Joseph H. Davis (1811 - 1865)

Sotheby's, New York, Important Americana, January 23, 2005, sale 8053, lot 969.

Remi Spriggs, “Living with antiques: An Americana collection in New Jersey,” Magazine Antiques (April 2005), 94-105;

Leslie and Peter Warwick, Love At First Sight: Discovering Stories About Folk Art & Antiques Collected by Two Generations & Three Families, (New Jersey: 2022), p. 225, fig. 393.

Hannah Waldron Foss (b. October 4, 1825) and Adaline Waldron Foss (b. August 2, 1830) were the second and fifth children of James Babb Foss (1795-1882) and Sarah Waldron (1802-?). James Babb Foss married Prudence English and had five children but married Sarah Waldron two years before his last child was born with Prudence. In 1829, he married Elizabeth Flemming in Ohio, again, two years before his last three children with Sarah. He had fifteen children total with three different women.

Hannah married Joseph Stiles (b. 1824) in 1846 in Strafford, New Hampshire and had one child, James, and died August 16, 1913 in Strafford. She lived to be 87-years-old. Adaline married Charles Alonzo Hill (b. 1832) in 1855. They had four children and she died August 5, 1878 in Northwood, New Hampshire where they moved after the birth of their first child. She lived to be 48-years-old.

A double portrait of William Foss and his wife Polly, relatives of Adaline and Hannah, by Joseph Davis dated April 7, 1836, was sold in these rooms, Important Americana, October 11, 2001, sale 7705, lot 133.