Person:Winstead Davie (1)

Undated, unsourced newspaper clipping:
Winstead Davie was a crippled man, who walked with crutches, a man of handicaps, came to Jonesboro about 1817. He was a school teacher and later a merchant, a man who by his vision, his pioneer courage and dominating character was to roll up wealth and influence. Here was a man who founded a city, naming it after his wife, created substantial financial holdings in it, but never moved from his first-loved home of Jonesboro, there he lived and died.

On a blustery March 3, 1854 morning, Winstead and Anna Davie took their original Platt for the city of Anna, Illinois over to the County Court House, filed their legal papers. Anna was becoming a realty on paper. It had cost $50 in surveyor's fees, a swatch across the Davie farm and a new village was on its way.

Union County, Illinois, 1850 census:^[1]

Davie, Winstead 53 yrs Merchant (real estate = $20,000) b. North Carolina

      Anna 40 yrs b. Massachusetts

      Emily 21 yrs b. Illinois

      Cyrene 18 yrs b. Illinois

      Mary 12 yrs b. Illinois

      Nancy 5 yrs b. Illinois

Davie, Susannah 16 yrs b. Illinois

Thornton, George 17 yrs Farmer b. Illinois

Coomes, James A. 22 yrs Farmer b. Kentucky

Stokes, Thomas 12 yrs b. Illinois

Willard, William 4 yrs b. Illinois

Union County, Illinois, 1860 census:^[2]

Davie, Winstead 63 yrs Merchant (real estate = $90,000; personal estate = $38,000) b. North Carolina

      Anna 51 yrs b. Vermont

      Nancy 17 yrs b. Illinois

Wynans, Larin [?] [m] 14 yrs b. North Carolina

Hobson, Thomas 19 yrs Laborer b. England

Greenborn [?], George 12 yrs b. Illinois

Davie, Elizabeth M. 30 yrs b. Illinois

Union County, Illinois, 1865 state census:^[3]

Davie, Winstead (manufactures = 2) (real estate = $4,000; livestock = $350)

Males

60-70 - 1

Females

10-20 - 1

20-30 - 1

50-60 - 1

Union County, Illinois, 1870 census:^[4]

Davie, Winstead 74 yrs Merchant (real estate = $15,000; personal estate = $25,000) b. North Carolina

      Annie 61 yrs House Keeper b. Vermont

      Julietta 5 yrs b. Illinois

Union County, Illinois, 1880 census:^[5]

"Daire", Winsted 82 yrs Husband Merchant b. North Carolina (parents, b. North Carolina)

      Anna 70 yrs Wife Keeping House ("Paralysis") b. Vermont (parents, b. Vermont/Maine)

      Juliette 16 yrs Gr/dau House Work b. Illinois (parents, b. Illinois/New York)

Tippe, Ellen 20 yrs Servant (Single) House Work b. Illinois (parents, b. Illinois/Missouri)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Union, Illinois, United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 231B, dwelling/family 1235/1235.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Union, Illinois, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 821, dwelling/family ---/1289.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Union, Illinois, United States. 1865 Illinois State Census
   p. 83, line 4.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Union, Illinois, United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 496A, dwelling/family 182/172.
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Union, Illinois, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 116, p. 75A, dwelling/family 44/47 (N. Main St.).
6.   The Anna Talk (Anna, Illinois)
   Jul 1885.

   THE REAPER DEATH.
   ONE MORE PIONEER CALLED HENCE.
   THE FOUNDER OF THE CITY OF ANNA DEAD.
   
   Died, at his residence in Jonesboro, Illinois, Saturday July 11th, Winstead Davie, in the 89th year of his age. Thus is another of the old land marks removed. Mr. Davie was born January 3, 1797, in Person County, North Carolina (on the Virginia line) of an old and prominent family in that region, including in its lists, we are informed, a Governor of the State. The family is of Welsh extraction. Mr. Davie’s father was named John. His mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Winstead.
   
   When Winstead was a boy his father’s family removed to Stuart County, Tennessee, and there he grew up, near the town of Dover, celebrated by reason of its vicinity to Fort Donelson. Being a cripple from birth, instead of yeilding to misfortune, it made him spur to an honorable ambition, and early developed those qualities of integrity, energy, and prudence, which command success in commercial life. While yet a lad he had for a time taught school, and later clerked in the store of Davidson and Outlaw, at Dover. This firm, in 1820, sent him with a stock of goods to Southern Illinois and on April 10th of that year landed his stock at a place then known as Trinity, at the mouth of the Cache River. Arriving in Jonesboro, he set up his stock in a structure of logs on the well-known lot where he conducted business continually for 37 years, and where he resided for 65 years till his death. The old log store stood between the residence and the store house now standing on the corner.
   
   On Sept. 19, 1824, Sunday, he was married to Miss Anna Willard, daughter of Johathan and Nancy Willard, a native of Vermont and a sister to the late well-known Messrs. Elijah, William, and Willis Willard. (The mother of Mrs. Davie, Mrs. Johathan Willard, nee Nancy Atkins, known for years as Grandmother Willard, was a woman of rare force of character, and was a fine representation of the pioneer worthies. Left a widow in Cape Girardeau, in 1818, she came to Jonesboro with her four children, and there spent a life of extraordinary activity and usefulness, when she died on the verge of 100 years of age.)
   
   On his marriage Mr. Davie bought the residence in which he lived and died - having afterwards added to it. The young couple went to housekeeping in it the day after their wedding. The store house on the corner of the lot, fronting the square, was put up in 1829, and Mr. Davie made this the center of his extensive business operations till 1857.Some time after his arrival in Jonesboro the firm of Dover in whose employ he was, became embarrassed and his good conduct in protecting the interests of the Louisville jobbers who were creditors of that firm, procured him their marked favor, and enabled him to start in business for himself.
   
   This successful beginning was a prophecy; in a business career of over fifty years, covering the great crises of 1837, 1857, and 1873, he never failed.Some time before his marriage he was appointed Circuit Clerk of Union County, an office he held for many years. He was also Probate Judge and Master in Chancery (and Col. Wiley [Col. Ben. Ladd Wiley, Winstead Davie’s son-in-law] says he thinks sheriff, also) for several terms. At one time he held all these offices at once and at the same time taught school in the courthouse. This may have been between the failing of Davidson & Outlaw and the settling up of his business.
   
   About the year 1840, owing to the pressure of cares incidental to his successful business, he retired from office all together. Among his other ventures was a large tannery, which, with harness, saddlery, and boot and show establishment, he conducted many years with profit. In 1853 he founded the City of Anna, naming it after his wife; and in 1857 he transferred his business to Anna, and never changing his residence for 17 years, day after day, morning and night, he drove back and forth between his residence in one town and his store house in the other, his portly form and his grip of the reins behind his black mare (he refused to the last to let another drive), becoming a familiar as well as striking figure. In connection with his son, Daniel S. Davie, Esq., he built the first steam mill in Anna, on the site of the present ruins of the brick mill, east of the Illinois Central Rail Road tracks. About this time, or perhaps before, he built the store house on the corner of Main and Railroad Streets which he occupied till 1868, and which then passed into the hand of his daughter, Mrs. Perrine, and was afterwards used as a store by T.M. Perrine. Having in the meantime bought the building now known as the St. Nicholas Hotel, he used this for his business till he retired from business altogether. In connection with the late John Norris (father of G.W. & James Norris) he erected the brick block on Asylum Avenue in the rear of the St. Nicholas. In 1868 he divided some $200,000 of his property among his five children, reserving about $100,000 for himself and his wife.
   
   In 1874, being about 77 years of age, he retired from active business. On December 5, 1880, death robbed him of his wife, who had for some years been in infirm health. Ten children had been given to them, of whom five died in early life. The five who reached the years of maturity are still living and well known among us, vis: Daniel S. Davie, Esq. of Jonesboro, Mrs. Col. Ben L. Wiley of Makanda; and Mrs. J.K. Walton, Mrs. T.N. Perrine and Mrs. D.W. Brown (wife of Mayor Brown) all of Anna. All of these hold prominent positions worthy of their ancestry, and have been blessed with extensive households. Besides themselves, twenty-five of their grand-children and several of the great-grand-children were present at the obsequies of their ancestor. There have been in all forty-five grandchildren, of whom thirty-eight survive; and nineteen great-grand-children of whom fifteen survive.
   
   Of late years Mr. Davie’s health has been much impaired and he seldom went from home. Towards the last his infirmities increased heavily upon him, and he received constant ministry of kindred and friends, one or more of his daughters being constantly with him. For more than a week at the last he took no nourishment and lay most of the time in a semi-stupor, till on Saturday last the end came.
   
   The burial took place at the old Jonesboro Cemetery, the following serving as pall bearers: Messrs. D. Alden, Robt. Johnson, C. Nordling and M.V. Eaves. The following made the array of honorary pall bearers: Messrs. Adam Curse, Jacob Grear, Paul Frick, Thomas Hileman, J.R. Osgood, John Grear, C.C. Flaugh, Jacob Hileman, Isaac Bizzell, Williams Eaves, John C. Peelar, and Paul Misenhimer; among with whom a number of other aged men fell in as the procession started.The burial services were conducted at the residence on Monday by G.W. Waggoner, of Upper Alton, an old friend, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Faris and J.W. Flint. There was a vast concourse of friends, crowding the capacious house and overflowing to the adjacent grounds. The business houses of Anna and Jonesboro were closed for this occasion, out of just respect to this venerated associate, pioneer and founder. The occasion was one of rare impressiveness, stirring recollections in breasts of the more aged and begatting memories for their juniors which a lapse of years will not easily efface.
   
   [from “The Anna Talk”, July 1885, a copy in the effects of W. Faris Wiley, Winstead’s great-grandson]