Davis Island was first settled by a man named Job Lewis in the early 1700's.
Lewis allegedly began construction of a large, castellated house here. When he passed away in 1750, the house was not completed, and remained unfinished, a "monument of the extravagance and folly of the man who undertook to build what he was unable to finish."
As a result, the earliest recorded name of the Island was Lewis’ Folly or Folly Island.
In 1770, Moses Davis Esq. and his family moved to the island and made the first permanent settlement there, hence the name Davis Island.
Davis established a farm with his family, and was one of the men largely responsible for having Edgecomb incorporated as a town. He served as Town Clerk, Treasurer and Selectman for nineteen years.
The Island eventually passed to Moses' grandson Lincoln, who, with his wife Martha, began taking boarders in 1881, perhaps setting the stage for future island businesses!