Happy New Year! Wishing my readers all the best in 2026. The first of the 13 themes I’ll be exploring this year is one I used part of the time in 2025 under the “A Is for…” heading. Some of last year’s posts explored ancestors with a name starting with the designated letter, but other times the letter was represented by a word, a place, a title, etc. This year the “alphabetical” theme will focus solely on names. I’ve already realized I may need to shift the order of the themes around from one quarter of the year to the next so I’m not looking solely at names starting with A again on July 5. But I’ll worry about that later. For now, A it is.
I do love names. I used to pore over books of names and their meanings, make lists of favorites, and in junior high spent time writing stories that inevitably involved very large families so I could give all the children weird names. Polii Hornsby, I’m looking at you. One of my favorite “family names” is Asenath. I only recently learned that she was the Egyptian wife of Joseph; I should have been paying more attention when reading Genesis. Anyway, “Asenath” seems to be the most common spelling generally, though not in our family tree. In our tree, “Asenath” appears 6 times, “Aseneth” 8 times, and “Acenith” once. Today I’m focused on that singular Acenith. Though as we shall see, the spelling of her name is all over the place anyway.
Acenith Davis, my third cousin four times removed, was born between 1863 and 1864 in West Virginia, the daughter of Benjamin L. Davis and his wife, Clara Davis. I’m not sure who Benjamin’s parents were, but I have a feeling he was probably one of the many Davis relatives in that area. Clarinda’s own parents were Joshua J. and Catharine (Maxson) Davis.1 Benjamin’s family appears in the 1870 census in New Milton, Doddridge Co., West Virginia. Benjamin was listed as a 35-year-old farmer and was enumerated with wife Clarinda, 26; daughters Eliza J., 9; Acenith, 6; and Catharine, 5; and son Tilbert, 1. At least I think that’s a “T.”2 Ten years later the family was still in New Milton but with some new spellings (“Clerinda” and “Aseneth”), as well as four new family members: John A., 8; Elisabeth L., 5; Amos S., 2; and Martin A., 3/12.3
On 27 November 1886 in Doddridge County, West Virginia, Acenith married her second cousin, second cousin once removed, third cousin, third cousin once removed, fourth cousin, fourth cousin once removed, fifth cousin, half fifth cousin, sixth cousin, sixth cousin once removed, seventh cousin, and eighth cousin.4 This was not a polygamous wedding but her singular marriage to Phillip Sheridan “Sherry” Davis. I told you all those Davises were closely connected. Phillip was born 3 November 1864 in West Virginia to Oliver Greenwood and Priscilla (Maxson) Davis.5
Phillip and Acenith would go on to have nine children: Orva A., born 17 September 1887; Offie H., born 27 October 1889; Tressie Fondella, born September 1890; Eva Emma, born 13 September 1893; Jettie Lou, born 10 February 1898; Samantha Belle, born between 1900-1901; Ada L., born between 1902-1903; Jessie M., born between 1905-1906; and Treva V., born between 1907-1908.6
In 1900 the family was enumerated in West Union, West Virginia, and Phillip was working as a teamster. In 1910 he was listed as a teamster in the oil fields, and the family lived in Greenbrier, Doddridge County. In 1920 they were still in Greenbrier, and Phillip’s occupation was listed as farming, but in 1930 he was enumerated as a water pumper, and the family was living in Salem, West Virginia. However, the family was now missing its matriarch; Phillip was listed as widowed in the census that year.7 Phillip died on 28 April 1951.
I have yet to find information regarding the death of Acenith, but I did find some additional details regarding the family while searching through Newspapers.com that I hadn’t known previously. Sadly, youngest child Treva died 28 August 1916 of typhoid fever at the home of his uncle Al Davis in Salem. The newspaper account, which spelled the eight-year-old’s name “Trevva,” noted that his was the second death in the family and that four other family members, including his parents, were still ill.8 I’m unsure who the first typhoid fever victim was, though I know it was not Orva, who lived until 1964; Offie, who had already died in 1910; Tressie, who married in 1917 and died the following year; or Eva, who lived until 1978.
And about Offie – in 1908, he (then 18) eloped with 17-year-old Effie Clark, daughter of Milton Clark. I need to investigate her further, as there is a third cousin 4 times removed named Milton Clark in our family tree, so she could well be a cousin also.9 One hopes Offie and Effie (!) had a happy if brief marriage. I did find his death record, which lists as his cause of death simply “operation.” It also spells his name “Orfis,”10 Now that is certainly not a name I’ve heard before.
- 1850 Census. n.p: www.ancestry.com, n.d. ↩︎
- 1870 Census. ↩︎
- FamilyHistory Search and/or www.ancestry.com, 1880 Census. ↩︎
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎
- 1870 Census. ↩︎
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎
- 1930 Census. ↩︎
- The Daily Telegram [Clarksburg, West Virginia], 29 August 1916, pg. 11 ↩︎
- The Daily Telegram [Clarksburg, West Virginia], 23 May 1908, pg. 5 ↩︎
- West Virginia Division of Culture and History, West Virginia Vital Research Records. ↩︎