 John Davis served as the Harrison County sheriff, ruling elder in his Presbyterian church and (unlike his son John James Davis) sympathized with the Confederacy and died in 1863.His wife Eliza (J.J. Davis' mother) was a pioneer school teacher in Harrison County, who taught Stonewall Jackson as well as her sons and many other local children.Either the father John Davis or this J.J. Davis owned 6 slaves in Harrison County in 1860, and his brother Rezin Davis owned two slaves (a 17 year old woman and a one year old boy).