Family Researcher: Peggy Joice Horton - wphor@sbcglobal.net &
Betty Joice Moore - hcbmo@austin.rr.com, October 2009 
 

William M. "Buck" Davis
1841 - 1900

William M. “Buck” Davis and wife Hester Jane Noe moved their family from Lamar County, Alabama, about 1873 as told by their daughter, Montie Davis Page, in an Indian Pioneer Papers interview.

Only two other white families were in this area when he settled in the square where the Kansas City Southern Railway crosses the Frisco east of the city (from “The Proud Heritage of LeFlore County” by Henry L. Peck.).

Buck Davis built the first ferry boat on the Poteau River and his son, Garret Wilson, was killed when the wagon overturned, bringing the last load of lumber for the ferry down from a mill on Cavanal Mountain (from a series of “Early Poteau Facts” gathered by Judge P. C. Bolger published in the LeFlore County Sun from January 17, 1952, through March 27, 1952 -- thought to be area’s first ‘traffic accident’).  Also, Buck Davis and Sam McKissack had the first blacksmith shop in Poteau (from “A Place Called Poteau” compiled and published by The 1913 Study Club).  Buck had served in Company G, 16th Alabama Regiment, during the Civil War.

On December 19, 1900, Buck Davis was shot and fatally wounded about three miles from Poteau, on Tarby Prairie, by Dave Mason and was buried in Maxey Hill Cemetery, which was at the southeast corner of what is now Central St. and Oakwood Drive.
08-1999

Hester Jane Noe Davis
(b. abt. 1845; d. abt. 1891)

One of the early settlers to LeFlore County, Indian Territory, Hester Jane Davis was the daughter of Thomas R. and Mary Noe of what is now Lamar County, Alabama.  In about 1873, she and William “Buck” Davis moved from Lamar County and with their children settled in Poteau.

She was the mother of eleven children, four of them being born in Indian Territory.  Five of her children died as babies or young children, and after moving to Indian Territory, Garret Wilson, their oldest son, was killed at age 19 in a wagon accident on Cavanal Mountain near Poteau.  Three of her daughters, Montie Sella Davis Page, Lona Della Davis Rains, and Grace Davis Holstead, married and raised their families in and around Poteau.  Mary Ida Davis Noah moved to Latimer County after her marriage.

William Claybourn Davis, Hester’s remaining son, lived in LeFlore County for a time, then moved to Atoka County, Oklahoma, before moving to Arizona in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s.
08-1999