Ovid Elbert Davis was born in Michigan on April 3, 1868. In 1902, he was inspired by Ellen White’s counsel to become a missionary, so he completed a ministerial course and accepted a call to work among indigenous peoples of Alaska and then British Columbia.

On January 19, 1906, the General Conference voted to send Davis to British Guiana (Guyana), where the Adventist work had recently started. He married Carrie Rosley in April, and the couple went to their new mission field the following month.

Davis distributed literature during his first two years in British Guiana. Then, in 1910, he reported organizing a new church 160 miles up the Barama River. It would become the Rio Paruime Mission. It was also in 1910 that Davis received a request from tribes deep in the interior that had never been visited by white people, asking to be taught the message of salvation.

These tribes had learned about the Adventist work through contact with indigenous people at the mission at Tapagruma Creek. There were reports that an old chief had been visited by a “shining being” who taught them about Creation, the entrance of sin, the story of the promised Redeemer, and Christ’s Second Coming. He also showed them how to worship on the seventh-day Sabbath and live a healthful life. He told him that a man with a black book would come and teach them more.

The journey took Davis two months. In one report, he stated that he had traveled 29 days by boat and an additional 10 days through dense forest.

Davis taught the Word of God to the forest tribes with his “black book” and reported the establishment of three mission bases among them. He noted that 187 people took their stand to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. He built three church buildings and began to instruct the new believers “on the points of our faith.” He also taught them to sing a song in English, “There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus.”

Davis returned for a second visit in 1911. He complained about a fever and heart problems just before departure. The last entry in his diary in his handwriting was “Monday, July 17—The day was spent in further instruction and naming the people.” Naming people referenced the desire of new converts for a new name representative of their resolve to follow the Christian’s God and learn His ways.

Davis dictated his last entry to the guide: “God has especially blessed in this trip. I had a complete mission at Paruima River, another at Mt. Tulameng, and then we came to Mt. Roraima. Just finished establishing a mission when I was taken sick.” This station was officially established on June 25, 1911, as the first Seventh-day Adventist mission in this region. On his deathbed, Davis promised that someone would come and teach the people. He died July 31, 1911, from blackwater fever and was buried by Chief Jeremiah at Mt. Roraima. Carrie would return alone to her home in the United States.

Following Davis’ death, the Indians gathered every Sabbath by his grave to sing. Despite their numerous appeals for another teacher, it was 14 years before Adventist missionaries finally followed up on his work.

In about 1918, an explorer found a group of Indians who were singing “There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus” in English. Finding this strange, he discovered that they would bring out the effects of Brother Davis and hold a simple service.

In 1922, after more than a decade of waiting, Chief Jeremiah hiked for four weeks to the Adventist mission office in Georgetown to plead for a teacher. In 1924, the division committee decided they must not wait another year despite budget cuts. W. E. Baxter and C. B. Sutton visited Mt. Roraima the following year. They arrived at the grave of Davis on October 25, 1925, after a lengthy journey to find the Davis Indians. Chief Jeremiah and his son brought them a bundle of papers. In it was a letter from Davis dated July 17, 1911, certifying that 130 persons at Mt. Roraima had “solemnly declared their intentions to live true and loyal to the Gospel of Christ and the doctrines and principles of the Seventh-day Adventist church.” The trip up to the mission resulted in both Baxter and Sutton suffering an attack of malaria.

In August 1927, thanks to a special offering, Arthur and Elizabeth Cotts were able to continue the work at Mt. Roraima that had begun so many years earlier.

The death of Davis “shook Adventists” and served as “a continuing reminder . . . that they were to fulfill the gospel commission even in remote regions.”

Today, the 54-bed Adventist hospital in Georgetown, Guyana, is named in Davis’ honor. Also, in 1956, the Davis Indian Training School at Paruima in the Kamarang became part of the Mount Roraima Mission. In the early 1980s, it was reported that there were more than 1,500 Adventists among the “Davis Indians.”

For citations, please see the original article at encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9IMH.

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