Church Founded by Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis, C.S.A.

Nicholas Davis was born on August 8, 1824, in Limestone County, Alabama, and studied theology under Robert Donnell of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He married Nancy Isabella Worthington in 1852 and moved to Bastrop, Texas, in November 1857. On August 16, 1861, he left for Virginia as chaplain of the Fourth Texas Infantry in Hood's Texas Brigade. His Campaign from Texas to Maryland appeared in Richmond in 1863, with a slightly revised edition in Houston the same year. He died on November 19, 1894, in San Antonio, while visiting his daughter.

What the plaque says

Church Founded by Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis, C.S.A. Born in Alabama in 1824. Entered Presbyterian ministry. Moved to Texas in 1857. Farmed and preached. At start of Civil War joined the 4th Texas Infantry and went with troops to Virginia. As a Confederate chaplain had same pay and rations as a private, and no status privileges. Duties included religious services, lessons, counseling, funerals, baptisms, sick visits, removal of wounded and dead from battlefields. Handled mail, with special attention for men who could not read and write. Worked to get better troop living conditions. Established hospital wards. Because newspapers gave Virginians credit for Texas boys' victories, published 1863 in Richmond his "Campaign from Texas to Maryland." A Houston edition gave homefolk news few soldiers could tell. After war returned to farming, building churches and preaching over the state. For many years was a Trinity University trustee. Established the first commercial orchard in Jacksonville and started the development which makes the area foremost in Texas fruit growing. Pioneered use of insecticides, better farming methods and new machinery. Died in 1894 in San Antonio . (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 23 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 27 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.

More markers nearby

• Jacksonville Independent School District — 0.4 mi
• Site of First Free Public School — 0.4 mi
• Lon Morris College — 0.5 mi
• Jacksonville College — 0.5 mi