Source: History of Boone County, Indiana, by Hon. L.M. Crist, 1914.

MILTON S. DAVENPORT Milton S. Davenport, the son of Austin and Elizabeth
(Hooven) Davenport, was born April 2, 1830, on a farm where the village of Zionsville
now stands. Austin Davenport and his wife were natives of North Carolina, the former of
Davidson county and the latter of Randolph county, and in 1821 they came to Indiana
with their two children and located in Wayne county and in 1823 they came on northwest
and located in Boone county, where Mr. Davenport had entered land in 1822. Here this
pioneer family experienced all the hardships common to the early settlement in a new
country and all the privations to which such a life is heir, and here, starting in the woods,
was forced to provide for his little family by the tilling of the soil and what little his trusty
gun would furnish. At that time game of all kinds was in abundance, and the pioneer, as a
rule, had plenty of wild game for the table. In 1832 Mr. Davenport sold his first purchase
of land and entered three hundred and twenty acres farther east, and on this land he
located the same year and built a brick house in the year 1834, it being one of the first
brick residences in the county. There being no sawmill near by, he built a platform onto
which he rolled logs and out of same he whipsawed the joists and other material for the
building, which was a two-story house and covered same with shaved singles. It was here
that Mr. Davenport died a few years later and on this farm the family continued to reside
for years.

Milton S. Davenport was reared here in this pioneer settlement, having the advantages of
the common school of that day and after his mother died, in 1838, he lived with a married
sister and brother until he was fourteen years old, when he was bound out to learn the
tanner's trade, and during his apprenticeship he received his board and clothing. After two
years his guardian took him away and he finished his trade at Indianapolis, receiving
during that period the princely salary of six dollars per month the third year and seven
dollars per month the fourth year. In 1849 he bought a tannery at Eagle Village, which he
conducted until 1851, when he traded same for a farm, which he worked for one year and
from 1853 to 1858 he worked as a foreman in a tannery at Noblesville and the following
year located at Zionsville and built a tannery, which he operated until 1867. He then lived
on a farm of thirty acres one mile west of Zionsville, to which he added forty acres more.

In January, 1878, he abandoned farm life and located in Zionsville that he might conduct
the insurance business, which he began in 1875 and has continued same up until the
present time. Mr. Davenport has lived a busy life from early manhood, and with the
exception of a few years has spent same at Zionsville or nearby.

Mr. Davenport was married on October 12, 1848, to Miss Mary I. Gates, a daughter of
the gentleman for whom he worked several years and by this marriage he became the
father of nine children, five of whom grew to maturity and were married, but only three
of them are now living. Mrs. Davenport died on October 17, 1908, and on November 11,
1909, he married Mrs. Julia A. (Friberger) Lane, who died three months later, and on
November 16, 1910, Mr. Davenport married Mrs. Mary J. Law, whose maiden name was
McKenzie.

Fraternally, our subject belongs to the Masonic order, in which he has filled all the
offices except Worshipful Master, and politically, he is a Republican, having cast his first
vote for a Whig candidate. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which
he has been class leader for years.

DAVENPORT FRIBERGER GATES HOOVEN LANE LAW MCKENZIE

Submitted by Amy K Davis