The Will of Adoniram J. Davis

Adoniram J. Davis (1830-1903) was the son of William Davis and Mary Sibley of Elgin, Ontario.  He was the husband of Louisa Norton of New York and the father of Mary/Minnie (Davis) Scott (who married Arthur Herbert Scott) and Dr. William Norton Scott, who later moved to Spokane, Washington.

"I Adoniram Judson Davis of the Town of Aylmer in the County of Elgin yeoman do make publish and declare this and this only to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills and testaments or documents of such nature and kind by me heretofore made.

1.  I direct that my just debts and funeral and testamentary expenses be paid by my executors...as soon as conveniently may be after my decease.

2.  I decree and bequeath to my beloved wife the use, income and profits of all my Estate real and personal so long as she shall live and after her decease my executors are to realize and convert my Estate into money and subject to the pregoing provisions I devise and bequeath one fifth of my estate to my Grand daughter Lousia Clark, now of Three Rivers in the State of Michigan to be paid over to her at the expiration of one year after the decease (of my said wife?) if she has attained the age of twenty eight years (line illegible) during such year, but if she has not attained such age then my said Grandchild is to receive annually the income accruing on such one fifth until she attains such age and until said one-fifth is paid over to her.

3.  I devise and bequeath to (my son?)  William Norton Davis, M.D. of Waterford in the County of Norfolk subject to the foregoing two fifths of my estate absolutely and I devise to my daughter Minnie Louisa Scott of Montreal in the Province of Quebec subject to the foregoing two fifths of my estate absolutely and freed from the management or control of her husband or any other person whatsoever. 

4.  My executors are to have full power and authority to sell and convert any or all of my estate and keep the proceeds invested in Mortgages or Real Estate Bank Stocks or such other securities as they decree advisable except Chattel Mortgages and Promissary notes but the Income to be paid to my wife as long as she shall live.    

5.  And I nominate constitute and appoint my said wife Louisa Adelia Davis and my said son and daughter William Norton Davis and Minnie Louisa Scott Executors of this my will. 

In witness whereof I have duly signed .... sixteenth day of September A.D. 1898.
(signed) A.J. Davis

T.H. Backhouse
Barrister at Law
Aylmer, Ont
May Weisbood
Stenographer, 
Aylmer, Ont. 

Adoniram's grandchild Louisa Clark is the child of Ursula Davis, who married Dr. Whitman Clark of Three Rivers, Michigan on May 13, 1874.  Whitman's passport application, filled out in 1910, says he was born in Ingersoll Ontario and moved to the United States in 1871.  It also states that his daughter Louisa Clark was born in Centreville, Michigan, on May 16, 1876.  The Michigan Deaths and Burial Index on Ancestry reports that Ursula died at the age of 23 on September 28, 1878 in Three Rivers, Michigan.  The cause of death is not stated.

Ursula (Davis) Clark is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Three Rivers, Michigan, beside her husband.

Ursula's memorial stone, Riverside Cemetery, Three Rivers, Michigan.

In fact, I have never attempted to track all of Adoniram and Louisa's children.  In the 1851 census, Adoniram and Louisa are newlyweds living in with Adoniram's family, and they do not appear to have any children. In the 1861 census Adoniram and Louisa have three children:  Amarillas, aged 9, Ursula, aged 7, and William, aged 1.  In the 1871 census (which has several strange mistakes--Louisa is written as Laura and the family is marked down as being of German origin) Adoniram and Louisa are living with 18-year-old Anna (probably Amarillas), 16-year-old Ursula, 10-year-old William and 7-month-old Mary.  In the 1891 census, Adoniram and Louisa (now 51 and 54, respectively) are living with only one child, Minnie (the family nickname for Mary), now aged 10.  We know that Minnie and William survived their father, and Ursula probably died before 1880, leaving one child.  What happened to Amarillas?

The family tombstone in the Orwell Cemetery in Yarmouth Township memorializes two more of Adoniram and Louisa's children, Judson and Wallace.  Wallace does not appear on the 1860 census, so he probably died before the age of 5.