The Dictionary of Virginia Biography is published online through a partnership with Encyclopedia Virginia. Biographies that do not also appear in the three print volumes (surnames Aaroe�Daniels) link to lists of sources consulted.
Sources consulted for the biography of:Cephas L. Davis (ca. 1839–1907)
Primary Sources
- Age 37 on June 26, 1880, United States Census Schedules, Mecklenburg County, 1880, United States Census Schedules, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Correspondence in William Mahone Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (second quotation in Davis to Mahone, November 14, 1879).
- Bluestone Colored Baptist Association Minutes, 1871–1875, 1880, 1884.
- Mecklenburg County Deed Book 42:198, 44:233, 48:67–68, Library of Virginia.
- Mecklenburg County Order Book, 13:31, 41, Library of Virginia.
- Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, no. 12 (1879), Accession 26041, and no. 413 (1876), Accession 38055, both in State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia
- Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1879–1880), 29, 32, 252, 256.
- Physician's Death Certificate, Philadelphia, (with parents' names and age at death of 67 years), Philadelphia City Archives, Department of Records, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Secondary Sources
- Biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 10, with parents' names as Charles and Frances and variant birth year of 1843.
- John Johnson Ashenhurst, Recollections of an Octogenarian, ed. James Harold Ashenhurst and Elin Barkman Ashenhurst (1990), 102–106.
- [Ebenezer Baptist Church], Past and Present Historical and Pictorial Book of Ebenezer Baptist Church, 1877–1995 [1995], 13–15 (conjectural portrait on 13), 18.
Newspapers
- Charlotte Gazette, September 30, 1876; October 14, 1876; October 28, 1876; August 29, 1878; June 19, 1879; October 30, 1879 (first quotation); November 6, 1879; February 19, 1880; February 26, 1880; May 22, 1884
- Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 16,1879; December 11, 1879; March 22, 1880
- Richmond State, January 12, 1880 (third quotation)
- Washington Post, January 13, 1883; May 26, 1898
- Indianapolis Freeman, February 22, 1902
- Possible references in Philadelphia Enquirer, December 21, 1899; March 20, 1904
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