| LOST IN THE WOODS THE WOOD - DAVENPORT FAMILY PAGE |
| What started out as a search for information about our Mother's family has turned into a fascinating hobby, connecting us to family we never knew and great people willing to share what they've learned on their own searches. Our saga starts with the tragic love story of our grandparents, LESLIE RAE DAVENPORT and ANNIE EVANS. Leslie and his twin sister, BESSIE MAE, were born onOctober 26, 1883 in the small farming town of Lehman Center, Luzerne County, Pennsylvaina to EDWARD AUSTIN DAVENPORT and OPHELIA J. NEELY. Sometime before his 17th. birthday, Leslie ran away from home. Family lore says he left with a traveling circus. Edward searched for him, even hiring an "inquiry agent", but Leslie had changed his name to DAVID KELLY and gone to Canada. He joined the Canadian Army and was sent to fight in a nasty little mess called THE BOER WAR [1899 - 1902]. We have a campaign medal of his from that time. We weren't sure what happened to Edward untill a wonderful lady named Pat Krivak found an obit in an old copy of the Dallas newspaper. It said that Edward had gone to Ohio in search of work, finding employment as a painter. He fell to his death while working on a chimney on October 10, 1901 never knowing what happened to his son. We have no idea what Leslie did between the end of the Boer War and the start of WWI in 1914. He was fighting in Europe somewhere and wounded several times during WWI. He was sent to the Red Cross Hospital in Middlewich, Cheshire, England to recover and there he met ANNIE EVANS, the daughter of DAVID EVANS and ELIZABETH JACKSON . |
| We don't know exactly when Leslie and Annie were married but by November2, 1919 they were in Windsor, Ontario, Canada because their first child, DAVID RAY DAVENPORT, was born there that day - altho he was born DAVID RAY KELLY. There are several notes in Annie's book dated March, 1919 from friends at the G.W.V.Club in Windsor. There are also 2 pictures, one of Leslie holding David and one of Annie and David at an orchard, both taken in Canada so it seems they were there for at least a few years. On January 2, 1925 their daughter, GERALDINE EDITH DAVENPORT, was born in the Homepathic Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. They had her baptised on Easter Eve, April 14, 1925 at St. Stephens Church by the Rector, Frederick L. Flinchbaugh. Margaret R. Elliott is listed on the baptism record as a sponsor. The Luzerne County Historical Society lists St. Stephens as a Methodist Episcopal Church in 1920. I visited there in 1999 - it is a beautiful place. So, after 25 or 30 years, Leslie came home, but to what? His Father is dead, his Mother, Ophelia is too. All we know of Ophelia is that after Edward died she married a man named PARSONS, that she wrote a musical poem about the sinking of the Titantic on March 8, 1912 and that she died in 1913. THE SINKINK OF THE TITANTIC Our largest ship was sailing o'er the ocean's foaming sea. While those on board were happy as children in their glee. No thought had they of sorrow all joyous with delight. And when to their amazement came the strife for right or might, CHORUS Down in the depths of the bottomless ocean many went down to a watery grave. Still may the sweet loving song of devotion cheer the sad hearts of those who are saved. 2 Oh the night was dark and lonely when the ship made a fearful crash in contact with an iceberg the angry waters lashed. A cry for help to save them was uttered in despair. The raging surging bellows with shrieks now filled the air. CHORUS 3 Some were saved the tidings bring to friends on distant shores. Can they forget the dying ones Oh God to Thee implore to the lifeboats left the vessel they were nearing "Eternity" Words By Their last song lingers with us yet Ophelia J. Neely Davenport Parsons Nearer My God to Thee Plymouth, Pa. Nearer to Thee. May 8, 1912 |
| It was sometime during the end of 1925 or early 1926 that tragedy struck. Annie and Leslie got sick- tuberculosis. There were alot of cases of tuberculosis after WWI, some reports said the soldiers got it from the mustard gas used during the war. We don't know exactly how it came about but they were both put in the Pennsylvania State Sanatorium in Hamburg, and the children put in foster care. Geraldine was too young to understand but it must have been terrible for a little 6 year old boy Men and women were separated at the sanatorium, and years later, when Geraldine's adopted aunt took her to visit, there was a box full of letters they had written to each other. Nobody thought to keep them - what sad letters they must have been. Poor Annie, in a strange country, separated from her husband, her children taken away and put with strangers. There was no money to send them back to England and noone in Leslie's family to take them. Annie died 1926 and in December of that year Leslie wrote a letter to Mr. and Mr. John Franklin Betz.of Wilkes-Barre giving them permission to adopt Geraldine if Margaret Elliott approved. She did and the adoption was final on February 24, 1928. Little David did not fare as well. He grew up in the orphanage. He must have been angry and rebellous, one family tried to adopt him but brought him back because they couldn't make him mind. All his life he carried the scars on his back from the beatings he got growing up in that orphanage. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Davenport Family Tree. The Index and Link Page |
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| The North meets the South: GERALDINE EDITH DAVENPORT from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and JAMES MORTON WOOD, JR from Phenix City, Alabama Our Parents- taken in Washington, D.C., in 1943, just before they were married |