Maria Thompson Daviess, granddaughter of Maj. William Daviess and Maria B. Thompson, was a noted author and suffragette in Kentucky and Tennesee. Kay Baker Gaston recently published an article on Maria Thompson Daviess's life and career in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly (Vol. LXX Fall 2011 Number 3), pp. 196-211. Kay has graciously given permission to share her article and photos with McAfee researchers (including several photos that were not published with the original article). Kay continues to research the life of Maria Thompson Daviess, and is particularly interested in locating Maria's personal papers, letters or other documents. Kay is also keen to locate the original Hergesheimer portrait of Daviess, which she suspects may be in Nashville. If you have any information on Maria, please email Kay at
"Miss Daviess Vacationing" - click on link to view image (large file). Taken from article by Libbie Luttrell Morrow in Book News Monthly, January 1914, p. 225.
[Maria Thompson Daviess by Sarah Eakin Cowan,
frontispiece of "Seven Times Seven"
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1924).]
(Sweetbrier Farm in Madison, Tennessee. Photo by Joe Gaston.)
(Glen Leven, the home of Maria Thompson Daviess's aunt, located on Franklin Road in Nashville, Tennessee.
The farmhouse that Maria's uncle Jo Hamilton occupied, and where Maria started writing,
was nearby on the same property.)
(Home of Maria Thompson Daviess (1814-1896)
at 122 East Poplar Street, Harrodsburg, KY.
Photo by Joe Gaston.)
(Graves of Maria Thompson Daviess and her family
in foreground, Spring Hill Cemetery, Harrodsburg, KY.
Photo by Joe Gaston.)
(Hayfields on the outskirts of Harrodsburg, KY. Photo by Joe Gaston.)