There are a surprising number of Xenias in our family tree, but today for the 50th post of 2025, I’m going to focus on my fourth cousin three times removed, Xenia Jane Davis. Xenia was born 30 March 1869 in Doddridge County, West Virginia, and she was the daughter of Donmanuel and Virginia A. (Smith) Davis.1 Interestingly, she had an older brother named Leander, which is the middle name of my nephew, Ben (though Ben was given the Leander part of his name to commemorate his grandfather on his maternal side, and I’m related to my sister-in-law on a different branch of her family tree. Anyway….)
It appears that Xenia and Leander’s mother died sometime between March and August of 1869, as on 19 August of that year, Donmanuel married Virginia’s sister, Mary Magdaline Smith.2 Mary was eight years younger than her sister and had not quite turned 16 when she married her brother-in-law. In both the 1870 and 1880 censuses, Donmanuel, Mary, and their blended family were enumerated in Doddridge County. Donmanuel and Mary would eventually have seven children together: Secelia Chloe, Melvy, Delcy, Lorhemus, Nevada, Oral T., and Buel Lee.3
On 3 April 1890 Xenia married William Henry Holtz in Doddridge County. She was 21 and he was 25.4 They would have three children in quick succession: Armatha in 1891, Cleaoras in 1892, and Lenora in 1893. At least I think – the birth records for Armatha confusingly list her mother’s name as Virginia (Davis) Holtz. Then on 15 January 1894, Xenia died, aged 24. Two days shy of one year later, William Henry Holtz married Florence Etta Everson in Clarksburg, West Virginia. It does not appear that William and Florence had any children together.
From Xenia’s death record, we know that her death was caused by typhoid fever and consumption, with which she had been ill for six weeks.5
The rest of Armatha’s life is less mysterious than her birth; she does appear with her father and stepmother in the 1900 and 1910 censuses. William was listed in both as a railroad track laborer. By 1920 he had become a foreman of railroad repairs, though in 1930 and 1940 he was listed as a farmer. He died in 1942. Armatha went on to marry, have at least three children, and move to Pennsylvania, dying there in 1967.6
William and Xenia’s second child, Cleaoras (or Cleoris) was alternately a gas company laborer, a coal miner, then a road construction laborer. He married in 1921, had six children, and died in 1968 at age 76.7 Youngest child Lenora was an epileptic according to her death certificate; she died of “status epilepticus” at the state hospital at Weston, West Virginia on 25 January 1940. She was only 46.8
And so…fifty weeks down, two more to go for 2025. Which means only two more weeks in which to figure out a theme for next year. Any ideas??
- Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78620075/xenia_jane-holtz: accessed December 13, 2025), memorial page for Xenia Jane Davis Holtz (30 Mar 1869–15 Jan 1894), Find a Grave Memorial ID 78620075, citing Wolverton Cemetery, Doddridge County, West Virginia, USA; Maintained by S (contributor 47342597). ↩︎
- Jordan Dodd, West Virginia Marriage Records 1863-1900. ↩︎
- FamilyHistory Search and/or www.ancestry.com, 1880 Census. ↩︎
- Jordan Dodd, West Virginia Marriage Records 1863-1900. ↩︎
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎
- 1910 Census. ↩︎
- Ancestry, West Virginia, Deaths Index, 1853-1973. ↩︎
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎