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Franklin Markham Davis Pages 380-381 - Franklin Markham Davis, deceased, who was born a year before Michigan’s admission into the Union, was one of the pioneer settlers of Kent County. His name was familiar to most of the residents of the county in the early days, and to them he was known as Mark. He was born at Plymouth, Michigan, January 8, 1835. At the age of nine years, he removed to Paris township where he took advantage of the educational facilities of the district schools of the township. His education completed, he engaged in farming, taking up eighty acres of government land in Cascade township, which he continued to work until his retirement from active life. On December 24, 1864, he married Miss Julia Ann McCormick, and to Mr. and Mrs. Davis were born six children as follows: Mary C., the wife of Henry Fralick of Grand Rapids; Henry P. Davis; Miss Edith J. Davis; Mrs. Arthur J. Thomas; Winifred, deceased, and Markham, Jr. Mr. Davis watched the development of Grand Rapids from a small village, when canoes traveling the river used to tie up at the bank near the preset site of the Pantlind hotel, to its preset size. He was respected and loved by all who knew him. He died May 12, 1924, at the age of eighty-nine years, as the result of an accident in his own home. His daughter, Miss Edith J. Davis, is secretary of the Valley City Ice & Coal Company, one of the successful and enterprising concerns of its kind in Grand Rapids.
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