52 Ancestors: Week 7 "Love": Walter Enloe Davis

My great-grandmother Anna Gertrude Tarkington and her first husband, my great-grandfather Henry Brown Gatlin, did not have a happy marriage. But Gertrude found love with her second husband, Walter Enloe "Bill" Davis.

Walter was born in Nashville, Tennessee on 17 February 1899. He was the son of Larned Davis and Lena Alley. In 1900, he and his parents lived at 941 Woodland Street, Nashville, Tennessee. I have not been able to locate Walter in the 1910 United States Census. He was not in his parents' home in Sumner County, Tennessee. When he registered for the World War I draft in 1918, Walter was living with his parents in Bethpage, Sumner County, Tennessee and working as a farmer. He was not in their household in 1920, and I have been unable to locate him in census records.

In 1930, Walter lived at 4530 N. Lincoln Street, Chicago, Illinois. He worked as a  chauffeur for a private family. My great-grandmother Gertrude (Tarkington) Gatlin and her son, my paternal grandfather Henry Cornelius Gatlin, lived with him and were listed as lodgers, but I suspect that Walter and Gertrude were already in a relationship.

Walter applied for a Social Security account on 25 February 1937. At that time, he lived at 4719 N. Winchester Ave. Chicago and worked for Schach Motor Livery, 1820 Lawrence Avenue.

In 1940, Walter and Gertrude lived at  4710 Wolcott. Walter worked as a chauffeur for a motor livery company. He and Gertrude were listed as married. However, they may not yet have been married. According to my father's baby book, he received a birthday gift from Grandma Gatlin and Bill Davis for his first birthday in 1942, and he received a gift from Grandma Davis for his second birthday in 1943. So they may have actually married between March 1942 and March 1943.

Sometime between 1940 and 1943, Walter and Gertrude moved to New York State. My father took a trip to Utica, New York to visit them on 1 August 1943. I am not sure if they had more than one residence in New York. I only know of one: Orangeport Road in Brewerton, Onondaga County, New York.

Gertrude died on  9 July 1959. On 27 February 1962, Walter married Mary Katherine Johnson in Manchester, Coffee County, Tennessee.

Walter died in Davidson County, Tennessee on 3 September 1983. There is a gravestone for him (shared with Gertrude) in Cedarville Cemetery, Cedarville, New York, but I am not sure whether he is buried there. His death date is not inscribed on the stone.

Supplemental report of birth, Walter Enloe Davis. Tennessee Delayed Birth Records, 1869–1909. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Available from Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

World War I draft registration card, Walter Enloe Davis. United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm. Available from Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.   

Walter Enloe Davis, SS no. 351-07-2053, 25 February 1937, Application for Account Number (Form SS-5), Social Security Administration, Baltimore, Maryland.