About Ann Simpson Davis Middle

Davis Middle School was named in memory of Ann Simpson Davis.  Ann Simpson was born near Newton, Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania on December 29, 1764.  She was a beautiful, red-haired girl of 15 when she volunteered to serve as a messenger to General George Washington.  She carried messages from Washington to other generals.  She often disguised herself as an aged women and traveled through the British lines.  She hid messages in every imaginable way, and, on at least one occasion, she swallowed the evidence to prevent seizure.

During the terrible winter at Valley Forge, she nursed the sick, and there she met her future husband, Ensign John Davis.  One of his experiences included carrying a flag when Washington crossed the Delaware.  He was wounded at Bergen Point and was partially crippled for life as a result.  Two years after John Davis was discharged from the Continental Army, he married Ann Simpson.  They were married at her father's home on June 26, 1783.

Their nine children were born in the East.  Both were past 50 when they came to Ohio.  They first settled in Delaware County and then came to Franklin County.  Their big farm, about a mile south of Dublin on the east side of the Scioto River, was what we knew as the Amazish Sells Farm.  Today, it is the Riverside Green and Riverside Hills development.  Both Ann and her husband, John, are buried in the old Davis Family Cemetery at 5600 Riverside Drive.