Davis - Progress Summaries

Weekly progress summaries

11/9/2006

Ed,

I have completed docket-searching for 1916. I found only 10 cases where Davis has an appearance, which would suggest that whatever Davis was doing, he wasn't making a living in the courtroom.
I have been able to flesh out a few other aspects of his early career, however. According to Afro articles, he handled at least two incorporations (two churches). Charter records do not have any notation of attorneys involved. In addition, the charter indices only record the name of the corporation, not the parties, so you can't easily determine if Davis was an incorporator of anything.

A 1917 Circuit Court No. 2 case indicates that Davis was involved in business/contract transactions:

        Harry A. Carpenter v. Paul A. Diggs
        Suit filed December 10, 1917. Plaintiff alleged that the defendant, his business partner, was going to sell his share of the inventory, and wanted an injunction to stop the sale.      Plaintiff later alleged that the defendant had assigned the property in question to J. Steward Davis, who transferred it to Harriet Diggs, defendant's wife. The assignment to Davis was        recorded in SCL 267, p. 167 (no longer extant), and from Davis to Diggs was not recorded. Plaintiff petitioned to have Davis and Harriet Diggs added as defendants to the suit. A copy of the petition naming Davis in the court papers says "serve on J. Steward Davis, of the 351st Field Artillery, Camp Meade, Maryland." No outcome of case listed.

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Docket A) Carpenter v. Diggs, 1917, 26A, p. 265, case no. 10789A [T996-26, 3/18/6/40]

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Papers A) Carpenter v. Diggs, 1917, box no. 1115, case no. 10789A [3/23/14/35]

The Coleman Directories list Davis both under lawyers and real estate. I've looked through the Grantor/Grantee Indices on mdlandrec to see where Davis appears. My initial thought was that he might have been "flipping" houses, which could explain his purchase of a second house in 1927, which financial difficulties were already flaring up. For the most part, I found only records of the purchase and sale of the two houses that I've already found, except for on entry: On June 1, 1916, John C. Robinson sold Davis two pieces of land for $10.00: 611 N. Caroline St. and Pressman and Mount Sts. Davis sold them back to Robinson, also for $10.00, the next day. See SCL 3052, p. 430 (CE 168-3060).

As I move to the end of the docket-searching phase of Davis research (with only June-December of 1915 remaining), I have begun to identify areas that I would like to research further. Davis's wife, Blanche, taught in the BC schools after he left Baltimore. School board records at the BC Archives may be able to help fill in some information about what happens to her. She filed for divorce in 1938, which is the last year she appears in city directories as Blanche Davis. For example, if she remarried, her subsequent resignation may be noted in the School Board minutes.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, the National Archives has material relating to Davis' military unit, the 351st Field Artillery. I have found on their website several photos of the unit, for example. NARA's website seems to indicate that the War Dept. and the Army's records from the unit are at college park. This seems to me to be an important resource in terms of developing a complete picture of Davis' life, and as a way of understanding his place in society as an educated, successful, upwardly mobile member of the African-American community. In a lot of ways, Davis is a part of the "talented tenth," and I am very much interested in exploring his life and career beyond the record he left court filings.

Owen

I neglected to include this, a study conducted by the Cultural Resources Research Center at the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories about African-American military service, from about 8 years ago.

https://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/Public/ES-Programs/Conservation/Legacy/AAME/aame3.html#6%20World%20War%20I

Owen

11/2/2006

Ed,

I have finished 1917 for Davis.

Case Totals:
Equity: 7 (5 divorce)
Civil: 1 (plus 2 habeas corpus cases in City Court)
Criminal: 15
Other: 1 (Orphan's Court)

The period where Davis' practice overlaps wit the notebook we have from Carroll T. Bond is 1916-1917:
Book 15 - September through December 1916, Notes on Cases in Circuit Court No. 2
Book 16 - January through June 1917, Notes on City Court cases

Davis argued one case in City Court in 1917, but it didn't go to trial until November. The case was heard by Judge Dawkins. Hopefully, as I move into 1916, I'll find a case that Bond heard and wrote about.

Owen

10/26/2006
Ed,

Just a quick update on Davis...

I'm nearly finished with 1919, about 150 pages of criminal docket left, and I should finish probably Monday, barring anything unexpected.

I've also added to the notes I've compiled on Davis L:\msa\stagser\s1259\153\owen\davis_main.html

Owen

10/6/2006
Ed,

Just so you know where I am, I have now finished Davis through 1921, and am starting 1920. As I move into 1920, 1919, etc, the process should begin to speed up, because the dockets tend to get shorter.

9/27/2006
Ed,

Progress with Davis has been slower recently as I am also working on other things, I should be about halfway through 1921 by the end of today. Still remaining are the Criminal and Superior courts, as well as a part of City Court

Davis Update, 7/19

Ed,

I scanned the Evans binder, OCRed it and burned it to a CD, which I dropped off for you. I also added Evans to the ecpclio series 152 African American Attorneys http://www.ecpclio.net/description.cfm?item=8&serno=152.   There is an excel file with a listing of the newspaper articles that Louis has complied.

I finished going over the Criminal docket for 1924 today, which means that I have a little more work to do for 1924 (putting cases into the Davis spreadsheet, etc), but I shold have that taken care of on Friday. Davis handled 153 criminal indictments in 1924, compared with 151 in 1926, 77 in 1927, 51 in 1928, and 11 in 1929. Louis is still working on the 1925 criminal docket right now (which is the last docket he's working on for that year), and we'll be able to fill that in soon. There is clearly a large drop off in cases in the last few years before he disappeared.

One of the 1925 cases that Louis found that Davis handled is a suit brought against the Mayor and City Council, Tate v. Mayor and City Council, et. al., filed in the Superior Court. I have not yet seen the papers, so I'm not sure what the suit was about, but it was settled. I imagine that we will want to follow this up with the City Solicitor's papers at the City Archives.

Is Louis going to continue to assist me with Davis research when he completes work on 1925? I ask because at that point, 1924-1929 will have been completed, and Davis' and Evans' careers did not overlap before or after that. I have found his work to be a great help as we move to complete this element of the Davis research as quickly as possible.

Davis Update, 7/7

I have continued my work on 1924, and I tentatively anticipate being able to finish next week. This will, however, hinge on how many cases there are. Louis, I believe, is roughly in the same place for 1925 .

I received the Evans binder this afternoon, and there is a story from the Afro from January, 1929 about Evans ending his partnership with Davis. It says that the two practiced together from 1923 to 1929. This confirms the estimates I had made previously. Evans likely began to practice with Davis shortly after his admission to the bar in November, 1923.

I also found another two cases against Davis to collect debts, both from 1927. They suggest that Davis and his wife were in financial trouble by around June of 1926, shortly after they purchased their second house. They seem to buy a car for $1,325 in early April, 1926, with payments of $88.40 per month, and are able to make the payments until June. See Baltimore Acceptance Corp. v. Davis and Cochrane Sales Co. v. Davis at http://ecpclio.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000152/000000/000001/restricted/cases_against_davis.html (updated as of tonight).

There are a few places I need to check for 1926 cases against Davis, which will hopefully give us more insight to when his financial woes began. Davis did not hold an account at the Savings Bank of Baltimore, as far as I can determine from the records we have at the Archives (which only go through 1917).

Davis Update, 6/30

I have completed work on 1926, and Louis has completed 1927, which means that we now have an accurate listing of Davis' (and Davis & Evans) case-load in the last four years of his career. In another week or two we'll know what 1924 and 1925 looked like, and we'll have a better sense if there was a large drop-off after 1926, or if 1926 was just an unusually busy year. Davis & Evans practiced together certainly from early 1924 until late 1928, although this is only a rough timeline based on docket appearances.

In 1926 Davis & Evans handled:
        >151 criminal indictments
        >45 divorce cases
        >30 other cases (including cases in Police Courts, People's Court, general torts, etc)

In 1927 Davis & Evans handled
        >77 criminal indictment (plus 10 Evans)
        >13 other cases
        >21 divorces

In 1928, they handled
        >51 criminal indictments
        >24 divorce cases
        >10 other cases

In the four months Davis was practicing in Baltimore in 1929, he handled (practicing solo, I believe)
        >11 criminal indictments
        >no divorce cases
        >5 other cases

In addition, I'll get the Evans binder on Wednesday when some of Larry's students are coming in. It appears that Evans began practicing with Davis almost immediately after he was admitted to the bar in November, 1923 (http://www.ecpclio.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000045/000000/000004/restricted/stagserm/sr2200/sr2261/000001/html/sr2261-0051.html) Davis & Evans were certainly working together by January of 1924, the earliest appearances of them I have seen (I'm working through 1924 now)

Davis Update, 6/9

I have completed probably half to 2/3rds of 1926, with cases from Superior and Criminal courts remaining. Louis has begun to work on 1927, starting with the Equity dockets. Working individually without scanning as I go, I completed cases from two courts in about a week. I should be able to finish 1926 next week, although there is usually a heavy caseload in the Criminal docket.

Davis Update, week of 5/15-19
This week I have scanned a number of criminal papers, and worked through the 1926 Divorce dockets.

As to moving towards completion of this project, it is somewhat difficult to estimate how long it will take. Searching each docket individually is a painstaking, time consuming process in itself, and compounded by the fact that Davis was quite prolific in his career. In 1928, he and his law partner George Evans handled 53 criminal defense cases, and 24 divorces, as well as a dozen other civil, equity, and other matters. In 1926, Davis & Evans handled nearly 45 divorces. The process of finding each case and locating its papers and reading them over is not an especially quick one, and scanning each case adds to that time considerably. My suggestion would be to move to simply compiling information from the dockets and court papers, and scan selected cases, rather than scanning each cases Davis worked on (presumably well over a thousand). It would still be somewhat speculative to pin down a finish date, because speed hinges very much on how much Davis did in given year.

I suggest this not to minimalize the importance of scanning case materials, but because it would expedite the process of building a comprehensive understanding of Davis' law practice from (1915 or 1916 until 1929), as it effected his role in the Baltimore legal community and beyond.

To date, I have completed work on:
1929 and 1928 (excepting a few criminal case papers which need to be scanning)
equity cases for 1926 (only half scanned)
cases reported in the Afro from 1919, 1920, and 1921

The spread sheet attached still needs some tweaking (dates of newspaper coverage, mostly), but it lists all the cases I have found that Davis worked on (just over 200 in a very small sample).

Davis Update, week of 5/1-5

A large number of cases got scanned and added this week, including a number of criminal papers from 1928. The remainder should get scanned next week. I also scanned materials from the cases in which Davis and his wife were defendants, these have all been put online at http://ecpclio.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5339/000152/000000/000001/restricted/cases_against_davis.html (this includes their divorce case). The dockets for these cases have been sent to On-Demand and will be ready next week. I also worked through the 1926 Equity B Docket from the Circuit Court No. 2, and have added the handful of cases I found in it (some of the papers will need conservation before they can get scanned). All docket scanning for 1928 has been completed, with the exception of one of the foreclosure cases against Davis which has been sent to On-Demand.

Attached are the notes that I have written up, mostly documenting the Davises legal troubles in 1926-1930, as well as some of the other information that Jen and I were able to uncover from census records.

Davis update, week of April 24-28

Attached are the notes that I have put together for the cases in which Davis and his wife were parties. They are a bit rough in places, especially in the real estate matters. The Davises were indeed in a great deal of financial trouble in starting in 1926. I'm still in the process of working out a chronology for this time period, to help get a sense what exactly happened. Since these cases all overlap, it is slightly confusing if the cases are viewed individually. None of these cases has yet been scanned, but I hope to do so next week. The last of the dockets from 1928 to be scanned have been sent to On-Demand, and should be done sometime next week.

Given the heavy debts which had accrued by the time of Davis's disappearance in April, 1929, I wonder whether his wife declared bankruptcy. Should I contact NARA about this?

Davis update, week of April 17-21

This week has been largely dedicated to searching for and tracking down the rumored administration case connected to Davis' disappearance. I searched the Estate Docket, and found that Davis served as administrator for the estate of Dorothy Gross, and that indeed, he seems to have disappeared with some money. Interestingly, this is evidently the only administration case that Davis handled in 1928-1929.

I still need to get the criminal cases and to send several dockets to On-Demand for 1928, as I was unable to do so this week because of the search for administration cases

Davis update, week of 4/10 to 4/14

This week I have nearly completed searching for cases in 1928. I have one volume of the Superior Court docket left to read through. As I indicated in my emall from Wednesday, I have sent On-Demand a large number of docket entries to be scanned, which will hopefully finished the beginning of next week sometime. I still have the Criminal docket from 1928 to be scanned, and I need to retrieve the criminal papers form 1928 as well. Davis handled approximately 50 criminal defense cases in 1928, so this portion will be a fairly time consuming undertaking fro everyone involved. Thus far I have been unable to locate the administration case Davis is alleged to have misapplied money in during the course of my research, but administration-type cases are not an area that I am greatly familiar with. Do you have any suggestions as to where such a matter would have been handled?

I have added the last of the images for 1929, and that year is complete, unless you feel there are any other dockets I need to search.

Owen

Davis update, week of March 13-17
The first part of this week's work focused on finishing the cases reported in the Afro in 1920-1921. At this point, I am waiting for a scanning order to be completed by On-Demand and these years will be completed. I have been able to locate records from most of the cases reported in the Afro. This week I scanned and uploaded eight cases and uploaded another twelve which were scanned by On-Demand. In addition I searched through for what cases I could find from 1929. I found 10 criminal defense cases, and one City Court case. He seems to have not handled any divorce cases that year, nor any cases in the Superior court. This is somewhat interesting in light of his caseload from earlier in his practice. The City Court case should have been handled by Judge Ulman, according to the judicial assignments reported in the Supreme Bench Minutes.

Davis update, week of March 27-31

This week I concentrated on the cases Davis handled in 1928. I searched for and located cases in the Equity B dockets for both Circuit Courts (divorce cases). All of Davis' cases in these dockets have been located and the papers have been scanned (except for one). He handled about two dozen divorce cases. I reading the 1928 Criminal docket, and am nearly through it; Davis handled some 50 criminal defense cases through November.

At this point, I anticipate that next week I will be finished the criminal cases, working with the criminal papers, etc. Hopefully I will be able to finish the criminal cases by the end of the week, but it's hard to know, given the sheer number of cases he handled. I also would like to send off several dockets to On-Demand to be scanned.

28 new files have been scanned and added this week.

Davis update, week of March 20-24

I have searched through eight dockets from 1929 looking for cases handled by Davis. These were the areas that he seems to have been most active in. All cases found have been scanned (a few are awaiting scanning, and will hopefully be finished by the end of the day). Davis seems not to have handled many cases in 1929: 10 criminal defense cases, no divorces and only a handful of other cases. I did find All Saint's Evangelical Lutheran Church v. George Ahrling et al rather interesting.

I searched these dockets:

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT (Equity Docket A) 1929, 69A

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT (Equity Docket B) 1929, 69B

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Docket A) 1929, 38A

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2 (Equity Docket B) 1929, 38B

BALTIMORE CITY SUPERIOR COURT (Cases Instituted) 1929, January-April, Nos. 1-450

BALTIMORE CITY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS (Cases Instituted) 1929, JYC [T511-76, 3/2/11/31]

BALTIMORE CITY CRIMINAL COURT (Criminal Docket) 1929 [C1849-139, 3/30/4/24]

BALTIMORE CITY COURT (Cases Instituted) 1929, 62A, January-April [T556-66, 3/34/3/24]

I am still searching for cases he handled in 1928, a process which will take much longer than it did for 1929. Because Davis disappeared in April of 1929, there is a comparatively small amount of material to search through. Thus far I have searched the Equity B dockets for Circuit Courts 1 and 2. I have found 22 cases in these dockets. Given how active Davis' practice seems to have been, I anticipate that it will take a considerable amount of time to complete.

In terms of the cases that Davis is supposed have misapplied money in: do we know more than that "he had misapplied money in an administration case"? My knowledge of the Baltimore City court system is, I'll admit, a bit spotty--where would such a case have been filed?

To date, I have identified and located approximately 75 cases in which Davis was involved, and approximately 50 cases have been scanned and uploadedDavis Update, week of March 6-10

The majority of my work this week has been devoted to working with civil cases from the 1920-1921 time period. I found the City Court cases through 1921 as well as the Circuit Court 1 and 2 cases from 1920. I retrieved and scanned papers for all of these cases, as well as a few others, including an Orphans Court case. I also scanned papers for a number of Criminal cases from 1921. A large number of work orders were completed by On-Demand today, mostly docket entries form 1921, and I have uploaded these files to ecpclio (however, I was unable to include them on the CD I gave to you this morning, which I had to make before I left for the City Archives). In addition, I have a large order to be sent to On-Demand, which will happen on Monday.

There are about 10 cases from the 1919-1921 time period left for me to retrieve, largely circuit court proceedings from 1921, and I will take care of these next week. When these are complete, I will begin to comb through the 1929 Criminal, Circuit Court, and Circuit Court No. 2 dockets from 1929. The majority of Davis' practice was focused in these areas (criminal defense and divorce). Because the Afro coverage in the binder does not report many Davis cases after 1922, I will use both Afro coverage and comb through the dockets from 1923-1929.

Davis update, week of March 13-17

The first part of this week's work focused on finishing the cases reported in the Afro in 1920-1921. At this point, I am waiting for a scanning order to be completed by On-Demand and these years will be completed. I have been able to locate records from most of the cases reported in the Afro. This week I scanned and uploaded eight cases and uploaded another twelve which were scanned by On-Demand.

In addition I searched through for what cases I could find from 1929. I found 10 criminal defense cases, and one City Court case. He seems to have not handled any divorce cases that year, nor any cases in the Superior court. This is somewhat interesting in light of his caseload from earlier in his practice. The City Court case should have been handled by Judge Ulman, according to the judicial assignments reported in the Supreme Bench Minutes.

Davis update, week of March 6-10

The majority of my work this week has been devoted to working with civil cases from the 1920-1921 time period. I found the City Court cases through 1921 as well as the Circuit Court 1 and 2 cases from 1920. I retrieved and scanned papers for all of these cases, as well as a few others, including an Orphans Court case. I also scanned papers for a number of Criminal cases from 1921. A large number of work orders were completed by On-Demand today, mostly docket entries form 1921, and I have uploaded these files to ecpclio (however, I was unable to include them on the CD I gave to you this morning, which I had to make before I left for the City Archives) . In addition, I have a large order to be sent to On-Demand, which will happen on Monday.

There are about 10 cases from the 1919-1921 time period left for me to retrieve, largely circuit court proceedings from 1921, and I will take care of these next week. When these are complete, I will begin to comb through the 1929 Criminal, Circuit Court, and Circuit Court No. 2 dockets from 1929. The majority of Davis' practice was focused in these areas (criminal defense and divorce). Because the Afro coverage in the binder does not report many Davis cases after 1922, I will use both Afro coverage and comb throught he dockets from 1923-1929.

Davis update, week of Feb. 27-Mar. 3

I've spent some time exploring the easiest and most efficient way to gather Davis case material. For at least the civil and criminal proceedings in 1921 and 1922, which constitute the bulk of cases identified, I am working docket by docket, which means each docket needs to be sent to On-Demand Scanning only once.

I have set up in the Davis series in ecpclio a year by year listing of cases which contains my research notes. Some cases stretched over several years; all cases are listed by the year of the docket they are recorded in. The cases are listed are all the cases that I have searched for. Where appropriate, I have noted that I am waiting for papers to be sent from HF, scanning to be done by On-Demand, etc. For each case I have listed at least basic information, dates, charges, and the like, while some necessitated further explanation. As records are scanned, links will be added. Cases I was unable to locate are listed along with the reason they are not available, generally because they were federal cases. At a future date, I will recheck cases that I have not been able to locate but which should be here (criminal cases I couldn't find in the docket, for example). I will update the listing of cases I have located on ecpclio, as well as the spreadsheet, at least weekly.

The first cases I located were the ones which seemed to draw the most attention or seemed the most compelling. This includes the two Page v. Page divorce cases, from 1926 and 1927, as well as the high-profile murder cases like Henry Ross and Hopson/Hopkins Watkins. In addition, I spent this week working through the 1921 criminal cases. I have sent the docket for scanning and am waiting for a number of case papers to be sent from the warehouse. I'm moving ahead as quickly as I think I can without getting overwhelmed. If there are specific cases which I have not yet addressed that you would like me to investigate let me know.

I will provide you with a CD containing the files scanned thus far.