Person:Albert Davis (32)

144. ALBERT WESTLEY DAVIS (Sarah, John, John, Thomas) son of Nathan Davis and Sarah Woolley, was born April 25, 1841, at East Rochester, Columbiana County, Ohio, in a log house built by his father a few years before. In 1844 his parents and their young children made a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois, to visit his mother's brothers who had moved there after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). A few years after their return to Ohio, they built a comfortable brick house on a hill some two miles from the farm.

In 1851, after his parents had joined the Church, the family emigrated to Utah via steamboat to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then on to Council Bluffs and Salt Lake City by wagon train. On their arrival in the valley, Albert Westley immediately assumed regular duties in caring for his father's cattle, and he and his brother, Edwin, herded both on the Jordan River Flat and in the mountains. They also hauled wood together from the nearby canyons.

The year 1861 saw Albert Westley returning across the plains to the Missouri River to assist the poor in emigrating, this was in response to the call of his Church. The following year he was with a company of cavalry assigned to guard the mails on the plains under Captain Lot Smith. He made subsequent trips also on various assignments. In 1864, Moses Davis and family came to Utah along the emigrant trail and suffered untold hardships along the way. They planned to return in the spring of 1865 and asked Albert Westley to accompany them--in fact to drive his team, as theirs had been lost in Cottonwood Canyon. They left in a company of missionaries under the direction of William B. Preston and had a very exciting trip made dangerous by several raids by the Indians. They arrived safely at their destination and then returned to Salt Lake City.

On the 25th of November, 1865, Albert Westley Davis married Melissa Jane Lambson at Salt Lake City. She was born 13 Nov 1846, at Winter Quaters, Florence, Douglas County, Nebraska; daughter of Alfred Boaz Lambson and Melissa Jane Bigler. (See Vol. VL, No. 3, page 145 of the Utah Genealogical & Historical Magazine for sketch of this family.)

Albert Westley Davis married a second time, 24th of February 1884, Anne Lois Bacon, born June 18, 1862, at Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, daughter of William Bacon and Rebecca Lock Bailey.

Albert Westley Davis had several narrow escapes from death in his lifetime, from both sickness and accident, but he was a man of great faith in the power of the Priesthood and always called in the Elders to administer to him on these occasions. He was close to the General Authorities of the Church and especially to President Joseph F. Smith, whom he served as a body guard during the troublesome times of persecution for plural marriage. In the spring of 1886, he accompanied President Smith to Hawaii with the church records, returning in 1887.

Albert Westley was an ardent Temple worker and spent his later years as an ordinance worker there. He lived to the age of 87 and died in Salt Lake City, December 3, 1928. Melissa Lambson Davis died August 23, 1937, and his second wife, Louis Bacon Davis, on December 23, 1942, both at Salt Lake City.

Source: "The Utah Woolley Family: Descendants of Thomas Woolley and Sarah Coppock of Pennsylvania," with brief notices of other families of the name, compiled by Preston Woolley Parkinson (a third great grandson) (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1964), 1,114 pp, w/ addendum, appendix and index. No. 144, Albert Westley Davis, pp. 268-270.

1.   Albert W. Davis, in Esshom, Frank Elwood. Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah: comprising photographs, genealogies, biographies, the early history of the Church. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Co., 1913)
   page 283.

   Includes a picture. "Son of Nathan Davis and Sarah W. Wooley. Born April 25, 1841, Rochester, Ohio. Bishop Center Ward. City Councilman."