Edward DAVIS

                   Obtained information from pedigree chart handwritten by Charles K. Bird
grandson of Zilpha Ellen Davis on 1-20-2000

ZILPHA ELLEN HAMNER, HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY ( Written in 1962)

	I, Zilpha Ellen Davis, was born in Brazil, Indiana (Clay Co.). Our home was out in the country about four miles west of town. My father's land was covered with timber. He had to clear off the area where he built our home. It was a six-room house, one bedroom, with living room, kitchen and dining area in one room. The three rooms upstairs were finished later as our family grew.

	My sister, Estelle, was born April 16, 1893, and four years later my brother, Stanley, was born May 26, 1897. We went to a one room brick school, with a big pot-bellied coal stove in the middle of the room. We had desks large enough for two pupils and one teacher taught all eight grades. This school was located on the National Road that was built from Baltimore to St. Louis by the Government and was made of gravel. Now it is a big macadam highway.

	My father, Edward Davis, was born in Vigo County, Indiana, on November 25, 1863. His father's name was Joseph Davis and his mother's name was Mary.  Joseph Davis was born in Vigo County also, on March 14, 1837, and died in 1880. He was a Civil War Veteran.

	My father's mother was born in Clermont County, Ohio, January 25, 1838, and died October 24, 1917; her parents' names were James and Margaret Herron. Margaret's maiden name was Archer.

	My mother was born October 15, 1865, in Clay County, Indiana, to Lucius and Barbara Carter. My mother (Clara) was the oldest of seven children and I was my grandparents' oldest grandchild.

	The Carter family originally came from Virginia, and my great grandfather's father was in the Revolutionary War and served under General Washington.

	Some of the family moved to Ohio in later years. Great Grandfather Joseph Carter married a Miss Ellen Fugate of Mason, Ohio. Then, after nine of their ten children were born there, they moved in the fall of 1850 to Clay County, Indiana and made their home.

	My father finally got his land cleared of timber and farmed 80 to 100 acres in wheat, corn, red clover, and Timothy hay. We raised our own chickens, cattle, and hogs, had our own fruit trees.

	On Sunday we always tried to go to Sunday school and Church, unless someone was ill or the weather too severe in the winter months. I joined the Methodist Church when I was about 12 years old and am still a member. Most of the families near us were related to us, so when we were children we played with our cousins. In the summer we would go wading in the brooks and wild flower hunting. In the fall, we would pick hickory nuts and hazel nuts and would go bob-sled riding in the winter, when we had snow. It seemed our winters in Indiana were colder and had more snow than they do now.

	We came to Corona, California in the fall of 1905 on account of my brother's health. He had pneumonia every winter, so our doctor advised a warmer climate. We rented our farm and then two years later sold it and bought 10 acres on Main Street about a mile and a half south of Corona and built a home on the corner of it and planted the balance in Navel oranges and lemons.

	My father's brother, Frank Davis, and family already lived here in Riverside, and my mother had a cousin and his family here too, so we didn't quite feel we had no one in a new country.

	My sister, brother, and I graduated from Corona High School and it was while I was still going to school that I met my husband John Hamner. We really had fun during our school days going to football games and school parties. I graduated from high school in 1910 and two years later we were married, November 26, 1912. Our first home was a little four-room house located on a piece of property just in front of where the Seventh Day Adventist College now stands and that is where our oldest daughter, Margaret, was born the following year. Only about four or five families were living there at that time where now there is a big Adventist Church, stores, and the Loma Linda Food Plant.

	We lived there at this place about a year, and then moved to Corona to a farm about 2 miles east of town and started raising young dairy heifers. In about 3 years we were milking about 30 cows, raised our own chickens and turkeys. During the Christmas season of December 28, 1914, our second child, Martha, was born, and in the summer of July 4, 1916, we had a baby son, John D. Hamner. All were born at home, no hospital babies. We raised our three children the hard way. I had a wood cook stove, coal oil lamps, and no washing machine, and heated my irons on the stove. Maybe everything is too easy for the good of the, country now. Our next move was back not far from where we first went to housekeeping. My husband went into partnership with his uncle and we moved our cows with his, built a new dairy barn and a duplex for his and our families. Soon after we were all located there, the
First World War broke out and in the fall of 1918, the flu epidemic was so bad, John's two brothers, Ben and Emmett, passed away just a week apart, which was pretty hard for his family. It was hard to get help on the farm and in the dairy while the War was on. He and his uncle had to work awfully hard. After a while things didn't go so good with him and his uncle, so we finally sold our interest to his uncle and moved to Riverside. We bought a home there and John worked for an implement company for about three years.

	In 1921, we bought 15 acres on Magnolia Avenue about 1 mile west of Arlington with 8-year-old English walnut trees on it. In the year 1920 (November 13) while we were still living in Riverside, our fourth baby, Florence was born. Then two years later, we built a new home on our fifteen acres and moved in when Florence was two years old.

	I think the following year after we built our new house, we bought about 1200 head of sheep from some French people who lived near us, and we pastured them on the hills south of us where the Metropolitan Water District built a big lake, Lake Mathews, which now furnishes Los Angeles and a lot of the territory near us with water.

	We stayed in the sheep business until the year 1935, and then sold out, for pasture was so hard to get. Too many people were taking up the pasture land.

	On April 7, 1925, we had another son, Ben, born to us, another helper for John; then our last baby, a girl, Rosemary, was born on July 16, 1929. We could always remember that year, for we had such a hard time keeping what we had bought. The year before John went up to Utah (Provo and Spanish Fork) and bought some more sheep. We had over 2,000 head then and finally had to move them to Imperial Valley in 1933. The prices of everything kept going down, so we had to sell the sheep and John got a job with a man in the cattle business, feeding cattle for a while.

	War broke out in Europe. John came home and worked for the government helping build housing projects, Navy and Air Bases for this great country was afraid we might get into this war, and we surely did.

	Our daughter Florence's husband, Dudley Sleeper, was the first of our family called into Service. Margaret's husband wasn't called, for they had one daughter and Kingsley Bird worked for a utility company so wasn't called. Martha's husband, Richard Drake, joined the Navy and was stationed on a repair ship outside Pearl Harbour. Our son, John, wasn't called. He had two children and was farming. We needed farmer to raise food for the soldiers.
Our youngest son, Ben, was in his senior year at high school and was called into the Navy before school was out. He was stationed on a sub-chaser and was sent overseas and was in the Normandy Invasion. We were so glad when the war was over and so thankful we didn't lose any of our family.

	Rosemary finished her high school and went to Woodbury's Business College in Los Angeles and graduated from there two years later. Her first job was with the General Steamship Company. Later she passed a Civil Service exam and then worked in the 15th Air Force Headquarters at March Air Force Base until she was married November 29, 1952. She married a Serviceman, too. He is Staff Sergeant John Clayton, stationed at March Air Force Base. Major Dudley L. Sleeper is now serving another year's tour in Korea. They both hope to stay in the Service for retirement.

	Our daughter, Margaret, graduated from Riverside Business College and Martha graduated from UCLA and is a teacher. Florence went to Santa Barbara Nurses School.
We now have fourteen grandchildren--seven boys and seven girls-- one great-grandson, and have had a very happy life together. We hope to celebrate our 50th Anniversary in 1962.
                  

                   Estelle died of Appendicitus
                  

                   Notes: Taken from the History of the Carter Family by Ellen (Ella) Winn Kessel 1951-1952, aided by contributions from various members of the family. Ellen is the granddaughter of Joseph Demont Carter.

"When the son Stanley was very young, he was not strong and they were advised to take him to a different climate.  So they located in the town of Corona, California.  Ed sold his Indiana farm, and invested in California land where he grew citrus fruits and English walnuts for a number of years."