Roscoe Conkling Davis.
Photo is entitled: "The entourage of Judge Richard Douglas Davis".
Photo is from William Fitzrandolph 'Randy' Davis, and was probably taken between 1910-1913, possibly at Huntingdon, WVa.
Photo includes a group of people in a car we've recently identified (+ -1 yr) as a 1910 Peerless (or possibly Pierce-Arrow). The car has the monogram "R.D.D." on the rear door and is thought to have belonged to Judge Richard Douglas Davis.
The people in the photo have been recently identified by George Vroom Davis (1912- ) as:
Front seat: Myrtilla Ann Davis, b. 1880s, holding unidentified baby, possibly nephew Richard Douglas Davis III.
The man behind the wheel is probably Myrtilla's husband, Daniel M. Holton.
Getting out of car, possibly Louis Nelms Davis, born in 1872 in Carter Co.,
who was head teller at RDD's 2nd bank of Ashland, and a very close associate of RDD.
Unidentified man in rear, center, wears a hat which matches the style worn by Juudge Richard Douglas Davis Sr.. Woman in bonnet, Mary Lewis, RDD's wife, was the daughter of Charles Nelms Lewis Jr.. Mr. Lewis was a fixture in the Democratic machine of Carter Co. in the 19th century. Mary is holding a large female baby thought to be Mary Emily Holton, Myrtilla's daughter.
Standing, in boater hat is Capt. Roscoe Conkling Davis, USN (1878, Carter, - 1962), who was a Lieutenant at the time of the photo and had seen duty in the Adriatic, Phillipines and other stations.
Later comments by the contributor....
"re the group photo of roscoe conkling davis, myrtilla ann davis [holton], mary lewis [davis], and ((??mary emily holton, daniel holton, douglas davis holton, judge richard douglas davis, lewis nelms davis??))
I didn't realize that the gentleman climbing out of the back seat wouldn't be visible in the reduced copy i sent you.
attached is a full-sized detail from the original scan, manipulated to best display the features in question.
look just to the left of myrtilla, directly next to and behind her, about eyeball-height and you'll see the brim of a black hat and an eye, nose and cheekbone of a man behind her.
he's not even very visible in the full-size scan. certainly his features are not easy to make out.
but he is there. and turned as if to be getting out of the car, but with his head tilted back towards the camera.
even less identifiable, but present is another male figure, in the center position in the back seat.
since they are quite unidentifiable, i can only guess whether they are lewis nelms davis and judge davis respecively.
note the monogram r.d.d. on the side of the car.
cousin randy sent this photo to me as unidentified, but definitely from the davis family side.
I soon realized that the standing man was my grandfather, capt. roscoe conkling davis usn, because he always stood at parade rest in photos (except in his navy portraits of course), and had the build, and the same jawline hinting at an underbite, and very unique ears.
about this time i also began looking into judge richard davis' other children. comparing the woman in the front seat to a detail of a labeled group photo taken after 1957, i can see that it's definitely myrtilla.
i didn't have a clue as to whether the woman in back was mary lewis, daughter of charles nelms lewis jr., and the judge's wife, but she survived her husband, and i wondered if it was her.
My grandfather's notes say that the judge went to live with them (daniel and myrtilla) from 1910 'til his death in 1913, at huntington, wv.
I'm trying to find holton/davis descendants to see if anyone else knows the photo, or has other photos of the subjects, but haven't actually made contact yet.
Lewis nelms davis died in the 1930s according to my grandfather and rootsweb pages.
Richard douglas davis II died in 1970, of boyd co., according to the ss-d-idx.
I'm also looking into the possibility of having a professionally enhanced copy made of the photo to see if it will yield any better details.
I would encourage your readers to submit a more expert opinion than i have given as to the exact identification of the car as well.
1) carter co. 'rattlesnake' historical society's transcription and notes to the 1870 census, in which mary still lives in the home of her parents, narrowing the date of their marriage to late summer/fall of 1870. the notes state that they later married.
A note buried in my grandfather's pages stating that they were married 25 nov 1870 in kansas city, mo.
Submitted by Tim Davis
I wondered if both children in the photo were myrtilla's but the ages are too close if they were born in 1909 and 1912 as my grandfather's chart stated.
then, i recently discovered in the ss-d-idx that her 2nd child, douglas davis holton, was actually born 1 jan 1911, which makes more sense with the photo and now i think it could be him.
it doesn't look to be richard douglas davis III, who was the infant in the other group photo we submitted, and randy never mentioned his late father being a subject in this photo.
since lewis nelms davis was closely associated with his father at that time, it would be natural for him to be in the picture, but this can only be guessed at.
anyway, i then brought all this up to my father, george vroom davis. he readily identified myrtilla, and capt. roscoe (his father) as well as mary lewis (his grandmother), though he never knew daniel holton and couldn't identify the man behind the wheel, or the kids.
according to my grandfather's charts, the daughter, mary emily, married f.a. macdonald in 1937 and they had f.a. jr. (1939) and lucy a. (1942).
the son, douglas davis holton, was the father of dianne holton (1944) and stephen holton (1947).
He married in 1915, margery baker, whose parents were said to have immigrated from holland to run a furniture factory in michigan, and they had richard s. lt. davis, usnr (1917), and marianne davis (1923).
judge richard davis' marriage to mary lewis is proven by:
this was corroborated by their inclusion in ancestry.com's missouri marriage index.