Van Wert Davis was a farmer who lived in Paulding, Polk, and Bartow Counties, Georgia, throughout his life and may have practiced law. His first wife, Susan, died in the 1860s, leaving him with two girls. He then married Frances E. Harris, widow of Captain Simeon B. David, who had died in the Civil War. This marriage brought him four David daughters, and the Davises had four more children together. A Van Wert Davis was appointed to take care of Polk County legal matters in 1869 by cotton merchant Josiah Sibley of Augusta and Cottage Hill, Cobb County, Georgia. Sibley was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, but established himself as a major businessman in Augusta well before the Civil War.