from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 378-380
To write the personal record of men who have raised themselves from humble circumstances to a position of responsibility and trust in a community is no ordinary pleasure. Self-made men, men who have achieved success by reason of their personal qualities and left the impress of their individuality upon the business and growth of their place of residence and affect for good such institutions as are embraced in the sphere of their usefulness, unwittingly, perhaps, build monuments more enduring than marble obelisk or granite shaft.
Herschel Elsworth Davis is a Hoosier by birth, born in Boone County on September 9, 1861, the son of Speer Bruce and Mary Ann (Smith) Davis, the former of whom was born in Scott County, Minnesota, the latter being a native of Hendricks County, having been born near Brownsburg. Speer B. Davis was a young physician who came to Hendricks County in 1855 and took up the practice of his profession in Brownsburg and Boone County. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted and for three years served as surgeon on the hospital corps. In 1858 he was united in marriage with Mary Ann Smith, of Boone County, whose death occurred while he was at the front. They had two little sons and one of them also died while the father was absent. At the close of the war, Doctor Davis returned to his home in Boone County and took the remaining child, the subject of this sketch, to his former home in Minnesota, there to be cared for by his people. When the subject was seven years of age, he was again thrown on the mercies of the world owing to the complete disappearance of his father, who was not heard from for a great many years. In the meantime, the Smiths, parents of the subject's mother, sent to Minnesota and had the child returned to Boone County and to them, and there he remained until his marriage.
On March 8, 1887, Mr. Davis was united in marriage with Anna Lumpkin, a daughter of George W. and Sarah (Harrison) Lumpkin, born in Boone County, Indiana, on April 30, 1866. George W. Lumpkin was a native of Tennessee, born on December 8, 1825, while Sarah (Harrison) Lumpkin, daughter of Eli and Rachel Harrison, was a Hoosier by birth, born in Kokomo on September 2, 1828. Eli Harrison was first sheriff of Howard County, Indiana. George W. Lumpkin came from a family who had early settled in Tennessee and was a son of Richard and Rebecca Lumpkin, the former of whom was a soldier of the War of 1812. After his marriage, Mr. Davis continued to reside in Boone County on a rented farm for about a year, when he came over into Hendricks County and lived on rented land for four years. At that time he purchased his present farm of thirty-four acres, which was absolutely without improvement and in an almost primeval condition. It cost him thirty dollars per acre and recently he refused an offer of two hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, preferring to remain on the land he has so finely improved and to enjoy the fruits of his labors. For ten years Mr. Davis did gardening and attended the city market in Indianapolis during all that time. His ceaseless effort and untiring energy have won him material success and while winning a competence he ever conducted his business in such manner as to receive the confidence and respect of those who knew him, as well as from his business acquaintances. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have one child, a daughter Emma, who remains at home. She attended Brownsburg High School and early displayed marked musical ability. After the conclusion of her high school work, she took up the study of music in Indianapolis, attending the Metropolitan School of Music for three years, and has made herself an artist of no mean ability. She now teaches instrumental music in Indianapolis.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis and Miss Emma are all members of the Christian Church and take an active part in the affairs of same. Mr. Davis' fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of Pythias and in the work of that order he takes a pleasurable interest. Mrs. Davis is engaged in the poultry business, making a specialty of White Wyandottes and is doing well with them, shipping more poultry and eggs than any one else in her community. The family is placed among the leading ones of the community and stand high in public estimation. Mr. Davis' career, although strenuous and to a marked degree progressive and successful, has always been characterized by honest dealing. He is well known throughout the county and highly respected by all because of his clean life and upright and honorable dealings with his fellow men.