Christopher Columbus "Lum" Davis was born on November 19, 1871 in Lasca, Alabama, but spent most of his life in Atmore, Alabama and Davisville, Florida. He worked as a cotton farmer all of his life along Highway 97 like so many of his brothers. His wife was Annie Caroline Williams from Bashi in Clarke County, Alabama. But Annie always told an interesting story about the fate of her great-grandparents. Her great-grandmother was Sarah Merritt who was staying at her father’s home near Bassett Creek in Clarke County. The reason for her visit was because the Creek Indians had risen up against the white settlers and were on the warpath. Sarah’s husband was off with General Ferdinand Claiborne's militia fighting the Indians, so he sent his wife and young son to her father’s for safekeeping.
However, the Creeks attacked her father's farmstead, leaving Sarah and her young son for dead. But before the Indians left, one warrior pulled his knife and scalped Sarah before running off with his bloody trophy held high above his head. After they left, she picked up her son and stumbled down the road into a nearby fort where both eventually recovered. Word was sent to her husband in error that his wife and son had been killed in the raid. Shortly thereafter, he and his militia troops went into battle against a force of Creeks and he was severely wounded and left on the battlefield for dead. But once again, the poor communication on the frontier reported to Sarah that her husband had been killed in the battle. When he finally recovered from his wounds he chose to depart for Tennessee and a new life rather than return home to an empty house crowded with all the horrible memories. When Sarah received word that her husband had been killed, she too went on with her life rather than return home to work a frontier farm by herself.
She later remarried a man named Holtam and together she and her new husband raised a large family to adulthood. It was at this point of the story that fate took a turn toward irony. It was on a dark night many years later that Sarah heard a knock on their door. She and her husband opened the door and found a party of travelers from Tennessee heading for the new settlements in Texas. They were seeking a night's repose from their arduous travels and were asking for hospitality from the startled frontier family. When the party walked in, Sarah just stood there in her bare feet looking into the eyes of her long dead husband. Once they all had gotten over their shock they spent the rest of the night on explanations and remembrances of what might have been. But by morning, both were satisfied with their current lot in life and with the well being of each other. They said their good-byes as her husband moved peacefully on with his family and the rest of the travelers. Years later, Christopher Columbus “Lum” Davis married Sarah’s great granddaughter Annie and eventually made their way to Atmore and Davisville (Escambia County, Florida).
