Family Records, 1788-1945

This series contains documents related to domestic life on the Davis family farm. Correspondence concerning bills or receipts of payment for domestic purchases from 1886 to 1941 comprise the bulk of this series. There are records of Davis family accounts at several stores, which detail the family's consumer patterns over time. Purchases of note include portraits from a Washington, D.C., artist's studio, a gold watch with fob, a piano, a new Singer sewing machine (1903), and a Frigidaire refrigerator (1941). Two telephone service agreements document the family's first telephone service in 1906 with Potomac Telephone Company and the addition of a second line in 1928 with Potomac Edison Company.

Advertisements and pamphlets dating from the 1890s relate to medical remedies, especially ladies' remedies, and to religion. The latter includes Catholic pamphlets and Apostleship of Prayer League leaflets belonging to Ursula Davis and Florence Fair. Of particular interest is a calendar page for April 1915, which marks the illness and death of Cora U. Davis in her husband R. Lee Davis's handwriting.

There are two manuscript arithmetic books from the late eighteenth century, one belonging to William Morsell and another to George Davis. A teacher's account book, most likely dating from the 1880s, lists Saidee and Carl Davis as students who purchased textbooks.

The latest materials in this series are the World War II ration books belonging to Aubrey G. Davis, his wife Ursula, and his daughter Audrey.

Arrangement is alphabetical by topic and then chronological.