On January 28, 1850, Martin Davis purchased 160 acres along Chickamauga Creek in Walker County, Georgia, and soon moved his family there from Lumpkin County, Georgia, making a story and a half dogtrot style frame house at the foot of Pigeon Mountain with a clear view of Lookout Mountain their new home. After Martin died in 1859, his widow Julia Tate Davis and their six children, ages 4 through 18, managed the farm. On September 11, 1863, the Civil War reached the property when Confederate and Union troops clashed at the Widow Davis farm. John Davis, Jr., son of Martin and Julia Davis, and his wife Ruth Hall Davis owned the farm from 1882 until 1897. Ownership changed again around 1920, when Mary Eudie Lee Trotter, daughter of J.W. Lee, and her husband Frank Trotter became owners. On January 1, 1948, Frank Clements Shaw bought the farm and moved into the house with his wife, Myrtice Dunaway Shaw, and their son, Frank Clements "Bug" Shaw Jr. From 1948 until 2006, the Shaw family, especially Frank Clements Shaw, Jr., preserved and managed the farm. Today the property includes the original 1850s house, an 1884 stone addition, post-1900 architectural modifications, modern additions, and a 430 acre farm managed by the Martin Davis House Foundation, established in 2006 before the death of Frank Clements Shaw, Jr. The property also includes dependencies built by Mr. Shaw to depict a rural 19th century village, and it preserves family life in Walker County during the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the agricultural landscape.

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher

Photo: Brandon Fletcher