from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 788-790
The commercial world has come to recognize the farmer's importance and has surrounded him with many conveniences not thought of fifty or one hundred years ago. The inventor has given him the self-binder, the riding plow, the steam thresher and many other labor-saving devices. And the tiller of the soil has not been slow to take advantage of the improvements thus invented and offered. Among the up-to-date farmers of Hendricks County is George Edgar Davenport, of Eel River Township, who was born February 7, 1874, in the township where he is now residing, the son of George Russell and Drusilla (Pennington) Davenport.
George Davenport's father was a native of this county, and his parents, William and Nancy (Dotson) Davenport, were natives of Virginia, who came from that state to Indiana shortly after their marriage on horseback and entered land southeast of North Salem, in this township. William Davenport died while George R. was a small boy. On reaching manhood he married Drusilla Pennington, who was born in this township about one and one-half miles northwest of North Salem, the daughter of Hampton and Nancy (Dent) Pennington. The Pennington family came from Virginia and entered land in this township, Mr. Pennington dying at the early age of forty-two and leaving a large family. When the family arrived in this county there were very few settlers here, and they had to blaze a trail through the woods in order to get to the land which they had entered. He and his good wife built a rude hut around a big rock, and used the rock to cook upon. An interesting instance happened when they built their first fire on the rock. It was cool weather and the rattlesnakes had collected under the rock, and when the rock became heated they crawled out from underneath the stone and Mr. and Mrs. Pennington killed them one by one as they emerged from underneath the rock. The widow of Hampton Pennington never remarried, but reared her children and lived to the good old age of eighty years.
After his marriage, George R. Davenport made his home southeast of North Salem, on what is known as the Alexander Williams farm. He and his young bride started in housekeeping under conditions which would discourage any but the most courageous of young couples. They lived in a rude log cabin and their bedstead was made by boring holes in the wall and supporting the outer corner by a stake driven in the ground. The cooking was all done in the fireplace, of course, and with the rudest of cooking utensils. Under such conditions they began their married life and no doubt they were just as happy as the young married couples of today, who start under the most auspicious circumstances. During the war Mr. Davenport met with severe losses, one of the most severe being the paying of a note on which he had gone security. They lived west of North Salem until the death of Mrs. Davenport, in 1898, when they moved to Putnam County, this state, and bought the farm near Barnard. There were six children by Mr. Davenport's first marriage, five of whom are now living. Some time after the death of his first wife, he married again, but the second wife died two years later.
George Edgar Davenport received a good common school education and at the age of twenty was married and began to farm with his father. A year later he bought a small farm about three miles northwest of North Salem, on which he lived for four or five years. He then moved to the father-in-law's farm, where he remained for the next two years, and then spent the two following years in the creamery business in Mulberry Grove, Bond County, Illinois, after which he returned to Hendricks County and bought forty-six acres west of North Salem and, in 1909, bought his present farm of eighty acres two and one-half miles south of North Salem. He now has eighty acres in this township. He has very valuable and desirable land and his farm is one of the most attractive farms in the township, the improvements embracing everything modern, convenient and suitable for up-to-date farming. He has paid particular attention to the raising of cattle and hogs and has met with encouraging success in this line of agriculture.
Mr. Davenport was married November 9, 1894, to Cora Page, the daughter of Jeremiah J. Page, whose family history is recorded elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport are the parents of two children, Kenneth and one child who died in early infancy. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his wife belong to the Order of the Eastern Star. They are both devout and faithful members of the Christian Church and to that denomination give their hearty support. Mr. Davenport is a man of strong character, whose success is the indication of his good business judgment, and he is widely known in this section of the county and wherever known is well liked and esteemed.