Hannah M. Davis
Status: looking for family
We continue our Davis family saga with Hannah M. Davis, the fourth child of Hannah Slingluff and Charles Davis whose large family resided in Montgomery County, PA. Hannah M. is featured across a number of photos I found with this family lot:
Hannah on the right
Hannah on the right
Hannah married Thomas Shoemaker in 1900, and they led a quiet farm life in Upper Dublin Township, PA - once a rural community now overtaken by Philadelphia’s suburban sprawl. Hannah and Thomas had only one son - Silas - born in 1904. Despite having only one child, Thomas and Hannah had a full house on the farm. Their farm laborer, a 21 year old black man named William Ashton, lived with them, as did Hannah’s sister Charlotte Davis, who worked as a school teacher at the public school.
Thomas and Hannah don’t appear in many newspaper articles of their time, apart from their death notices. Thomas died in 1923 at age 50, and Hannah lived for another 25 years without her husband. Unfortunately, her sister Charlotte died tragically just three years after Thomas when a car hit her, Hannah, and their sister Elizabeth. Hannah sustained a scalp wound and a fractured ankle, but survived.
Silas continued to live with his mother as a young adult, and when he got married to his wife Edith and they welcomed their baby boy Everett, the new family lived in Hannah’s house. The 1930 census shows them living together: since becoming a widow, Hannah had herself taken up teaching at the local school - maybe to honor her sister Charlotte? - as did Silas.
When Hannah died in 1948, Silas was listed as her sole beneficiary. She is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery.