( top ) Pages 20-21 of Cox Album
(bottom) Pages 17 and 4 of Cox Album
The man in photo #20 is almost certainly "Henry S. Davids".
The woman is his wife. The right photo is labeled
"Adelaide S. Davids, 1874", and there is faint erased other writing which can be
read as "Mrs. Adeline Davids" ; her correct name is Adeline Coy (Brown)
Davids. The top left photo is labeled "August 1874". The 1870 California census
states that H.S. Davids was a 30-year-old unmarried "engineer" in Solana County
(Vellejo), born in Virginia; an obituary
claims that Henry S. Davids was born 1839 in New York.
A family bible records his birth on 4 April 1839 at
FishKill-on-Hudson, N.Y. Adele Landis stated in 1964 that Alice's mother came
from the Davids family: indeed, Henry, Emeline,
and Phoebe Davids were siblings. Photo of Henry on page #20
by Bradley Rulotson, 429 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. Photo #21 of Adeline Brown
by Bradley & Rulofson, San Francisco The woman's clothing was dated 1876-78, 2 years later than the
written date on the photo . |
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Pages 17 and 4 of Cox Album
The left photo below is dedicated "Yours Affectionately, H.S. Davids and daughter, for
Alice"; the father seems to be the same man as on page 20 above. Photo made by
Solana Art Studio, J.G. Smith, Vallejo, California, probably about 1887, at which time Henry Stephen Davids would be 48 years old,
assuming that his age (30) is given correctly in the California 1870 census. H.S. Davids
died in 1888 at the Illinois home of his sister Emeline, and had retired as a U.S. Navy engineer due
to poor health (Bright's disease, a staph infection easily treatable today).
This was his only child, and given that the father died at age 49, the child knew that
she would soon lose her father. Indeed, a second obituary
names his daughter, Charlotte, surviving him as an orphan, his wife having died earlier.
A later picture of Charlotte, a possible
earlier picture, and other family items
have survived. Henry died in the home of his sister, Emeline Cox, and Charlotte was raised
by Emeline's daughter Marie, who then photographed this daughter a few years later (right
photo below). The child's clothing in the left photo was dated 1890, newer than the
father's; the child's clothing on the right was dated 1892-3. The left photo may
have been organized shortly before Henry's death. The right photo occupies page 4, but is
noted on the back by me (Tom McFarland) that it was loose in the album, and inserted
later to page 4, but as I studied these photos in March 2000, I concluded that here
would be a better place for this photo, nearer her (presumed) father. |