Davis, Ovid Elbert (1868–1911)

Ovid Elbert Davis was a pioneer missionary to the indigenous peoples of Alaska and British Columbia. He also served in ministry in Washington and Michigan states, and then became a pioneer missionary in British Guiana (after 1965 simply called Guiana) where he perished from blackwater fever while establishing a mission station near Mt. Roraima.¹

Background and Early Missionary Work

Ovid Elbert Davis was born April 3, 1868, in Ovid Township, Branch, Michigan.² His parents were Levi Ward Davis (1824-1893) and Rebecca Ann Sharp Davis (1836-1912). He married Rosa Bell Maude Godfrey on April 28, 1889. They had two sons, Fae (b. 1894) and Neal (b. 1899).³ On December 1, 1904, Maude divorced him. It is unclear how he became an Adventist except that he began subscribing to church publications during the 1890s.

After the Battle Creek Sanitarium burned in 1902, Davis was inspired by Ellen White’s counsels to become a missionary and spread the Adventist message to new places. After completing the ministerial course at Emmanuel Missionary College, he responded to a call to minister to the indigenous peoples of Alaska.⁴ At one point, traditionalists within the indigenous peoples threatened to tie him to a stake out on the tidelands leaving him to drown. In 1903 he was located in Balmoral Cannery, Port Essington, British Columbia.⁵ On December 11, 1903, he established the first “Indian church”⁶ in the province, and possibly in the entire Pacific northwest. In 1905 he reported about laboring among the native peoples of Port Simpson, British Columbia. Soon after this T. H. Watson came to take charge of this work, and Davis was reassigned to Vancouver. Here he was able to help finish building a church that had been started three years earlier. He slowly worked his way along the coast moving toward Seattle.⁷ He later ministered in Michigan and while there was ordained to the gospel ministry.⁸

Missionary to British Guiana

On January 19, 1906, the General Conference voted to send Davis to British Guiana.⁹ He remarried Carrie E. Rosley (b. 1882) on April 1, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois, and the couple left the following month. His main focus the first two years was on colporteur work distributing literature. During the first six months of 1908, he surpassed amount of literature he sold the entire year in 1907. “Our canvassing work thus far has surpassed my most sanguine expectations.”¹⁰ Davis participated in the fourth annual session of the British Guiana Conference from April 1-5, 1909, and then participated in the 1909 General Conference session where he gave a thrilling report about their missionary activities.¹¹

In 1910 Davis reported organizing a new church 160 miles up the Barama River. At the same time another mission site was purchased 100 miles up the Demerara River. These would become the Rio Paruime and Mt. Tulamang (Mountain View) missions.¹² He traveled along the Essequibo River where he had received a request from a tribe “still farther in the interior, that had never been visited by the white man, asking that the ‘God-man’ come and teach them the message of salvation.”¹³ These tribes would later be identified as the Arekunai (Arecuna) and Akawaio. These interior tribes had learned about the Adventist work by contact with indigenous (indígena) peoples at the mission at Tapagruma Creek (50 miles from Georgetown). Reports indicated that interest in Christ’s return arose as early as 1842-1844¹⁴ when literature arrived on ships. E. C. Boger noted that some of these beliefs had become “mixed up” with “tribal traditions and superstitions” but more importantly they believed that someone would come “to tell them about the coming of Christ.”¹⁵ The journey took Davis two months up the Demerara River.¹⁶ In one report he stated that he had traveled twenty-nine days by boat and an additional ten days through dense forest as he made this arduous trek. Carrie E. Davis described the dangerous trek in detail:

He left Georgetown for Bartica [on the Essequibo River]. From Bartica he travels in an open boat from forty-three to forty-six days until he reaches Arawi Landing, Wenamu River. After three days of hard traveling from here he will reach Brother Dinlage’s home. He expects to spend about ten days with the Indians at that place [we have several companies of Indian believers in Guiana]. From there he takes an Indian guide, and proceeds still farther into the interior, along a trail known only to the Indians. It will take about two weeks’ traveling along this trail before he will reach a tribe of Indians who have never seen a white man. In some way they have heard of the Sabbath, and are keeping it. They have heard Elder Davis is coming to see them, and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the “God-man,” who will tell them all about the soon-coming Saviour. Elder Davis will be away from home three months or more.¹⁷

There were reports that an old chief had been visited by a “shining being” who taught them about the creation of the world, the entrance of sin, the story of the promised Redeemer, and Christ’s Second Coming. He also taught them to begin worshiping on the seventh-day Sabbath and how to live a healthful life. The angel changed his name to Owkwa, meaning “great light,” as he continued to have visions and dreams. He told him that a man with a black book would teach them more. When Davis arrived, he shared with them from his “black book,” the Bible, which was their sign that the missionary from God had arrived.¹⁸

Davis visited among the forest indígena (indigenous) tribes “teaching them the Word of God, and reported the establishing of three mission bases among them.” He noted that 187 “definitely took their stand to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”¹⁹ He built three church buildings and began to instruct them “on the points of our faith.” He also “taught them to sing one song in English, ‘There’s Not a Friend like the Lowly Jesus.’”²⁰

Davis returned for a second visit, leaving in May 1911 from Georgetown. He complained about a fever and heart problems just before departure.²¹ The last entry in his diary in his handwriting was “Monday, July 17—The day was spent in further instruction and naming the people.”²² Naming people referenced the desire of new converts for a new name representative of their resolve to follow the Christian’s God and learn His ways. Davis dictated his last entry to the guide: “God has especially blessed in this trip. I had a complete mission at Paruima River, another at Mt. Tulameng, and then we came to Mt. Roraima. Just finished establishing a mission when I was taken sick.” This station was officially established on June 25, 1911, the first Seventh-day Adventist mission in this region. It was while he was here that his handwritten diary broke off.²³ Davis died July 31, 1911, from blackwater fever, and was buried at Mt. Roraima by Chief Jeremiah who administered the last rites.²⁴ The site was located where Guiana, Venezuela, and Brazil meet, although the south slope of the mountain, where he is buried, was initially reported as being on the Brazilian side.²⁵ Today his grave is in Venezuela (in an area where the three borders come together and have shifted over time). The Indians continued to gather every Sabbath by his grave where they would sing the hymns that he taught them.²⁶ Other favorite hymns that were sung included “Shall We Gather at the River?” and “Jesus is Coming Again.”²⁷

After his death reports circulated that Davis had been killed by a poisoned arrow because he taught against polygamy.²⁸ National Geographic explorer Henry Edward Crampton reported on the death of a missionary that happened a short time before his own visit.²⁹ Later reports and a copy of Davis’s handwritten diary confirmed that he died from blackwater fever and such rumors were unfounded.³⁰ Carrie Davis arrived in New York City on February 19, 1912³¹, where she spent time with friends of her deceased husband in New York and Michigan before returning to her former home in Seattle, Washington.³² She is referenced in Seventh Day Baptist periodicals in the 1920s.³³

Finding the “Davis” Indians

Despite numerous “appeals” for someone to come, it was fourteen years before Adventist missionaries finally followed-up on Davis’ work. On his deathbed, Davis had promised that someone would indeed come and teach them. One of the chiefs told how he had a vision about the second coming of Christ and promising that a man with a “black book” would arrive to teach them more about God and the seventh-day Sabbath.³⁴

After Davis was buried on Mt. Roraima, the tribes continued meeting on the Sabbath day to pray and sing the songs he had taught them. And so, they “waited and waited.” The Arekunai (Arecuna) and Akawaio turned down many offers from the Catholic Church to come and teach them, believing that Davis’ successor would come. About 1918 an explorer found a group of Indians who were singing an English song. Finding this strange, he discovered that they would bring out the effects of Brother Davis and hold a simple service. They continued to sing the song “There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus.” He said they sang this song because they had no songs in their own language.³⁵ After more than a decade of waiting, in 1922 their chief hiked to Georgetown—a trip fo four weeks— to plead with the Adventist mission office for “the God man” or “the Davis man” to come to them.³⁶ In 1924 the division committee decided they must not wait another year no matter what the sacrifice, even after budget cuts. In 1925 W. E. Baxter and C. B. Sutton made a short visit to Mt. Roraima.³⁷ They arrived at the grave of Davis on October 25, 1925, after a lengthy journey to find the “Davis” Indians. They found the man who buried Davis along with the son of Chief Jeremiah, who brought them a bundle of papers. In it was a letter from Davis dated July 17, 1911, certifying that 130 persons had “solemnly declared their intentions to live true and loyal” to “the Gospel of Christ and the doctrines and principles of the Seventh-day Adventist church.” The “said mission being at the foot of Mts. Roraima and Enkinem on the South known as Jeremiah’s place.”³⁸ The trip up there resulted in both Baxter and Sutton suffering “an attack of malaria.”³⁹

In August 1927, thanks to a special offering, Arthur W. Cotts and R. J. Christians made another attempt. Ultimately Christians returned home, but Arthur and Elizabeth Cott did make it to Mt. Roraima, established housekeeping, and continued the work begun so many years earlier.⁴⁰ Upon the return of Baxter and Sutton in 1926, Sutton shared stories about their trip into “the wilds” of their “jungle home.” It was reported that this was “one of the most wonderful missionary stories ever told in illustrating the work of the Spirit of God in answering the cry of benighted savages for a knowledge of the true God.”⁴¹ The story of the “Davis” Indians was “more thrilling than any romance that was ever written” in tracing what “God has wrought . . . in behalf of the Indian tribes in this great continent.”⁴² The death of Davis “shook Adventists” and served as “a continuing reminder to Adventists that they were to fulfill the gospel commission even in remote regions.”⁴³

Today the 54-bed Adventist hospital in Georgetown, Guyana, is named in Davis’s honor. Also, in 1956, the Davis Indian Training School at Paruima in the Kamarang became part of the Mount Roraima Mission.⁴⁴ In the early 1980s it was reported that there were over 1,500 Adventists among the Davis Indians.⁴⁵

Sources

“Additional Facts Concerning the Death of Elder O. E. Davis.” ARH, October 19, 1911.

Amundsen, Wesley. The Advent Message in Inter-America. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1947.

Andross, E. E. “God’s Leadings in Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.” January 1, 1925.

Andross, Matilda Erickson. Story of the Advent Message. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1926.

Boger, E. C. “Ovid Elbert Davis obituary.” ARH, November 2, 1911.

Chilson, Adriel. “The ‘Davis’ Indians.” ARH, January 10, 1991.

Cott, Betty Buhler. Destination-Green Hell. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1972.

Cott, Betty Buhler. Jewels from Green Hell: Stories of the Davis Indians of British Guiana. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1969.

Cott-Bühler, Betty. Wenn der Dschungel Ruft. Zurich: Advent-Verlarg, 1971.

Cott, Elizabeth. Trailing the Davis Indians. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1936.

Davis, O. E. “British Guiana.” ARH, March 24, 1910.

Davis, O. E. “The Largest Book for the Least Money.” ARH, May 12, 1910.

Davis, O. E. and Carrie E. Davis, “A Letter from Georgetown, British Guiana.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, Aril 25, 1907.

“Death of Elder O. E. Davis.” ARH, September 28, 1911.

Encyclopaedia of the Guyanese Amerindians [2007]: 55.

Greenleaf, Floyd. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1992.

Johnston, Madeline Steele. “Matilda Erickson Andross: The Original Missionary Volunteer.” Adventist Heritage, 11, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 39-40.

“Jottings from Elder O. E. Davis’s Diary.” ARH, November 9, 1911.

Lantry, Eileen. Jungle Adventurer. Boise, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1987.

“The Mission to the ‘Davis’ Indians.” ARH, December 23, 1926.

Mitchell, David. Seventh-day Adventists: Faith in Action. New York: Vantage Press, 1958.

Pierson, Robert H. and Joseph O. Emmerson. Paddles Over the Kamarang: The Story of the Davis Indians. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1953.

Rouhe, Olavi and Corrine Vanderwerff. They Called Me Bwana Muñanga. Decorah, IA: Anundsen Publishing Company, 1993.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Second revised edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1995.

Shearer, Gary. “The Davis Indians of Guyana.” Unpublished bibliography, 2001. https://library.puc.edu/heritage/bib-DavisIn.html.

Spicer, W. A. “’Life Up Thine Eyes, . . . and See’ Isa. 60:4.” ARH, June 22, 1911.

Notes

1. See E. C. Boger, Ovid Elbert Davis obituary,” ARH, November 2, 1911, 23.↩

2. There are conflicting dates for the birth of Ovid. His obituary in the Review states he was born in 1869, his marriage certificate implies he was ten years older, which would make his birth date 1872 but this appears unreliable, and birth records (the earliest) indicate he was born in 1868. He may have wanted to lessen the gap in age with his second wife thus not emphasizing the actual date of his birth after a presumably painful divorce and remarriage process.↩

3. “Ovid Elbert Davis,” FamilySearch, 2021, accessed December 3, 2024, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZVF-5Y5/ovid-elbert-davis-1868-1911.↩

4. E. C. Boger, Ovid Elbert Davis obituary,” ARH, November 2, 1911, 23.↩

5. “Publications Wanted,” ARH, July 21, 1903, 23.↩

6. This article acknowledges the changes in nomenclature and either uses quotation marks or refers to the indigenous or native peoples as respectful terms, noting the variety of ways and preferences among the various First Nations and indigenous peoples of North and South America.↩

7. O. E. Davis, “Washington,” ARH, August 24, 1905, 18.↩

8. E. C. Boger, Ovid Elbert Davis obituary,” ARH, November 2, 1911, 23.↩

9. General Conference Committee Minutes, January 19, 1906, 94, accessed December 2, 2024, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1906.pdf#search=%22O%2E%20E%2E%20Davis%22. Unfortunately, some incorrect information has been circulated. Land in his Historical Dictionary incorrectly states that Davis began missionary work there in 1910, but in fact, he had arrived four years earlier. See Gary Land, Historical Dictionary (2009), 122; idem., Historical Dictionary (2014), 137.↩

10. “Notes of Progress,” ARH, September 17, 1908, 29.↩

11. See “British Guiana,” ARH, May 13, 1909, 19; “British Guiana Conference,” ARH, July 21, 1909, 16.↩

12. The last Adventist mission station up the Demerara River was named Bootooba. See E. C. Roger, “Georgetown, British Guiana,” ARH, February 6, 1913, 133.↩

13. See note in ARH, September 14, 1911, 24.↩

14. See note that “We have evidences that the message of the coming of the Lord was given to this people in some way as early as 1842-3.” D. C. Babcock, “News of Progress in Guiana,” Inter-American Messenger, November 1926, 2.↩

15. W. A. Spicer, “The Indians of Guiana and the Second Advent,” Youth’s Instructor, June 13, 1916, 4.↩

16. See Sign of the Times, September 19, 1911, 16.↩

17. W. A. Spicer, “’Life Up Thine Eyes, . . . and See’ Isa. 60:4,” ARH, June 22, 1911, 11-12.↩

18. Betty Cott, Jewels from Green Hell. These details are condensed in Tompaul Wheeler, God Space (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2007), 211-213.↩

19. E. C. Boger, “Still Calling for the ‘God-Man,’” ARH, October 9, 1913, 9.↩

20. E. E. Andross, “God’s Leadings in Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies,” January 1, 1925, 10.↩

21. Noted by Floyd Greenleaf, The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1992), 153, 220.↩

22. W. A. Spicer, Our Story of Missions for Colleges & Academies (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1921), 239.↩

23. Mrs. E. E. Andross, “After Many Years,” ARH, December 10, 1925, 5.↩

24. E. C. Boger, Ovid Elbert Davis obituary,” ARH, November 2, 1911, 23.↩

25. W. A. Spicer, “The Indians of Guiana and the Second Advent,” YI, June 13, 1916, 4.↩

26. E. E. Andross, “God’s Leadings in Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies,” January 1, 1925, 10.↩

27. W. E. Baxter, “The ‘Davis’ Indians,” Inter-American Messenger: Harvest Ingathering for Missions 1926, 4. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/IAM/IAM19260201-V03-03.pdf#search=Roraima%20↩

28. “Murder of Missionary,” The Missionary Review of the World, December 1911, 954.↩

29. Henry Edward Crampton, “Kaieteur and Roraima: The Great Falls and the Great Mountain of the of the Guianas,” National Geographic, September 1920, 243.↩

30. See note in ARH, October 26, 1911, 24.↩

31. See note of her arrival in New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1957, accessed from Ancestry.com.↩

32. See note ARH, February 29, 1912, 24.↩

33. Cf. report in The Sabbath Recorder, September 1, 1924, 277.↩

34. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia [1996] 10:445.↩

35. “The ‘Davis Man’ At Last,” ARH, October 22, 1925, 24.↩

36. Matilda Erickson Andross, Story of the Advent Message (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1926), 271-271.↩

37. E. E. Andross, “Report of the Inter-American Division,” ARH, June 10, 1926, 11-12; “The ‘Davis Man’ At Last,” ARH, October 22, 1925, 24.↩

38. W. E. Baxter, “Finding the ‘Davis Indians,’” Inter-American Messenger, January 1926, 3-4.↩

39. “The Mission to the ‘Davis’ Indians,” ARH, December 16, 1926, 24.↩

40. Madeline Steele Johnston, “Matilda Erickson Andross: The Original Missionary Volunteer,” Adventist Heritage 11, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 39-40.↩

41. F. C. Clark, “Unusual Opportunities,” Central Union Outlook, August 1926, 6.↩

42. “The Mission to the ‘Davis’ Indians,” ARH, December 23, 1926, 24.↩

43. Floyd Greenleaf, “Adventists in Latin America,” Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism, eds. M. W. Campbell, Christie Chow, David Holland, Denis Kaiser, and Nicholas Miller (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), 449.↩

44. Nichole Homeward, “Adventist Education in the Caribbean Union Conference,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, April 5, 1922, accessed December 2, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=EC8N.↩

45. Fred E. Hernandez, “Church Dedication Is Highlight of Visit to the Davis Indians,” ARH, August 2, 1984, 17-19.↩