Wilson Daily Times, 2 August 1929.

Judah Davis was born in 1843 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and died 29 July 1929. Her death certificate lists her parents as Jack Edmundson and Synthana Edmundson. She appears as 27 year-old “Judia” Davis in the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County, in a household that includes Sarah Davis, 54, and Judah’s children Fredrick, 4, and Mary, 2. All are erroneously classified as white.

Son Fred’s (and perhaps Mary’s) father, in fact, was white — Joseph Watson Davis, a 38 year-old agent for a commercial merchant, who lived nearby. [Joseph had sons Bayard Mershon (1859-1882) and William (1863-1943) and a daughter Addie (1876-1965). Rev. Fred Mashon Davis, longtime pastor of  Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church, named one of his sons William Bayard and a daughter Addie.] Judah had at least one other child, son Alfred Davis, who was 20 days old at the time the 1880 census was taken.