James Briggs (J. B. ) Davis was born 1936 in Ohio Territory to Sara Briggs and Edward Davis. He was named after his mother’s father as was a standard practice in those days. James grew into a tall man in height at six foot one and a half inches.

J. B.’s parents were from Ohio and Virginia. Edward and Sara were married in Wisconsin territory in 1835. For the birth of their first child they went back to Ohio and Sara’s parent’s home. The Briggs and Davis families were a very close knit, as you will see as the story continues.

Polly Wolfe was born in Ohio in 1843. At the age of fourteen in the year 1857 she moved with her family to Wisconsin. There she met and fell in love with J. B. Davis. When Polly was 19 and J. B. was 26, they were wed. The marriage took place on the fourth of July, in 1862 in Towerville, Wisconsin.

In the next year many things were to change for everyone. Polly was pregnant with their first child. James wanted to go to fight in the war yet he could not until he saw his first child born. Several of the other Davis and Briggs clan had already mustered into the war. On the 11th of May 1863, George Sylvester was born. On the 18 of November 1863, J. B. mustered in to the first Wisconsin infantry at Camp Randall, Madison Wisconsin, after signing up in Prarie du Chein. Several of the other Davis and Briggs men signed up at the same time and all kept together through the entire war. J. B. Davis was one of the 98,000 men who were under General Sherman’s rule. He was also one of the 62,000 men who went on the March Across Georgia with Sherman. They marched from Atlanta after ruining as much of the area as possible. They marched 285 miles across Gerogia to Savannah on the coast. J. B. Said that he never got to see the General up close, but thought he probably wasn’t as big as most people thought. They marched only about ten miles a day through Georgia. The front of the lines was spread out sixty miles wide most of the time. They destroyed anything that they could not use or carry with them. The soldiers, having no supply lines, made do with what they found, leaving in the process as little as possible for the Confederates. The Union Army reached Savannah in December. J.B. had been in the service for one year. Sherman took the army north. In Feb. of 1865, they reached Columbia South Carolina. They took the city and burned everything in sight. J. B. had an awful fall at this time. He was carrying a large box on his back and fell into a ditch, this caused a very serious back injury from which he never recovered from. Marching on north they entered North Carolina, through Fayetteville and on March 19, 1965 Bentonville was reached. This was the battle where a shell fragment struck J. B. in the eye and nearly blinded him. He also took a ball through the arm in this fight causing nerve damage. From Bentonville they marched on to Raleigh. On April 18, 1865 Johnston surrendered to sherman.

J. B. and the rest of the company went back to Kentucky. There on the 18 of July 1865 J. B. and his family members all mustered out of the army. He was paid a total of $123.54 for his time in the service, minus $6. For shot and gun and accoutrements. He was transferred back to the 21st. Wisconsin and sent home. Upon arriving there J. B. learned of his mother’s death. He had missed seeing his mother by a matter of weeks. He again took up farming in Towerville and there his other three sons were born. Xenia Leucern, born 24 May 1867, My g grandfather, William Orien born 22 Dec. 1868 and the youngest son Issac Warren, 25 Jan. 1872.

Four years later J. B. and Polly and a large number of Davis’ and Briggs’ family members decided to move to the great Pacific North West. Tales of land that could be farmed and huge valleys with fertile land and gold for the taking had been filtering back to them. They decided to pack up and follow the Oregon trail. This new country they were planning on going to and living in was indeed new to the United States. It had only been in the last 15 years that it had started to open up to settlers.

Twenty two years after Seth Shaw and his brother started up the little creek and made a settlement at the foot of the hills to one day be called the Wildcat, the Davis and Briggs families in the spring of 1875 started across the Oregon Trail and landed in the Columbia river valley. They spent the rest of the year of 1875 in the valley. This area seemed to satisfy most of the clan but J. B. wanted someplace even better. They kept moving south, Following the trading trails through what is now Oregon. In the early spring of 1876 they took a boat out from the shore of Oregon and went south. They stopped first in Coos Bay Oregon, and then kept moving south and landed at the Humboldt Bay. At this time there was not a lot of roads in Humboldt Co. but they did manage to travel inland and up to what is now Monument Rd. and spent the rest of the year farming on the Bear River Ridge.

J. B. didn’t realize then that farming life was over for him. The strain of his wound in his arm and back had done damage that just could not ever be repaired. He could not work a farm. So he moved his little family into the new town of Ferndale, where they rented a nice house in 1877. To support himself he and his boys started to do odd jobs and some carpentry. By this time the oldest boy George, was fourteen and old enough to start helping his father.

J. B. was very involved with many of the building projects going on in the new town. Moving older buildings from one area to another to make way for the newer sections of town with only jacks and horses and mules for transportation, buildings were moved blocks at a time. Once a house was moved, J. B. and sons would start re-modeling the house, and eventually selling it. He was also a very modern thinking man for the times. He almost always had his wife Polly do the business transactions, often they were in her name alone. I am not sure if this is because he couldn’t use his hand well enough to sign documents, or if he just couldn’t see because of the eye injury, or if he just was a forward thinking person. Polly had several properties in her name alone. They would buy a piece of property and build a house on it, sell it, then buying another lot, and building another house on it.

In his spare time J. B. played the fiddle and played cards with friends. He made a table just for playing cards with his friends. He often could be found on the back porch sitting in his chair enjoying the sun when he got older. Because of the wounds from the war he had back problems all of his life. To help himself he lifted weights everyday and still could ride a horse at the age of 79. He would tell tales of the revolution to any who would listen. And when he saw a kid on the street he would give them a penny candy. He lived with his son and daughter-in-law William and Bonita until his death 22 Nov. 1924.