Anne Britton Davis

Biography of Anne Britton Davis

Written by Angela Gates

Anne Britton Davis was born January 5, 1867, in Keokuk, Iowa, to Caleb Forbes and Caroline Thistle Cox Davis. She was an active member of St. John’s Episcopal Church and devoted herself to the various interests of the church and its membership. Ms. Davis also served on the Board of Directors for the YWCA and as a director for the well-known charity of the Benevolent Union. She was a director of the Civic League and a member of the Mentor Reading Club.

However, Anne’s involvement in the Keokuk Country Club and her activities on the golf course, combined with her involvement in the Chief Keokuk monument, brought her to the attention of the Oakland Cemetery Initiative. Ms. Davis was a magnificent golfer, winning multiple trophies and contests. Her first championship was in Coronado, California, in 1900. This was followed by a series of weekly matches at the Keokuk Country Club, which resulted in her club championship win on September 22, 1900. On September 11, 1903, in Des Moines, she won the Trans-Mississippi Cup for the women’s open championship. The tournament was only two years old then, but it continues today. Anne also claimed the Iowa Golf Association Championship in 1902, a repeat Keokuk Country Club Championship the same year, and the Des Moines Championship in 1905. In addition to golf, she was an outstanding tennis player and instructor.

Anne’s father was prominent in public life and was a special inspector of public lands appointed by President Benjamin Harrison. As such, he compiled a vast amount of history and held a collection of Native American pieces, which at one time rivaled that of the Smithsonian. Caleb Forbes Davis and Dr. J. M. Shaffer brought the bones of Chief Keokuk from Franklin County, Kansas, back to Keokuk, where they were interred under the monument now standing at Rand Park. The skull was not among the bones the men returned with. Several months passed, and Caleb Forbes Davis acquired what was reported to be the Chief's skull, but there was no potential to add it to the other bones now resting beneath the monument. Upon his death, Anne became the caretaker for his collection of artifacts, including the Chief’s skull. She had been one of the Daughters of the American Revolution members who had originally pursued placement of the Chief Keokuk statue at the Park. During the statue's placement, part of the upper portion was removed, the skull placed within, and the statue positioned at the top.

The Davis family home was at one time known as the Octagon House which had previously been the young women’s seminary. In the early 1910s, that house was razed, and used the stones to construct the residence at 215 High Street where the Davis family remained until Anne’s death on May 25, 1949. It was said that the Octagon House owned by the Davis family was the template for the octagonal building at Oakland Cemetery, another piece tying the Davises to Oakland and the city of Keokuk.