BIOGRAPHY: Daniel J. DAVIS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 112-3 
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DANIEL J. DAVIS, one of the enterprising and substantial farmers of Cambria 
township, Cambria county, is a son of John E. and Magdaleine (Jones) Davis, and 
was born in Blacklick township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1844.
     John E. Davis was a native of the principality of Wales, born in Cardigan, 
in 1812, and grew to manhood and married there. After his marriage in 1838 he 
and his wife emigrated to America. They first located in Pittsburg, but soon 
removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, thence, in about 1843, to Blacklick township, where 
Mr. Davis purchased a farm of 180 acres, and embarked in agricultural pursuits. 
In 1869 he disposed of this farm and bought another, containing the same number 
of acres, situated in Cambria township, two miles east of Ebensburg. He resided 
upon and tilled this farm until death ended his labors on January 16, 1882, his 
wife surviving him.
     He was a careful and well-to-do farmer, and passed the latter years of his 
life in comparative comfort and ease. Politically he was a republican, and 
filled many local offices. His marriage with Magdalene Jones resulted in the 
following issue: Mary, the widow of David Davis; Evan, a soldier in the late 
war, died in service at a camp in Texas; Daniel J., the subject of this sketch; 
John and Elizabeth are twins (the former is a farmer and merchant of Blacklick 
township, and the latter is the wife of David Lewis, of Cambria township), 
Joseph J., a liveryman of Ebensburg; C. Jane, wife of Joseph Thomas, of Cambria 
township; and David M., of Cambria township.
     Daniel J. Davis was reared and remained upon the farm until 1864, at which 
time he sought and found employment in a rolling-mill in Pittsburg for five 
years. In 1868 he returned to Cambria township, and three years later purchased 
a farm of 145 acres of arable and well-improved land. The land is fertile, well 
adapted to grazing and stock raising, and the buildings are nearly new, and 
commodiously arranged. Aside from this property, he owns three fine brick houses 
in Ebensburg which yield him a handsome annual rental. He is a member of the 
Welsh Presbyterian church, and takes a leading interest in church work.
     December 31, 1868, Mr. Davis and Miss Jane Davis, a daughter of Richard B. 
Davis, a farmer and butcher, of near Ebensburg, were joined in wedlock. The 
product of their union is two children: Anna and one son, who died in infancy, 
unnamed.
     Richard B. Davis, the father-in-law of Mr. Davis, was born in 
Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 1788, and died in Cambria township October 20, 1872. 
He married in Wales, and became the father of three children. Their mother and 
two of the children died in Wales. The other child, a son (Edward), accompanied 
his father to this country in 1836, and died in Cincinnati, O., of cholera, in 
1849. In 1837 Mr. Davis married, as his second wife, Anna Bennett, a daughter of 
Richard Bennett, a Welshman by birth, but then a prosperous and successful 
farmer, and one of the oldest and most reputable citizens of Cambria township; 
and they became the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters: 
Mary became the wife of William Davis, of Ebensburg; Richard, a soldier of the 
late war, was killed in the battle of Fredericksburg; Mrs. Daniel J. Davis; 
Anna, the wife of William Griffiths, of Pittsburg; John a farmer of Cambria 
township; Sarah and Edward, deceased in childhood.