Bill and I had the pleasure of meeting and in his case becoming reaquainted with his nearly 80 year old 1st cousin once removed, Wesley Baker Davis this summer in Lubbock, Texas. Wesley`s dad Doc (William Wilburn Davis) and Bill`s Grandpa Nat (Charles Nathanial Davis) were brothers. Doc was a Jr. so his nickname was derived because as a child he treated peers for pretend illnesses with rabbit pellets.
Wesley was one of six siblings born to Doc and 1st wife Pearl Harmon. She died when Wesley was young. Doc then married May. That`s when "All hell broke out." according to Wesley. She bore 13 children 9 of whom (7 men and 2 women) commited suicide. Two jumped off the rim of The Grand Canyon. About 1942 when Wesley was 13 and younger brother Roy Lee or Tinker was 11 the parents left them in the cotton field near Matador. His dad offered him a bus ticket to Amarillo. He declined saying he could get there faster by Hitch hiking so he hitched to Amarillo, got a room in a hotel and sold newspapers to live. In spite of all he had a good relationship with his dad. Step mother was another story.
Wesley was able to give some insight into the lives of other family members. He knew Great Grandma Mary Davis. She was a fullblood Choctaw Indian. Great Grandpa William Wilburn Davis was embarrassed of her heritage so she was never allowed to go to town. She had sore gums and jaws and would wail in pain. She had no teeth. She would sit by the fireplace and smoke a pipe. I remember Pearl saying in later years she lived in a tent in her and Nat`s yard. Their house had burnt. His memory of Bud and Fannie was Bud was in CCC camp a couple years before they married. He remembered seeing Fannie only a few times. Wesley`s biological mother Pearl and Great Uncle John`s wife Noah were sisters. Wesley was the one to get John and Nat and their families to move from east Texas to west Texas. They settled near White Flat and made their living pulling bolls for 4 or 5 years 1st for a Charley Harris and others later. When asked about Nat`s illegal whiskey business, with a twinkle in his eye he told me he always sold it. Once when the sheriff came around to search the house Nat told him look all he wanted. Nat sat on the porch with feet propped up on a large round footstool. The sheriff opened every closet and cabinet, found nothing and left. The next visitor was a customer that purchased whiskey from that very footstool. Wesley thinks Tinker`s wife had him killed June 5, 2005. At his funeral he observed wife giving a fellow a roll of $100 bills. He said you don`t have to do this now. She replied "I told you I would pay when it is done."
One of the interesting recent stories was widower Wesley a couple of months ago eloped with his dancing club friend Rita. The couple dressed in blue jeans went to the local courthouse for their nuptuals. His oldest daughter hasn`t spoken to him since. They live in a new but very ordinary house for a man that is a billionaire and knew Sam Walton personally. No Rita is not a gold digger. His money is all tied up in trusts for his kids. To make his fortune it seems years ago on the advice of his father-in-law he bought a couple parcels of land in the Houston area and in recent years offered the land to some California doctors for an ungodly amount of money and they bought. I would say that is the rest of the story for a self made Davis relative.
