey naval jacket, worn as a teenager when served on ship Hazard in 1779–80 Revolutionary War.” Two years later Skip gave me the photo, neither of us realizing how rare it was!

In the late 1960s into early 1970s my research on the further identity of Justice Davis through various Massachusetts historical institutions turned up nothing beyond that revealed by Davis family oral tradition. The Davis family having not passed down the name of Revolutionary War ancestor beyond first name designation Justice, is what complicated research into his identity. Then in 1976, a fellow historian mailed me an article in Popular Photography Magazine, “Men of the Revolution, American Soldiers of 1776.” I wrote its author Harvey Fendiller, who’d excitedly informed me over the phone I perhaps had one of the rarest Revolutionary War veteran photos, since Davis was only identified veteran who’d been photographed in his uniform!

As you see on bottom/right of this frame, I sent a note to M. Taylor, author of two wonderful books on photographs of veterans of the Revolutionary War. As of yet I have received no further information on Justice Davis from the author.

Of all the historical items in my archives, this face of Davis is most uniquely inspiring!