Bio: Davis Family, Irving
Contact: Stan

Surnames: DAVIS PHILLIPS OATMAN RIIHIMAKI YOUNG KIER

----Source: Town of Fremont History - 1973

Davis Family, Irving

Irving Davis was born in 1903 and moved to Fremont, Clark County, Wis. from northeast of Stevens Point with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Davis, and brother Gerald and sister Esther.

His paternal grandmother and her second husband, Mr. and Mrs. Jason Phillips, operated the Snow Post Office in their home from 1880 to 1900 in the southeast corner of Fremont.

His maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Oatman, bought land in Fremont about 1880. They had two daughters, Bessie and Elsie. He sold nine acres of land to the Omaha Railroad Co. for a right-of-way and a depot, but the station was later built at Chili. When the bridge was completed across the river, Bessie as a young lady had a ride in the engine and so became the first woman to ride this track.

Bessie was able to wait until the school bell rang and then run two hundred yards to the school west of her home. This school burned a a new one built a mile south and was known as District No. 2. She later married John Davis and the land they bought was across the road from her childhood home.

Irving Davis attended the District No. 2 School for about six years until the new Forest Side School was finished. After that he graduated from the Marshfield High School and the Stevens Point Normal. He taught school at Phelps, Wis., and the Pine Circle School in Fremont.

While at Phelps he married Annie Riihimaki. They have four children, Mrs. Edna Mae Young of Auburndale, Rev. Walter Davis of Paradise, Indiana, Mrs. Ruth Kier of Marshfield, Wis., and Chief Norman Davis of the navy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and there are 17 grandchildren.

He gave up teaching and returned to farming on his father's farm. Both Mr. and Mrs. Davis have served as 4-H leaders for many years. She also is a charter member of the Forest Side Homemakers Club. He served as treasurer for the Forest Side School, Committee man for the A.C.P. and Tri-State Breeders Co-op. He has had several offices in the United Methodist Church, and served for 35 years as Secretary and Treasurer of the Chili Milk Pool.

They sold their farm except for the house and an acre of land and are now retired.