USMA Class of 1890. Cullum No. 3352.

On Thursday evening, March 1, 1894, he married Blanche Bates, an actress, at Grace Church in San Francisco, California. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. Foute of Grace Church.

In June 1895 he filed suit to obtain a divorce from Blanche Bates as three months after their wedding she deserted him and returned to the stage.

On October 6, 1898 as Milton F. David, he married Bessie Aiken Hall at Highland Park, Illinois.

At the time of their wedding he was stationed at Fort Sheridan.

Per the 1910 Census for Cornwall, New York, they were the parents of four children with three living.

Seventieth Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June 10, 1939, The Moore Printing Co., Inc., Newburgh, New York

Milton Fennimore Davis

No. 3352. Class of 1890.

Died May 31, 1938, at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York, aged 73 years.

The military career of this distinguished soldier and patriotic citizen is appropriately ushered into our view by a remarkable letter from the Congressman who appointed him, from which I quote:

Roseburg, Oregon,

September 10, 1885.

To Milton F. Davis,

My dear Sir:

It affords me pleasure to announce that I have this day nominated you for appointment as cadet to the United States Military Academy at West Point, from this Sates. You are among twelve applicants – all ambitious and worthy young men of Oregon. That all might have an equal chance, … I waived personal preferences and submitted these young men to a competitive examination …

You were all subjected to a conscientious and painstaking examination – both mental and physical . . . The result is now submitted to me. Four of the applicants greatly excel all the rest. Among these you are reported highest by seven percent of the total credits. Physically you are found equal to any . . . Zealous appeals are made by friends and leading persons of distinguished influence occupying the highest stations in our State, on behalf of others who competed with you . . .

Aside from your own merit as disclosed in the examination roll I do not entirely forget what you are is solely due to your own unaided efforts. I am reminded that you are a poor boy and that your father was an old soldier having enlisted and fought in the ranks as a private in the late war for the supremacy of our beloved country and was thrice severely wounded. That while you were still a mere child [12 years old] he died leaving you to care for and cherish your widowed mother. This I feel thankful to believe you have done and are still doing. You have been to the family a son and little father alike. Laboring in odd days and hours in this filial service you have managed to attend the public schools of Polk County in the winter months and thus train your mind. Your neighbors write me, 'He has worked on the farm during the summer and gone to school or studied at home during the winter and has kept up with classes having much better opportunities.'

With all these disadvantages and struggles I find you now a student [In 1928 the University of Oregon retroactively guaranteed him the degree of Bachelor of Arts as of 1888, the year he normally would have graduated, had he not gone to West Point] in the State University, from where your eminent President writes me the good words that you are 'an industrious and faithful student of good habits and gentlemanly deportment.'. . .

It is a joyous privilege in this country of Republican government that even the poorest boy has it within himself to mould and establish a character of future greatness and and renown . . . Let not . . . the apparent obstacles in life discourage you. Have faith in the record which is conceded to the elements of character already developed by you. Continue onward and have courage.

In conclusion may I fondly hope that you will honor the position to which you are now nominated and that you will ever remain true to your country that is to educate you for her future service and defense, so that in some future year your name, now unknown, may become a symbol of fame, - a rejoicing to your friends and a credit to the State of Oregon from whence you hail.

I am yours truly,

Binger Herman, M.C

How well Milton F. Davis lived up to his responsibilities and kept faith with his old Congressman, let those attest who personally knew him or who read herein the record of his service.

He was born November 15, 1864, in Milton Township, near Mantorville, southeastern Minnesota, of Evan Richard Davis and Julia Ryder Davis, in what was then a sparsely settled, pioneer section of the State. Several years later the family removed to Oregon, locating on a farm near McCoy, Polk County, in the Willamette Valley. The conditions under which he grew to maturity and acquired his early education have been aptly described in the letter above quoted.

Having won his appointment to West Point, it was thought best for him to do some coaching for the reputedly stiff entrance examinations that the Academic Board served up to candidates for admission to the Military Academy. Accordingly he matriculated for a few weeks with a Highland Falls (New York) preparatory school specializing in this line of work. Here he met a young man from Indiana, much to his liking, who bore the name of Daniel Warren Ketcham. On the fateful morning of June 12, 1886, they walked up together to West Point, registered with the Adjutant of the Academy, took the entrance examination and for four years lived together in the same room in the cadet barracks. Many years later, writing of this Damon & Pythias friendship, Davis declared, I consider Dan Ketcham the closest friend that I ever had on earth – a statement eloquent of the sterling qualities of both members of this friendship. May it be renewed in the Spirit World!

The writer – possessing the same family name – well remembers MF when he reported at West Point. He was a handsome young man, straight as an Indian's arrow and almost as lithe and slender in his build – a characteristic which he never lost. Older than most of the other members of his Class, the family responsibilities which he had borne as a boy, supplemented by his two years at the State University, gave him a grown up dignity and savoir faire superior to that enjoyed by most of his classmates, by whom he was universally respected and well liked. He took his academic work seriously – but not too seriously – enjoying to the most those brief and infrequent periods of relaxation which the strict regulations of the Academy permitted to its cadet matriculates. He never sought scholastic honors, but, keen witted and bright, he easily maintained a class standing well above the average, in practically all of his studies throughout the four year course. He specially excelled in drawing, standing No. 8 in his third year class, No. 5 as a second classman. His general standing on graduation was No. 22, in a class that graduated 54 members.

His record outside of class room work is even better. During the four years he attended the Academy, the number of demerits chalked up against him totaled but nineteen – none in his plebe year, then as a yearling none as a second classman and only nine in his first class year – a fine, if not outstanding record.

Football and other intercollegiate games at that time were unknown to West Point, but his work in the gymnasium was above the average and in the riding academy his horsemanship was superb. A fine dancer, graceful, good looking and vivacious, he was always a favorite with the fair sex contingent that visited the Academy during the summer encampment and was a hop manager for his class. He was never ambitious for chevrons, but was a cadet sergeant in his second class year. A general summary of his character as manifested at West Point would include courage, self-reliance, common sense, neatness and friendliness, all displayed to a marked degree.

Upon graduation, June 12, 1890, he selected the cavalry for his arm of the service and on completion of his graduation leave, he joined his regiment at Fort Walla Walla, Washington, as 2nd Lieutenant, 4th United States Cavalry. His duty at Walla Walla, however, was brief; for in April 1891, he was transferred to the Presidio of San Francisco and assigned to Troop I, 4th Cavalry, which had been designated for duty in the newly formed Yosemite National Park. One day, about April 12, 1891, his classmates and future messmates at the Presidio received this terse telegram: Expect me at six tonight. Have lots to eat. (Sig.) M.F. It was, of course, from Davis, joining his new post.

The ensuing six years were among the happiest of his life. During the summer season, after the snows had sufficiently melted to permit access thereto, he was on duty in the National Parks; but during the remainder of the year – except for the time spent in marching to and from the Parks – he sojourned with his messmates at the Presidio where he regaled them with strange but true tales of his adventures in the High Sierras and adorned the floors of their mess with rugs made from the skins of grizzly and cinnamon bears and catamounts that had yielded their lives to his prowess as a huntsman.

At the Presidio he attended the drills and exercises prescribed for his troop and also shared in the various staff duties – acting adjutant, police officer, exchange officer, signal and engineer officer, etc., - performing all these duties in such a thorough and competent manner as to elicit commendation from the strict old veteran in command, Colonel (later Major General) William Montrose Graham. But it was his work in the High Sierras that particularly appealed to him and when orders each Spring came for his troop to march thither he was jubilant.

The Yosemite national Park (organized and set aside by Congress in 1890) contains not only the far famed Yosemite Valley but in addition takes in a huge section of the Sierra Nevadas, some 1,200 square miles in extent, embracing snow clad, glacial covered peaks, deep mountain gorges, high waterfalls, precipitous cliffs and large forests of gigantic conifers including three groves of the gigantean sequoia or big trees. At this time only rough stage roads led over the mountains into the Yosemite Valley proper, when there was a hotel and some civilian population to accommodate tourist visitors. The balance of the National Park was essentially a wilderness, intersected here and there by crude trails built by some adventurous miner to his claim grub staked in the mountains or by the cattlemen and sheepmen who, as the summer advanced, were accustomed to take their herds and flocks to the elevated green meadows, watered by the melting ice and snows in which the mighty San Joaquin and its tributaries, the Merced, Tuolumne (Hetch-Hetchy) and Stanislaus Rivers, have their source. The government, having taken upon itself the responsibility for his large region, turned to the Army for its proper administration, police and protection; and Captain A.E. Wood, 4th Cavalry, was accordingly designated as the first Superintendent of the Yosemite National Park and with his troop (I) was ordered to the park for station. His time, as well as that of his first lieutenant, was almost entirely taken up with administrative matters, so that the patrolling and policing of the Park necessarily devolved upon his second looey, Davis.

Search the whole Army through, there could have been found no officer better qualified for the task, nor one who more gloried in his work. Selecting a patrol of some fifteen troopers, with a few pack mules to carry rations, Davis was constantly on the move, expelling sheepmen and cattlemen, with their stock, found illegally in the Park, aiding old miners in distress, extinguishing incipient forest fires and stocking with fish the hitherto fishless headwaters of the streams and lakes of the higher altitudes. Bivouacking at night under the shelter of the mighty pines, often in freezing temperatures and occasionally remaining in camp for a day or two to wear out some unusual snowstorm or blizzard, he and his detachment at the end of ten days or two weeks of this grueling work would return to Park headquarters, where he would make his report; and then, with a fresh detachment, he would start out on another extended patrol. Thus he explored and opened many of the passes now in use in the Park and gave names to many of the peaks, canyons, and streams. In all this exploring he was systematic and thorough, visiting every section of the Park, improving old trails and blazing new ones, taking photographs and thoroughly mapping and sketching the country. For this purpose he scaled personally nearly every high peak in the Park, some of them for the first time.

On August 31, 1891, he ascended, for the first time by a white man, a particularly high and difficult peak of the Sierras, in the Mount Lyell group, sketching its contour and relation to the other peaks. Three years later, in recognition of his services as an explorer and upon the recommendation of the eminent naturalist, John Muir – Davis' lifelong friend – this mighty peak, 12,308 feet high, was christened Davis Mountain by the United States Geological Survey.

The summer months of 1891, 1892 and 1893 were thus spent in the Yosemite National park; and the summer of 1896 similarly in the Sequoia and General Grant National Parks, mapping the Southern Sierras. In 1937 Davis gave his carefully preserved collection of historical photographs, sketches and maps of the Sierra country to the museum of the Yosemite National Park.

Article continues with excerpts from letter.

In the fall of 1895 1st Lieutenant Charles L. Potter, C.E., Assistant to the District Engineer Officer, San Francisco, received orders to investigate and report upon the navigability of the Colorado River from Yuma to the mouth of the Virgin River. Knowing Davis' ability as an explorer, Potter secured his detail as assistant in this duty. They completed the exploration from Yuma to the Needles, approximately 225 miles and found the stream navigable. Above the Needles the current is rapid, so the officers decided to enter the Grand Canyon at some practicable point above the mouth of the Virgin and go down with the current, rather than to try to tow up the River the 180 miles to the Virgin's mouth. At the Needles they procured a staunch boat, 20 feet long and secured the assistance of two civilian oarsmen for the enterprise. With supplies, carefully selected and packed, for a two weeks' trip, they shipped their boat to Peach Springs station, hauled it thence overland on the old Grand Canyon trail to the Colorado and launched it upon the river without much difficulty. Though the water was low and there were many rocks to be avoided, they descended the Canyon for seven days without misadventure, each night tying the boat up and bivouacking until morning.

At the expiration of the seventh day they came to great and impassable rapids. Next morning, having unloaded such supplies as they could carry and secured the balance in the boat, two of the men were sent below the rapids to intercept the boat while the other two launched it in midstream, hoping it might go through. They watched it crazily toss and careen around a bend in the river; but after several hours waiting no boat came to a view!

In this crisis Davis' experience as a mountaineer and explorer was invaluable and he naturally took the lead. Passing down the river, they explored numerous side canyons, but each terminated abruptly in sheer perpendicular walls, rising 3,000 feet or more. After two days of this, in which their provisions were nearly exhausted and their shoes all but worn out, signs of mountain sheep were found, where they had come down into the Grand Canyon for water. Carefully reconnoitering, Davis located their trail leading up a side canyon to the South. The party started up this path that wound its way along a ledge so narrow that in places they were forced, for mutual safety and support, to join hands, with their backs to the overhanging wall and sidle along foot by foot, with a sheer abyss extending 2,000 feet below them! Finally they emerged from the canyon and made their way some forty miles across the scorching, cactus covered Arizona desert to the Santa Fe Rail Road, where they eventually flagged a train, their clothing torn to shreds, their feet pierced and bleeding from the cacti, famished and exhausted. And the train engineer nearly disregarded their frantic signaling, fearing a hold up!

It is a remarkable commentary on the progress of the world to note that in the Grand Canyon where Lieut. Potter's boat was wrecked there is now a placid lake, several hundred feet deep – Lake Mead – the backed up waters from the Boulder Dam. Neither Potter nor Davis, however, was ever destined to ride on its smooth surfaces.

Accustomed as he was to the use of the rifle from his boyhood, Davis was always much interested in target practice and during the years under discussion availed himself of every opportunity to perfect his marksmanship. In this he was quite successful, qualifying as a distinguished marksman and being a member of the department carbine and revolver teams in 1892 and 1893 and a member of the Army carbine team in 1893.

He was now (1897) promoted to be First Lieutenant of Cavalry, after nearly seven years commissioned service and assigned to the First Cavalry, with station at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. At this juncture he secured leave of absence for three months, during which he visited Mexico City and made a record breaking ascent of Mount Popocatepetl, 17,888 feet high. The Spanish American War was now in the brewing and Davis, reporting at his new station late in June, assumed command of C troop (First Cavalry), assiduously training it for possible war service. He did not have many months to wait.

In command of his troop throughout the war, he was at Chickamauga Park (Georgia) during April and May 1898, at Lakeland, Florida and enroute to Cuba, until June 23, when his regiment disembarked as a component of Young's Brigade of Wheeler's Division, 5th Army Corps, fighting dismounted, their horses having been left in the United States. In the capture of Santiago his regiment took a conspicuous part and he was cited for gallantry in action in leading his troop in the assault on San Juan (Kettle) Hill, July 1, 1898. For this he was subsequently awarded a Silver Star decoration.

During the siege of Santiago which followed, Davis served with his troop in digging and occupying the trenches overlooking the City and on July 18 – two days after the surrender of Santiago – he was appointed Military Governor of El Caney, which place, the scene of Lawton's battle of July 1, had been occupied by a pathetic horde of some 18,000 sick, starving and shelterless refugees from the City – a task requiring the exercise of all his tact, firmness and humanity, at a time when he himself, in common with most of the American troops, was ill from privation and exposure. He remained on this duty until August 7, when he embarked for the United States.

After three weeks' sick leave, eight months spent in muster out duty with Illinois volunteers and a year with his regiment at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, we find him (July 1900) enroute with his regiment for duty in the Philippines against the Insurrectos. Here, in the southern province of Luzon, he was in the field, in command of his old troop (C, First Cavalry), to which he had been assigned on his promotion to captaincy, February 1, 1901. During this period he was very active, participating in a night engagement for the relief of Pagbilao, May 7, 1901 and in the fight at Puas, where he commander troops C and L in two engagements, May 16, 1901. This strenuous field duty lasted until October 1, 1901, upon which date he was appointed Adjutant General of J. Franklin Bell's Third Brigade, Department of Luzon, a position which he filled most capably until his return to the United States in March 1903 – the Insurrection having practically been ended with the capture by Bell's brigade of General Malvar, April 15, 1902.

Here was the beginning of a close and lasting friendship between these two splendid soldiers – Bell and Davis – who were to be associated together during most of the seven remaining years preceding Davis' retirement from active duty in 1909; for when Bell became head of the reorganized Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth in 1903, he procured the appointment of Davis as Secretary of the Schools and Staff College, a position which he held until August 15, 1907, when, upon the recommendation of Bell, now Chief of Staff, Davis was appointed to the War Department General Staff and went to Washington as Bell's confidential executive, occasionally serving, also, as military aide to the Secretary of War of to the President.

But 23 years of excessive service had overtaxed even his rugged vitality, so that, in 1909, after his physical examination, he was ordered before a retiring board and against his wishes, retired for physical disability incurred in line of duty. He would have been retired as a captain, except that, in recognition of his wonderful record, Bell succeeded in having him nominated by the President to the only available staff vacancy – a majority in the Judge Advocate General's Department – to which he was confirmed just two days prior to his retirement.

He was now 44 years old, already distinguished both as an explorer and as a soldier; under such conditions the average man would have accepted the doctor's advice and taken it easy for the remainder of his life. Not so, Davis. His restless nature and indomitable will triumphed over physical defects; and in a few days he began another and even greater career for himself – this time as an educator.

Retired from active duty on June 16, 1909, on June 19 he was detailed as professor of military science and tactics at the New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, with which institution he was destined to remain actively connected for the next 29 years, first as Commandant of Cadets and Secretary Treasurer, Board of Trustees until 1922, next as Superintendent of the Academy until 1937, when a new position, that of President was created by the Board of Trustees, which he filled until his death.

His success at Cornwall was conspicuous. In 1909, when he reported there for duty, there were but 94 students matriculated with the school. In less than ten years he had increased the attendance to nearly 400. After a conflagration had destroyed practically all the old buildings on the campus, it was largely through his prestige and efforts that the Board of Trustees decided to rebuild, on a much larger scale with fireproof structures and most modern equipment, making it a model military school. The result has proved the wisdom of their decision and has amply justified the great expense.

On leave of absence from his school during the World War, from March 1918 to June 1919, he brought unusual zeal and ability to the difficult task assigned him by the War Department, namely, Chief of Staff, Schools Section, Division of Military Aeronautics, as a reward for which he was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air Corps Reserve and given the D.S.M., with citation as follows:

For exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services. As Chief of the School Sections, Division of Military Aeronautics, his work in perfecting a system of training was thorough and complete. His soundness of judgment, fairness in dealing with all the boards of officers and branches of the service and unusual executive ability made his work a decisive factor in the successful production of trained Air personnel. He rendered services of the highest order to the Government in a position of great responsibility.

Returning to Cornwall upon completion of his duty at the War Department, he thoroughly revised and brought up to date the courses of instruction in his school, in accordance with the lessons learned in the World War.

Meanwhile, under a law passed during the War, he was promoted a Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular Army, on the retired list, July 9, 1918 and a full Colonel May 29, 1921. His commission as Brigadier General, Air Corps Reserves, was dated December 23, 1921.

Notwithstanding his heavy school duties, he somehow found time to engage in numerous other activities, such as Vice President of the local (Cornwall) national bank, President of the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, National Councilor of the Boy Scouts of America, President of the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States, fellow of the American Geographical Society, National Councilor, United States Chamber of Commerce; and belonged to the Camp Fire Club of America, the Explorers' Club, the Ends of the Earth Club, the Players and the Lambs; he was also a Companion of Foreign Wars, a Companion of the Society of Indian Wars and Class President of the Class of 1890, United States Military Academy.

Article continues with comments from efficiency reports, citations and letters from several commanding officers on file in the War Department.

General Davis died, almost literally in the harness, May 31, 1938, at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. Surviving him are his widow, Elizabeth A. Davis, two daughters, Mrs. F.A. Pattillo, of Cornwall-on-Hudson and Mrs. Morton S. Cressy, of Plainfield, New Jersey and a son Milton F. Davis Jr. of Cornwall; also a sister, Myrtle, of Portland, Oregon. Funeral services were conducted in the Davis Chapel of the New York Military Academy, on June 2, followed by interment in the West Point Cemetery, United States Military Academy.

With the impressive ceremonies with which his body was laid to rest in the cemetery of his beloved alma mater, the earthly career of Milton Fennimore Davis came to its end. The monument erected over his grave will be a shrine to be visited by his classmates at Class reunions as long as one classmate survives physically able to make the journey. Likewise the great preparatory school which he built up and inspired at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson and especially the chapel, named in his honor, will remain another enduring memorial for those who, under his supervision, passed on to life's work through its portals. But more enduring to his fame than all others will stand the snow clad Sierra peak, Mount Davis, first scaled by him, inspiringly pointing heavenward long after all man made monuments shall have crumbled to dust!

Who will say that the old Congressman's appointee did not make good?

William Church Davis