PIONEER BUSINESS MAN PASSED AWAY FRIDAY.
A. S. Davis Was Active In Business Here For Over 60 Years.
FARMINGTON NEWS, Friday, March 5, 1948.

The passing of A. S. (Lon) Davis on last Friday at the advanced age of 85 removed from the community one of its oldest business men and most highly respected citizens.

Funeral services were held at the Cozean Funeral Home on Sunday afternoon at 2:30, conducted by Rev. S. C. Headrick.  Interment in the Masonic Cemetery.

Born on November 3, 1862, and reared in the community of Davis Crossing, son of the late James Rankin and Elizabeth Fields Davis, he came to Farmington when a young man of 20 and secured a job as clerk in the Morris Rosenthal Store which was then located on the site of the H. C. Mell Hardware Store.  In 1887 he went into the grocery business with the late A. L. Orten.  He sold his interest in the business to his partner in 1893 and for the next three years was engaged in the general merchandise business with O. L. and W. T. Haile.  In 1896 he bought the interest of S. T. Horn in the City Drug Store.   He was associated with the late W. D. Cayce in the operation of this business for a year or more.  In 1898 he purchased a lot on the west side of the public square and erected thereon a brick building, known now as the Williams  Building, where he operated a general merchandise store in partnership with the late John A. Sprott.  In 1901 he sold his interest in this business to J. C. McCormick and Ed Henderson and he and Dr. B. J. Robinson bought from the late J. D. Highley the corner lot on which the Highley Livery Business had been formerly operated for many years.  The next year they erected the present large two story business block on this site and he organized with the late W. F. Overall and J. W. Simms the Farmington Mercantile Co. of which he was active head for 28 years when he sold his interest in the firm, retaining, however, the floor and household furnishings department which he continued to operate until a few years ago when he retired, leasing the building to the Farmington Auto Supply Co. on January 1, 1945.   The Farmington
Mercantile Co. went out of business in 1940.

Mr. Davis was happily united in marriage on November 6, 1889, to Laura Ann Highley who preceded him in death on December 28, 1925.  He is survived by his daughter, Lelia, (Mrs. E. J.) McKinney, Jr., of Famrington and one sister, Mrs. J. A. Reddick of Oakland, Calif.

Mr. Davis had long been an active member of the Murphy-Long Memorial Methodist Church.   He took an active interest in every movement for the betterment of the community.   He was a tireless worker, ruggedly honest and possessed of a pleasing personality.   While his health had not been very good in recent years, he had been able to be about and came downtown occasionally until a few days before his death.  The community mourns the passing of one of its very finest citizens.

Note:  The above obituary was published in the Farmington News on Friday, March 5, 1948.  According to Masonic Cemetery listing, his full name was Alonzo Sinclair Davis and he was born November 3, 1862 and died February 27, 1948.   His wife, Laura Ann (Highley) Davis, according to listing, was born June 8, 1868 and died Dec. 29, 1925 (above article gives date of Dec. 28).  She was daughter of John D. and Jessie Rebecca Jane (Thomasson) Highley.