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From the Regimental Histories Series:
Davis, Wilbur Fisk: Pvt., Cpl., Sgt. Major. Born 5/29/1839 in New Bern, NC, son of Joseph H. and Anne Turberville Beale (m. 5/10/1838). Moved with family from place to place until resided in Murfreesboro, NC between 1854-1857. Student at University of Virginia 1857-8. Enlisted 3/20/1862. Absent sick in Richmond with leave 7/10/1862. Admitted to Charlotteesville G.H. with typhoid fever 8/12-10/5/1862. Present 10/31/1862. Cpl. 4/30/1863. Sgt. Major 6/1/1863. Absent 12/31/1863. Present 2/29/1864. Captured 5/12/1864 at 'Bloody Angle' Spotsylvania Court House. 'At home on parole' 10/31/1864. Reported from parole 12/19/1864. Retired to invalid corps 2/13/1865. Assigned to Major Campbell, topographical engineer dept. Opened a school in the Bowisville (now Cismont) area after the war. Married Ella V. Sampson 8/30/1866 at her father's home, Clifton, by his father. Moved to Lynchburg after the spring of 1869, opened another school. Settled at Hickory Hill in Westmoreland Co., Virginia between 1872-4. Superintendent of schools in Westmoreland Co. in 1878. Ella died 8/1882. He joined Va. Methodist Conference and was assigned to Martinsville 11/1885. Died at his home at Hickory Hill near Hague, VA 2/18/1912 and is buried in the family cemetery there.
A bio of W.F. Davis from:
Sketches and portraits of the Virginia Conference [of the Southern Episcopal Methodist Church] by John James Lafferty, 1901, pp. 253 and 255.
'REV. WILBUR F. DAVIS
He is entitled by descent to be a Methodist minister. His great-grandmother was the first Methodist in Gloucester county, whither she moved from Isle of Wight county. Her husband, John Davis, afterwards became a Methodist preacher. His [John Davis's] two brothers, Philip and Stephen, were also Methodist preachers. Stephen, a noted member of the Virginia Conference, died of yellow fever in Norfolk in 1795. John Davis' son, Williams Edwards Davis, was a well-known local Methodist preacher in Gloucester for years. His son, Joseph H. Davis, was an active member of the Virginia Conference for forty-three years. Thus Wilbur was raised in the Conference, having often, when a small boy, traveled the district with his father. Wilbur's mother, when young, was the first convert in a large irreligious family of Episcopal proclivities. She at once joined the Methodist Church and erected a family altar in her chamber with her sisters.
Wilbur was born May 29, 1839, in Newborn, N. C. While yet at college he experienced a call to the ministry. This he put off, mainly through fear that the impression was occasioned only by the fact that his mother had dedicated him to the ministry from earliest infancy. The war intervened. He served in the army and spent some time as a prisoner in Fort Delaware. He taught school a number of years. He yielded to his call, and was licensed to preach November 5, 1876; took work under the Presiding Elder as pastor of Westmoreland Circuit the latter half of 1879, by request of the Quarterly Conference, after his father's death; and in February, 1885, at Floyd Street, Danville; entered the Virginia Conference in November, 1885, and has served four years at Martinsville; was ordained deacon in 1880, and elder in 1885. He has served Culpeper, Boydton, Williamsburg, Barton Heights, Cartersville, He is now, for the third year, the pastor of Westmoreland.
Mr. Davis has enjoyed superior educational advantages and used them diligently. He is well furnished by training and preparation for the proclamation of the Gospel. He is a student. His parishioners are fed with ripe and nourishing food. His discourses have weight. They would not be tossed upward by the opposite scale if the sermons pronounced before thousands and printed for tens of thousands were balanced against them. The prancings,play of voice and attitudinizings that catch the crowds are beneath him. He would not stoop to win the smile of the 'groundlings.' To the wise, serious, cultured, he brings what they crave 'grapes of Eschol.' He gathers the great clusters. He is an expounder of God's Word, making the people to understand.
He has a massive head His presence assures you of a person of no mean powers. He is a man of simple ways; dignified, without stiffness, coldness or curtness. He is genial, genuine and sincere. His heart is in his calling. He is knightly and brave for God, loving towards his brethren and devout. He continues a widower.'
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