Davis, Nathaniel Hart (1815–1893)

Nathaniel Hart Davis, pioneer and county official, third son of Nathaniel Bowe and Martha D. Davis, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, on November 6, 1815. In 1817 his family moved to Alabama, where he received his early education. He attended Transylvania University and later taught at Marion Military Academy. He received a license to practice law in Alabama in 1837. In 1840 he moved to Montgomery, Texas. He served as county attorney, commissioner, and chief justice of Montgomery County, and as judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District from 1867 to 1870. As a member of the Somervell expedition he served under Col. Joseph L. Bennett, in whose home he had lived during his first years in Texas. In 1851 Davis married Sarah Elizabeth White, a native of South Carolina; they had seven children. He died on October 8, 1893, and was buried in Montgomery.