Post by IRONCLAD on Mar 10, 2004 21:18:34 GMT -5
JEFFERSON FINIS DAVIS
The Early years
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amuel Davis’s 47-year-old wife, Jane, gave birth to their 10th. child in 23 years on June 3, 1808, in the log home on their 600-acre frontier farm in Christian County, Kentucky. They named their new son Jeffer-son Finis Davis, his middle name an indication of their hope that they had had their last child. When Jefferson was two, Samuel moved the family to southwestern Mississippi, where he carved out a farm of several hundred acres near the town of Woodville. There he started growing cotton, the new boom crop of the Deep South. Jane planted so many rose hedges that the plant-ation eventually came to be called “Rosemont.”
At age nine, Jefferson was sent to a Catholic board-ing school in Springfield, Kentucky where he stayed for two years. He then returned to Rosemont and attended a succession of local schools until he entered Transyl-vania University in Kentucky in 1823. By this time, Jefferson’s brother Joseph, 23 years his senior, had become a prosperous lawyer and planter. Joseph secured for his brother an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy; Jefferson embraced the opportunity and in September 1825 entered West Point, where he had a rather lackluster career, standing 23rd. out of a graduating class of 32. Following graduation, Davis spent seven years on garrison duty on the American frontier.
Col. Zachary Taylor, commander of Fort Crawford, where Davis was stationed, had brought his family to the fort with him. Sarah Knox Taylor, the colonel’s 18-year-old daughter, and Davis soon fell in love, but Taylor would not allow them to marry because he wanted a better life for his daughter.
In 1835, Davis resigned from the army and accepted his brother Joseph’s generous offer of 1,800 acres of land and money to start a plantation. Taylor grudgingly gave his blessing to the marriage, though neither of the bride’s parents would attend the June 17, 1835, wedding. Three months later, the young bride died of malaria.
Fascinating Fact: Davis later served under Taylor in the Mexican War, in which both became military heroes. Taylor’s son, Richard, became one of Davis’s highest-ranking generals during the War of Southern Independence.
Written by Stephen T. Foster
IRONCLAD
The Early years
---------------
amuel Davis’s 47-year-old wife, Jane, gave birth to their 10th. child in 23 years on June 3, 1808, in the log home on their 600-acre frontier farm in Christian County, Kentucky. They named their new son Jeffer-son Finis Davis, his middle name an indication of their hope that they had had their last child. When Jefferson was two, Samuel moved the family to southwestern Mississippi, where he carved out a farm of several hundred acres near the town of Woodville. There he started growing cotton, the new boom crop of the Deep South. Jane planted so many rose hedges that the plant-ation eventually came to be called “Rosemont.”
At age nine, Jefferson was sent to a Catholic board-ing school in Springfield, Kentucky where he stayed for two years. He then returned to Rosemont and attended a succession of local schools until he entered Transyl-vania University in Kentucky in 1823. By this time, Jefferson’s brother Joseph, 23 years his senior, had become a prosperous lawyer and planter. Joseph secured for his brother an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy; Jefferson embraced the opportunity and in September 1825 entered West Point, where he had a rather lackluster career, standing 23rd. out of a graduating class of 32. Following graduation, Davis spent seven years on garrison duty on the American frontier.
Col. Zachary Taylor, commander of Fort Crawford, where Davis was stationed, had brought his family to the fort with him. Sarah Knox Taylor, the colonel’s 18-year-old daughter, and Davis soon fell in love, but Taylor would not allow them to marry because he wanted a better life for his daughter.
In 1835, Davis resigned from the army and accepted his brother Joseph’s generous offer of 1,800 acres of land and money to start a plantation. Taylor grudgingly gave his blessing to the marriage, though neither of the bride’s parents would attend the June 17, 1835, wedding. Three months later, the young bride died of malaria.
Fascinating Fact: Davis later served under Taylor in the Mexican War, in which both became military heroes. Taylor’s son, Richard, became one of Davis’s highest-ranking generals during the War of Southern Independence.
Written by Stephen T. Foster
IRONCLAD