John Franklin Davies (1878 - 1968)

His name was the same as his father's, but his father died when he was only six years old, so perhaps he dropped "junior" from his original name. To his grandchildren, he was known as "Deda".

He was born in Amherst, Virginia on June 5, 1878, and always spoke fondly of his childhood home. After the death of his father, his mother and her four children moved to Baltimore.

He was in the U. S. Army during the Spanish American War and trained in Florida, but his outfit did not go to Cuba. He enjoyed telling the story that they were replaced at the last minute by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. He missed the Battle of San Juan Hill, but he was still receiving his Army pension 70 years later!

After his discharge from the Army, John returned to Baltimore, where he married Annette Levering on November 25, 1903. The photo on the right was taken in Atlantic City, possibly when they were on their honeymoon.

They lived on Edmondson Avenue in Catonsville, just west of the Baltimore city line. John was very active at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, where he was on the vestry for many years.

He was a salesman and general agent for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. from 1914 until 1936, and then co-general agent (with his son Landon) until his retirement in 1953.

After the death of his first wife Annette in 1958, John moved to Kent Island, near the eastern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, overlooking "Crab Alley Bay".

At age 83, he married his second wife, Edith Dudley, and moved to "Hemsley's Fortune", her family's property near Queenstown, only a few miles away.

John is best remembered as an outstanding outdoorsman. He loved many types of fishing and hunting and remained incredibly active until the end - he was out in a duck blind one day before he died!

He was featured in the Baltimore Sun - Davies Active Angler at 89 - in which the Outdoors Editor of the newspaper called him "the most amazing fisherman I've met in my many years on the water".