Field Notes

Researching Family History One Record at a Time

Ancestors / Davis

Alice Josephine Davis

Also known as: Alice Josephine Jackson, Jo Jackson, Josie

b. 13 Mar 1904 · Alma, Park County, Colorado – d. 7 Jul 1980 · Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado

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Black-and-white studio portrait of a young Alice Josephine Davis, hair swept up and pinned, wearing a light-colored blouse with a soft collar, smiling gently against a patterned studio backdrop.
Alice Josephine Davis. Original photograph in Shannon's possession, scanned personally.

Vital Facts

Event Date Place Status Source
Birth 13 Mar 1904 Alma, Park County, Colorado Working Hypothesis 1a,1b,1c,1d,1e Two data points disagree on year: the 1910 census (age 7) and 1920 census (age 16) are each consistent with a birth year of 1903, while the 1930 census (age 26), 1950 census (age 46), and the Social Security Death Index (which gives 2 Mar 1904, versus 13 Mar 1904 on Find a Grave and here) all agree on 1904. Childhood ages self-reported to census enumerators by a parent are among the more error-prone fields of this era, so the two later, adult-reported ages are given more weight here — but this has not been checked against a birth certificate, and the day (2nd vs. 13th) remains unresolved regardless of year.
Death 7 Jul 1980 Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado Working Hypothesis Family entries; not yet checked against a primary record. Per Shannon, she died of cancer while hospitalized in Colorado Springs; she had lived in Creede, Mineral County, from girlhood until this final hospitalization, and Colorado Springs does not represent a relocation. Death certificate known to exist in Shannon's mother's papers; not yet in hand.

Family

Parents

  • Robert Abraham Lincoln Davis — b. 22 Feb 1865, Davis Corner(s), Sanilac County, Michigan; d. 27 Aug 1943, rural McDonald County, Missouri. 2
  • Anna Maud Woodruff — b. 2 Jul 1879, Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri; d. 23 Nov 1954, Monte Vista, Colorado. Daughter of John Farney Woodruff and Annie E. Chaney. 3

Spouse

  • William Thomas Jackson — m. 5 Jul 1921 , Creede, Mineral County, Colorado (Proven) 4 — b. 23 Mar 1895, Bachelor Town, Mineral County, CO; d. 10 May 1957, Whipple/Prescott, Yavapai County, AZ. Alice Josephine was 17 at the time of marriage. Known to family as 'Billy.'

Children

  • Joel Thomas Jackson (b. 27 Aug 1922) — b. Creede, Mineral County, CO; d. 11 Dec 1987, Fort Collins, Larimer County, CO.
  • William Charles (Scoot) Jackson (b. 27 May 1924) — b. Creede, Mineral County, CO; d. 7 Mar 1969, Creede, Mineral County, CO. 'Scoot' is a nickname.
  • John Richard Jackson (b. 10 Aug 1927) — b. Creede, Mineral County, CO; d. 9 Jan 2005, Crawford, Delta County, CO.
  • Pauline Roberta (Bubbles) Jackson (b. Living) — Living; birth and other identifying details withheld per Shannon's request to protect a living family member's privacy.

Research Narrative

Alice Josephine Davis — known to her family and friends throughout her life as Jo — was born in 1904 in the small mountain town of Alma, Park County, Colorado, the daughter of Robert Davis and Anna Maud Woodruff, and so a granddaughter, on her mother's side, of John Farney Woodruff and Annie E. Chaney. Her childhood moved through several of Colorado's mining towns: the 1910 census places the family in Florissant, Teller County, and a postcard her mother sent home in December 1913 puts them near St. Elmo, in the Chalk Creek country outside Buena Vista. By 1918, when Alice Josephine was fourteen, the family had moved on again, this time to Mineral County, settling in Creede — the same year her teenage brother, Robert Lincoln Davis, died in the influenza pandemic. Two years later, when Alice Josephine was sixteen, her parents' marriage ended in divorce, filed in that same county; her father left Colorado for Missouri not long after, and her mother remarried within weeks. Alice Josephine herself married in 1921, at seventeen — a quiet wedding on Tuesday, July 5th, at her mother's home, performed by Judge Butler. Her husband, William Thomas Jackson, was a Creede-raised boy known to everyone as Billy; the local paper, reporting the marriage under the headline "Billy and Joe," noted that the bride was known to her own friends as "Joe." The couple remained in Creede, raising four children through the 1920s and 1930s — Joel, William Charles ("Scoot"), John Richard, and a daughter still living today. It was a marriage that, in its own quiet way, knit together the family's two Mineral County threads: her own parents had divorced in that same county the year before, and Billy's family had mined and raised children in its camps for a generation before him. Jo loved reading, arrowhead hunting, and fishing, and kept an impressive arrowhead collection built up over years in the hills around Creede. She was known for her wicked skill at cards and, above all, for a kind and gentle nature that made her home a place friends and family of all ages felt free to simply drop in on, certain of a hot cup of coffee and someone glad to listen. She lived out her entire life in Creede, with one exception: in 1980, dying of cancer, she was hospitalized in Colorado Springs, where she died — not a relocation, but simply the place her final medical care took her, more than sixty years after she'd first arrived in Mineral County as a girl of fourteen.

Gravesite Details

Jo was cremated and, at her request, her ashes were placed in her brother Bob's grave. Her children erected a headstone for their parents and moved Jo's ashes to this site. Her husband, Billy Jackson, is buried in the Prescott National Cemetery.

Timeline

  1. 13 Mar 1904 Born, Alma, Park County, Colorado, daughter of Robert Davis and Anna Maud Woodruff. Family entries
  2. 1910 Enumerated with her family in Florissant precinct, Teller County, Colorado, age 7 (per this record). 1a
  3. 30 Dec 1913 Family living near St. Elmo, Chaffee County, Colorado, per a postcard her mother Maud sent to her own mother, Annie Fry, in Trinidad — the first primary-source corroboration of a residence Alice Josephine herself recalled later in life. 5
  4. 1918 Moves with her family (mother Anna Maud, father Robert, and siblings) to Mineral County/Creede, Colorado, at age 14. 6
  5. 1918 Brother Robert Lincoln Davis dies in the influenza pandemic, the same year the family relocates to Creede. See Robert Davis's page
  6. 2 Jan 1920 Enumerated as "Josie," age 16, in her mother's household, Creede — separately from her father's household in the same town. 1b
  7. 26 Jul 1920 Parents Robert Davis and Anna Maud Woodruff divorce, Mineral County, Colorado, when Alice Josephine is 16. See Robert Davis's page
  8. 5 Jul 1921 Marries William Thomas Jackson at the bride's home, Creede, officiated by Judge Butler. The Creede Candle's wedding announcement notes she was known to friends as "Joe," having come to Creede from Buena Vista three years earlier and attended the local schools. 4,6
  9. 1922–1939 Raises four children in Creede: Joel, William Charles, John Richard, and Pauline. Family entries
  10. 1930 Enumerated with husband William and sons Joel, William Charles, and John Richard, Creede. 1c
  11. 1940 Enumerated with husband William (County Treasurer), sons Joel, William Charles, John Richard, and infant daughter Pauline, Creede. 7
  12. 1950 Enumerated with husband William (County Treasurer), son John Richard, and daughter Pauline, Creede. 1d
  13. 7 Jul 1980 Dies, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. Family entries

Open Research Questions

  1. Can Alice Josephine's birth be confirmed against a primary record (birth certificate or the 1980 death certificate, currently in Shannon's mother's papers)? medium

    Census and SSDI evidence is mixed between 1903 and 1904; see note on Birth vital.

  2. Can the circumstances of Alice Josephine's final illness and hospitalization in Colorado Springs be documented (e.g., type of cancer, hospital, length of treatment)? low

    Per Shannon: Alice Josephine lived her entire life in Creede from girlhood until her death; Colorado Springs was the site of her hospitalization and death from cancer only, not a relocation.

Repository Targets

  • Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment / Park County records — Birth record, Alice Josephine Davis, 1904 [Not yet searched]
  • Shannon's personal collection (mother's papers, parents' house) — Death certificate, Alice Josephine Davis Jackson, 1980 [Known to exist; not yet scanned or in hand]

References

  • 1a. ↩ 1910 U.S. census, Teller County, Colorado, population schedule, Florissant precinct, Supervisor's District 3, Enumeration District 182, sheet 12A, dwelling 200, family 200, Robert L. Davis household; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 July 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T624.
  • 1b. ↩ 1920 U.S. census, Mineral County, Colorado, population schedule, Creede, Enumeration District 153, sheet 1B, dwelling 27, family 27, Maud Davis household; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 July 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T625.
  • 1c. ↩ 1930 U.S. census, Mineral County, Colorado, population schedule, Creede, Enumeration District 40-3, sheet 2A, dwelling 43, family 44, William T. Jackson household; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 July 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T626.
  • 1d. ↩ 1950 U.S. census, Mineral County, Colorado, population schedule, Creede Town, Enumeration District 40-1, sheet 2, serial number 12, William T. Jackson household; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 July 2026); citing NARA Record Group 29, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950.
  • 1e. ↩ Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File, database, Ancestry.com (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2010), entry for Alice Jackson, SSN 521-52-9291, b. 2 Mar 1904, d. Jul 1980, last benefit Creede, Mineral County, Colorado.
  • 2. ↩ “Missouri, Death Certificates, 1910–1962,” database with images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 July 2026), Robert L. Davis, 1943, State File No. 28708; citing Missouri Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, Missouri.
  • 3. ↩ Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, standard certificate of death, Registrar's No. 87, District 197, Anna Maude Lane, died 23 November 1954, 7:47 p.m., Rio Grande County (Monte Vista), Colorado; attending physician William N. McKinley, M.D., Monte Vista.
  • 4. ↩ Mineral County, Colorado, Marriage Certificate No. 16015, W. T. Jackson and Miss Alice Josephine Davis, filed for record 7 July 1921 at 11:45 a.m., recorded in Book 64 of Marriages, p. 131; A. J. Weaver, County Clerk, by Doris Weaver, Deputy; original filing envelope and ribbon, privately held by Field.
  • 5. ↩ Postcard, Maud [Davis] to Mrs. Annie Fry, 518 E. First St., Trinidad, Colorado, postmarked Buena Vista, Colorado, 30 Dec 1913; illustration captioned "Chalk Creek Cañon near St. Elmo, Colo."; original in Shannon's possession.
  • 6. ↩ "Billy and Joe," The Creede Candle (Creede, Colorado), 9 July 1921, p. 4, col. 3, paras. 8–11; Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=TCC19210709.2.45 : accessed 15 July 2026).
  • 7. ↩ 1940 U.S. census, Mineral County, Colorado, population schedule, Creede, Enumeration District 40-1, sheet 4B, household 93, William Jackson household; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 July 2026); citing NARA microfilm publication T627.