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Title
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Davis, Earnest O.
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extracted text
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REV. EARBEST OTTO DAVIS
According to the family reclhrd t:tf James R.
and Hattie Davis, (my parents)'. :E. .was born on Oct •. 28,
1892 in a log cabin in Pulaski,County, Missouri,
near
Dixon, Mo.
M¥
father was a farmer and special-
ized in fruit trees in the states of Missouri and
Texas in cooperation with
A
&
M
College, College
Station, Texas.
I
attended grade school in St. Louis, Mo.
and Jacksonville Texas.
Had some college vmrk at
Jacksonville Baptist College My Grandfather, Robert
a Davis was the son of a hardshell Baptist prea cher •.
Grandfather was an abolitionist and was a volunteer
and served in the Union army, was honorably discharge(
at the close of the civil l'Jar.
THE CALL TO PREACH
I cannot say why I wanted to prea ch, from
early childhood I was called the preacher ·, in school
5
I was called the preacher. I was called upon to say
grace at the table and could
expect a call at almost
any gathering. At time s the thought of being a prea cher
was humiliating.
I wa s not invited to many parties,
such p laces wer e not for young prea chers .and I was
shunned by ma ny youth a ctivities. I felt the spirit
o f lonliness as a young person many times.
I cannot sa v thr:1t.
T ~=>"~ "~" h~ .::1 ,...r1
n
voicQ.-.-;C....p.•"gm..,.,_-.~
2
·t\eaven, saying
" go .~
prea ch
~ 11 •
Hovrever, I did hear a
voice which may have been heaven sent, it was the
voice of a convict who was being transfered along
with nine other convicts \'lho were chained together.
Each man had light chain about his neck which was
locked to a master chain ran though the middle and
locked the ten together, as a yoke or harness. The
convicts with their guards \-tere waiting for a train
at the Cotton Belt; . R.R. Station in Jacksonville,
Texas.
They were out on the lmm a nd the sun was
shining brightly. As a boy of
these cha ined
1~
years I stood before
men with deep amusement. I had never
heard or dreamed of such a sight, and as I
gaze~
im
wonderment one of t he convicts mentioned for me to
come over close to him.
There were no other children.
or persons on the scene except the gua rds.
The one
convict began to tell me about his past life, the
things he did which put him in chains and behind
prison bars.
your sizefl
Then he sa id, "I have a little boy about
and I wish you would go t a lk to him
to walk in the panh that
not
I have walked im a nd don't
you try to travel the ha rd road that I have traveled,
it don't pay".
In a f ew mome nts t he t ra in arri ved to
transfer them t o the ir
de st ~ nation.
I turned a nd
walked away, my h eart \vas heavy and I r ealized t hat
3
I had a message to t ake to another boy in tovm, a
message that was so meaningful and not easy to carry.
These words,
"DON'T VvALK IN THE :PATH THAT I HAVE
WALKED IN, IT DON'T PAY".
Somehow t hat message
from a convict lived with me as I walked along life's
road.
And it became a message for me to tell other
young people not to vralk in the road of
11
it don't payn.
:r
c~me
and shame
That message lived and growed along
with me in my struggling effort to become a prea cher
and eke out a livlihood at the same time.
If there
was a voice in my call to prea ch, it was that voice
of a convict which made a l asting impression on my
life.
My fath er died of cancer in my early life.
I was t he older son a nd duty of supporting the family f ell on my shoulders, which delayed my college
work.. In 1913 I was married to MinnieShaad, to this
union wa s born five living children, J ame s, Nell,
Bill, Chester, a nd Linsy Davis.
Chester is a Prof.
at 1tlestern Kentucky University, Bowling Gre en, Ky.,
J ames is in the
e ngineerin~ departme nt
Motor Co.,Detroit.
·
of t he Ford
Bill a nd Li nsy are engineers and
employed at t he Detroit Arsenal ,
u.s.
Gov .,
The
daughter is married and lives in Springfi eld, Moe.
For a time I workeduwith the
St. Louis Rescue
<:..
4.
Mission, St. Louis, TJio.,
it was our duty to conduct
street meetings in the slums,
there were legalized
red light districts and dope joints.
We resuued
young fallen women and men, gave them a temporary
home and school advantages,-- many became useful
citizens, some ministers, and missionaries to foreign
countries.
In addition to slum work we conducted
gospel services in mission halls and visited the jail
on Sunday afternoons.
My young wife
w~ s
an abiding
source of comfort and strength in our mission work.
Her religious training in the convent proved to be of
great help in our \-Tork, expecially with the young
girls '"hom we picked out of the gutter in the redlight district and she was faithful as a mother and
wife and brought good cheer a nd blessings to our
parsonage home and friends. One November 17, 1963
she passed on to her eternal re ward.
In. 1918-l$tl¥ was offered a job to work part
time and study law after work hours under a tutor
from the West ¥lrginia University ••
In time Icwas
appointed agent for the Road Commission of the state
of West Virginia and served in that capacity for
nearly twelve years and carried on with my church
work and preaching as best I could .
In 1931 I was
appointed to the West Va . 1:lelfare Department, did
5
At the same time I had the opportunit y to take some
work at Marshall Colleee •• During 1931-1934 I finishe(
the Confer ence course of study of the Methodist
Protestant Church, along with my college \-.rork and
ordained Sept ember 13th 1934 and issued an elders
certificate of ordinat ion.
In addition to my Socia l
Welfre job a nd college I was appointed to the Nationa:
Board of Rehabilitation, and served under the l ate
Harry L. Hopkins, of \vashington D.c. and I was pastor
of the Ashla nd Kentucky Met hodist Protest a nt Tabernacle.
In. ;!Lune 19)6
we moved to Kinderbook, Mich.
where I was the Minist er of the Uniom Church, Congregat ional and Methodist M. P.
In· 1939-40 I was appoint-
ed the Detroit Annua l Conf erence at the time of Churct
Union •.
The Reverned Stra\in, Pr esident of the
~
P.
Conference . was elected Bishop while Bishop Blake
steered the uniting ship of Methodism through the
troubled sea to full fellowship of t he three churches.
fvly first appointment in the Detro it Annua l
Conference, ~'>ras to the old
Be a Cone
Ivl . F
ci:rcut .
The tTJ~ro churches were small a nd the s al ar y was very
low.
The former Pastor of the Circuit was opposed
to t he Union of the three Chur ches, a nd during his
stay, he never dea sed to fi ght the union, a nd of
course, he had many fo llowers· in his efforts to
6
hinder the cause of union.
In t he time after the
Uniting Confer ence at Adria n, Michigan, the Pastor of
the Bea-Cone Circuit was not ified to vacat e the parsonage and Church Buildings, a nd they did.
The Bea
Church was all but wrecked at the time the Congregation dicided to vacate.. The Wall clock was removed
along \vith the Communion set, tne pulpit Bible, cha ir::
from the church s chool and most everything moveable •.
The parsonage doors \vere barred from within, The day
for moving into the pars onage had arrived for the new
pastor and family, the Rev. E.
c.
Davis.
When the
movers arrived they found t he pars onage doors so
firmly barred they could not get it.
After some
sever al trys to unlock v1indows or a door they pl a ced
the old upr i ght pia no against t he f ror(door a nd the
two big men (the movers) gently
flew open.
pu sh ed ~a nd
the door
Aft er our furniture ha d been pl a ced i n the
rooms, the moving van pulled
a'ltray
a nd we s ettled do\'ln
to have a light lunch be fore god>.ng to bed.
There \'la s
a knock a t t he door, my \rife a nswer ed and tfoe n men
walked in without invitation.
The_y walked bhrough the
rooms, making threats a nd s ang a s ong a nd departed,
but before going away t he crm-,rd of former members of
the Church carried on with a lot of loud t a l k a nd
threat s , out on t he l awn.
Thi s was about t he s trang-
7
est recep:bion we ha d ever witne s sed.
The next morn-
ing we went over to the Church and found a pad-lock
on the door,
removed t he lock a nd found conditions
\·l e
as stated above.
Sunda y morning came a nd \.-re rung the Church be
bell for the 10 AM Worship Service. There '\'Tere ten
persons pre s ent , the ne\'r pa stor,, his wife, and
t \·Jo
sons a nd six others \tvho had come out to have a look
at the new
co~nunist
pastor.
They seemed to know
he was a real Communist prea cher, because their f ormel
pa stor had told them that the vrhole movement for Church
Union was communistic, a nd a ll the ministers were
also.
The Cone Church was not so badly a ffe cted by ···
the
thoug~of
chur ch union.
At the next Sunday
service, there were more in attendance ~Be a Church ,
wife and I had made a lot of home ca lls in t he community and got better a cqua inted with the
uation,
sit-
Litt l e by little the congr egation in both
\v. S . C•.S ..
churches grew1
The
School bega n to
~row
bers • •
who~e
was organized , t he Churcl:
a nd we sta rted t aking in new mem-
Within six months we be came self supporting ,
a nd the Det r oit Confer enc e withdr ew its moneta ry support a nd we were on our own.
The work cont i nued to
grm'll' slov.rly but st eady. \rfe were on the cir cuit about
four years.
Cir cuit.
In 1945 we we r e appointed to the Ca rleto1
The Church at Carleton I.Yas a one room struc
ture and badly in need of class rooms and a place for
social activities.
Ny District Superint endent, the
late Luther Butt D.D., gave us permission to buy the
old M.P . Church building at ""estAdraan.
r-!y offical
board at Carleton voted to begin a building program.
We had $ 4.$5 in the building fund.
I announced we
were starting to build suring the Sunday
~·1orning
ser-
vice, and a sked for donations of labor to dismantle
the old M.P. building at west Adrian.
vlith the help
of a lot of men from Carleton, we took down the
building piece by piece a nd hauled it to Carleton,
and erected a new Educational Building which stnads
to this day.
There was no solicitation for building
funds, I announced t hat this was a work of f a ith, I
was the building .foreman a nd there on the job,
thousands of dollars were ha nded in for the building
fina nces .
The job ~r.ra s l aunched in October, f inished
for the f ollo'v'ring East Sunday s ervice.
.II.
~ve
were debt
• .f'\.
free accept for about ~3500, whJ.Q...c we banum1ed from
the Mi ssion Board , by r e comme nda tion of the D.S •• I
was a tired man a nd asked to be tra nsfered to a smaller
charge in order t o rest up.
At Conf~re nce time in
1946 we were appoint ed to Sal em Grove, we made several
9
new improveme nts, decorated t he buildings a nd improve
the l andscape, pl a nted tree s a nd removed some old unsightly buildings on the Church property.
In June 1949 we were ass i gged to the Addison
Circuit, two regula r Methodist Churches. (Rollin Cente
and Devil's Lake) and the United Church of Addison
which was made up of Congregationalists and a few
I\fethodists.
The church building was owned by the
Congregational Conference Mission Board of New
~ork.
The former pastor of the chuarge , the Rev. Loren
Carter, advised us not to use the vmrd "Methodist"
in the pulpit at t he United Church. This ""as at a ti. e
after my
assiglli~ent
had been made at Conference time.
Afrer moving into the old del apitated parsonare at Carleton, and time passed on, I soon discovere
that there had been a nd still \·Tas a lot of b'ckering
between the t wo groups in the United Church at Addiso .
However,, there
vra s
nothing for me to do but try to
lif~ myself above the strife a nd work.
And with my
Social science training and past experience, a nd by
the gra ce of God, the Congregat ion bega n t o grmi .
had set
1
t~)
A.
~·le
E.l.tmber of s oci;;_l se l_f ;J_r e pr0j.o· ct s which
\"Vere needed in the community.
vve gave food baskets t o
needy families at Thanksgi ving and Christmas · • • In
time we furnished new shoe s for deserving poor f amilie
whose children wer
10
for infa nts of poor per sons , gave clothing to
childr e ~
a nd adits, a nd a baby l ayout to expe cta nt mothe rs,
un'l'red a nd other needy \vomen.
The Congr egation 'frew
by leaps, the budget adva nced
in about t wo yea rs .
lovely.
fro~ ~
2400 to 10500
This a ll ve r y nice, in f a ct
Howe ve r, the Congr egational side of the
United Church gr ev,r more dema nding f or full control
of t he Church a ctivities a nd in time : asked tha t the
next incoming pastor be se lect ed f rom the Congr egational Conference., the 14ethodists had had control l on ~
enough.
We as Methodists '\'.Jere set a side and the Con-
gregational I'lfi s sion Boa r d took over t he pro perty a nd
a nd set things in order a s they saw fit.
By 1955
t he Cong regationalits wer e in f ull
control a nd t he Methodi s t pastor and progr a m had been
se t aside , and t he Addi s on Circuit cea s ed to be.
J.VIy expe rie nce a t Addi son wa s time well s pent
in many r es pe cts, the membe r s hip ,.,as more tha n doubled, the Church School increased f rom! a n enrollme nt
of 50 to 185. our s oc i al program wa s dfinite help to
ma ny poor f amlies, I be came a better preacher, pl a ns
were i n t he making f or bu i l ding of a new building ,
s e ve r al bui lding lot s were bought a nd paid f or a nd
a building f und
~'las
set up.
HO\<Te ve r, upon l eavi ng
t he charge I f ound mysel f broke n in s pi r it a nd in
health , I s u f fer ed a nea r
co~l e t e
breakdowrn, a nd
11
spent several months at the .Henry Ford Hospita l,
y-
Detroit.
And \'las dischar ged with instuctions to go
slow in my work of prea ching.
a
And I carry in my body
condition for which t here is no known cure.
due time I
'~as
In
retired at Conference time. Although
I have done some interim and supply work which I shal
never forget the Addison Corcuit, where v'le lost a
Church and I lost my health, my good wife and
faithful mother to her home and her God for her
eternal revrard.
1956
Rev. Earnest Otto Davis
.
'
5. Ed uca. tion:
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-----~1-----------------T-O-~~~-~-~ --I----L----->.--
THE ANN ARBOR NEWS • MONDAY. MAY 6. 1991
·· : · · ·
0
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,
•
0
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•
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THE REV. EARNEST 0.
· · • _. ;·· ····P'f.i DAVIS, 98, died May 3 in a Bowl,
,
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Davis, Rev. Earnest 0.
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Age 98. Formerly of Salem Grove
United Methodist Church, Chelsea. Funeral services will be held Wednesday,
May 8, 10 a.m., East Grass Lake Cemetery. Viewing at COLE-BURGHARDT FUNERAL CHAPEL, Chelsea,
Tuesday, 6-8 p.m.
ing Green Nursing Home after a
lengthy illness. He was a member
of State Street UMC and a retired
minister who had served churches in Ashland, Ky.; Coldwater,
Carleton, Napoleon, Addison,
Francisco, Rogers Corners, Madison and Jackson, Mich.; Edinburg, Ind., and Kurten, Texas, as
well as Salem Grove UMC. Survivors include three sons, James
E. and Chester L. Davis of Bowling Green and Linzy T. Davis of Troy, Mich.; one daughter, Mrs.
Robert (Nell) Lougheed of Macy,
Ind.; 13 grandchildren and 23
great-grandchildren. Funeral services were May 8 with Pastor
Mike Bossingham .officiating.
Expressions of sympathy may
take the form of contributions to
7/ 1 9'1/
Hospice.
..57..2.
'
From th e
NIWS
DETROIT
Conference of
The Methodist Church
COi.\lMISSION ON PUB LI C RELATIO NS Al\;D METHO DIST INFORMATION
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Davis, Earnest O.