Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/175

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DAVIS


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sha, Wis. He served in the civil war as 2d lieutenant in the 38th Wisconsin infantry, 1861- 63; was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1863; and was assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General Gorman, 1863-64. At the close of the war he removed to St. Paul, Minn., and was elected a member of the state legislature in 1867. He was U.S. district attorney for Minne- sota, 1868-73. He was elected governor of the state in 1873, serving one term from Jan. 7, 1874, and de- clined a renomina- tion. He was an un- successful candidate before the legislature of Minnesota for United States senator in 1875, but was elected in 1887, and re-elected in 1893 and 1897. He was chairman of the committees on foreign relations, territories and pensions, and a member of the judici:iry, Pacific railroads, relations with Cuba, and Philippines committees. He was a njt'iutipr of the commission whi'-h npc^otiated the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain in 1898. He received from the Univeisity of Michigan the degree of LL.D. in 1886. He wrote Modern Feudalism ( 1 870): TJie Lata in Shakespeare (1884). He died in St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 37, ]900.

DAVIS, Daniel Franklin, governor of Maine, was born in Freedom. Waldo county, Maine, Sept. 13, 1843; the first son of the Rev. Moses Franklin and Mary (French) Davis. His father was of English descent and one of the pioneers and leaders of the Christian church in eastern Maine, and his mother was of the Brewster and French families of Massachusetts Bay colony. The son was educated at the East Corinth acad- emy and at Kent's Hill seminary, teaching during the winter terms. He served as a volunteer in the Union army, 1863-65, and was admitted to the bar in 1869, practising his profession in East Corinth. He was a Repviblican representa- tive in the state legislature in 1874 and a state senator, 1876-80. In 1879 he was elected governor of the state after a spirited personal canvass, in which he addressed over one hundred audiences, and a contest in the courts and in the state legis- lature which finally confirmed the will of the people and declared him governor. He was the unsuccessful candidate in 1880, being defeated by the fusion of Greenbackers and Democrats, resulting in the election of General Plaisted of Bangor, and in 1881 he established himself in the


practice of law in Bangor. He was married in 1867 to Laura, daughter of William and Mary (Ire- land) Goodwin of East Corinth, and five of their eight children were living at the time of his death: William Franklin, Frederick Hall, Mar- garet Ellen, Edmund Ireland and Willis Roswell. He engaged largely in the lumber business in Bangor and was collector of the port during President Arthur's administration. He died in Bangor. Maine, Jan. 9, 1897.

DAVIS, David, jurist, was born at the Rounds, Sassafras Neck, Cecil county, Md., March 9, 1815; son of David Davis, a physician of Cecil county; and grandson of Naylor Davis of Prince George county. He attended the schools of his native county, an academy in Delaware, and Kenyon college, from which last he was graduated in 1832. He then studied law with Judge Henry W. Bishop at Lenox, Mass., and at the law school at New Haven, Conn., under Judges Daggett and Hitch- cock, and was ad- mitted to practice in 1835. He located in Pekin, 111., but ill health soon led him to ~.

remove to Blooming- vQ-^^y/T^j'^^ ^^ ^ ton. 111. In 1844 he wf s ^^CT^C^^^^f-^^'^ - elected to the legislature of Illinois as a Henry Clay Whig, and in 1847 was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. Upon the adop- tion of the new constitution in 1848 he was elected judge of the eighth judicial district of Illinois, without opposition, and at a time wlien the circuit was strongly Democratic. He gained the friendship of Abraham Lincoln and for years they rode the circuit, which extended over four- teen counties He was re-elected judge in 1855; supported Mr. Lincoln in his canvass against Judge Douglass for U.S. senator in 1858, and in 1860 was sent by the Republican state convention to Chicago as a delegate at-large to the national convention, where his leadership brought about the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. After the election Judge Davis was a chief coun- cillor of the President and accompanied him to Washington in February, 1861. After the inaugu- ration he returned to his duties on the circuit and used his efforts toward a peaceable adjust- ment of the questions at issue between the states. He was re-elected a second time judge of the eighth circuit in 1861. President Lincoln ap- pointed him with Hugh Campbell of St. Louis and Josepli Holt, former secretary of war