Robert Ruffin Davis, Tinsley Davis Cemetery, Shelby County, Tennessee, Mississippi Genealogy

Robert Ruffin Davis, Tinsley Davis Cemetery, Shelby County, Tennessee

Robert Ruffin Davis
(Robert Ruffin Davis born August 23, 1819, Limestone Co., AL, died April 16, 1885, Desoto Co., MS. Son of Tinsley Davis and his first wife and cousin, Frances Bowe Ragland; husband of Antoinette Blackburn Clarke.)

Robert Ruffin Davis was a farmer, a man possibly of medium stature, perhaps a bit stocky, very much a family man, sober, responsible, and dependable. He was a Mason, a member of the Capleville, Tennessee Lodge, and apparently well-liked and respected.

Robert, the second son of Tinsley and Frances Ragland Davis, was born in Limestone Co., Alabama, shortly after his parents moved there from Kentucky. His mother died when he was three and his father remarried twice after that, gifting him in all with thirteen siblings.

In 1838 his father purchased a 640 acre cotton plantation in Shelby County, Tennessee, and settled there. Robert had met his love, Antoinette Clarke, in Limestone Co., AL, and married her there in 1846. The young couple promptly moved in with Robert’s father Tinsley who had lost his third wife Emily that same year. There were several young children in the household and when Tinsley died intestate in 1850, Robert and Antoinette purchased the house and 640 acres of farmland from the estate and reared the remaining Davis children - Watson, Angelina Harriet, Tinsley Jr. and Hugh. (Angelina Harriet Davis Edmundson sued her brother later because she felt she deserved more of the estate.) Robert and Antoinette had seven children of their own, five of whom survived to adulthood.

In December, 1853, in a court in Alabama the children of Frances Bowe Ragland and her husband Tinsley Davis - Robert Ruffin, Lycurgus, and Beverley Samuel Davis and their sister Maria Pettus - sued their mother’s brother, Dr. Nathaniel Ragland, executor of the estate of his uncle Capt. Nathaniel Ragland, re. the slaves of his brother Samuel Ragland. They were joined in the lawsuit by their widowed aunt, Mary Ann Davis - the only remaining sibling of Dr. Nathaniel Ragland - as well as other nieces and nephews of the deceased. Jointly they contested Capt. Nathaniel’s will because he wanted his slaves set free, and they wanted the slaves treated as part of their inheritance.

Dr. Nathaniel Ragland lost the case and had to pay the cost of the proceedings. Capt. Nathaniel’s wish to free his slaves and provide for them was not granted. The Alabama court ruled, “ It is well settled in this State, that a slave can take nothing by purchase, descent or devise. Hence the clauses liberating the slaves at the death of Saml. Ragland and providing for their maintenance are void.“ The court divided the slaves (or their price) among Samuel’s heirs, including Dr. Nathaniel Ragland. Robert R. Davis and his sibling each received slaves valued at $1,430.46.

The Civil War and Reconstruction brought hardship for the family but Robert and Antoinette hung onto the land until 1877 when a lawsuit from a creditor, Newton Ford, a Whitehaven merchant, forced them to forfeit their land. They purchased about 80 acres across the Tennessee border in Plum Point, MS, in the name of “Mrs. A. B. Davis” (Antoinette). One of their descendants reminisced, “I remember the weather-beaten frame house surrounded by woods, set well back from the dirt road, which curved and twisted southeastwardly from Plum Point. To me it was an idyllic setting with many flowers in the garden in the summertime. Oak, holly and cedar trees were plentiful.” Their daughter Frances Davis, an unmarried school teacher, and their other daughter Savella with her husband Dr. William George Lester and their two children lived with them until Frances married Emmett Eugene Elam in 1882.

When Robert sickened toward the end of his life, Antoinette managed their affairs. He died April 16, 1885, leaving his wife, five children, and five grandchildren. He is buried in the Tinsley Davis Cemetery with his family.

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