Local Church to Host Events Honoring Elder Davis

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA

April 23rd 2025

ALTON -- Saint Thomas’ Episcopal Church, the Richmond Historical Society and the Witness Stones Project are collaborating on three upcoming events focusing on the life of the Reverend Daniel Davis.

The Witness Stones Project is a Connecticut-based non-profit group that researches and recounts the histories of enslaved people in the northern United States and creates stones which are installed as memorials to their lives.

Davis escaped enslavement in Maryland and eventually came to Richmond, settling in Alton. Known locally as “Elder Davis”, he was a farmer who became an itinerant preacher, serving in churches in Hopkinton, Westerly and in Richmond at the Wood River Chapel, which is now St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church.

“Even though there were people in Alton and Richmond who knew about the story of Daniel Davis, we really didn’t know about it until, I would say, 2018,” said Rev. Bettine Bessier, the priest at St. Thomas’. “We just thought it was fascinating.”

Richmond Historical Society President Kristen Chambers said Davis left an important legacy, but one which is still largely unknown.

“He is important, but he is pretty much unrecognized,” she said. “There have been some articles about him over the years. Once people learn about him, they’re kind of fascinated that a humble farmer/preacher has this beautiful monument in the cemetery on what was his property. Bettine and I had both found out about him separately, in 2018, and we both started looking into it.”

Bessier explained that when she learned that Davis was buried in a plot behind her church, she began to wonder if he had also preached there.

“We went through our records a little bit, and we found out that he had been a preacher at our church, but it wasn’t an Episcopal church then, it was just a non-denominational church,” she said.

Bessier’s research also coincided with an initiative by the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island to acknowledge the church’s past complicity with slavery.

“We’ve sort of been working on this for a decade, in this diocese, about lifting up the story of our history as a diocese, but also the lives of people who were enslaved,” she said.

Escaping Slavery

Born in 1834, Davis was taken from his parents when he was 10 years old and sold to Maryland farmer Edward Covey, who, it is said, was particularly cruel to his slaves.

When he was 28, Davis escaped and settled in Connecticut and then Rhode Island, where, in 1867 in Alton, he married Almira Bundy.

By all accounts, Davis was a respected and much-loved member of the southwestern Rhode Island community, and Bessier said she was looking forward to helping to tell his story.

“I think it will be good for the town of Richmond,” she said. “We want to tell this story in Richmond, because it’s a beautiful story. … Apparently in Westerly, there was a group that loved him so much that they raised all this money and donated the granite to have this big headstone put on the cemetery. There must have been more to him. There must have been something special about him, that people loved him so much.”

The Events

Witness Stones Project representatives will speak about their work at the first of the three events, this Sunday, April 27. Bessier and Chambers will also present a talk on Davis’s life.

At the second event, on May 10, participants will meet at the church and walk to the cemetery where Davis is buried.

The cemetery is on a privately-owned farm, whose owners have given permission for the group to visit.

Participants in the cemetery event are asked to register online.

Finally, on May 18, the church will present the documentary film, “Traces of the Trade,” about the history of the slave trade in Rhode Island.

All three events will take place at St. Thomas’ Church, 322 Church St, Wood River Junction. Details are available here.

Bessier said she hoped to raise the level of awareness about slavery in Rhode Island.

“I grew up in Connecticut, right? I was told that there were no slaves in New England. That we were the good ones. Meanwhile – it’s just unbelievable,” she said.

Chambers credited Bessier with contacting the Witness Stones Project and organizing the three events.

“Bettine’s been a real workhorse about not letting this go, and she’s reached out to different people and groups,” she said. “I’d never heard of the Witness Stones Project, and she found out about it and contacted the group, so we’re just thrilled that something tangible’s going to be happening to honor him.”