Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/127

Rh as colonel of the 2d regiment of Mississippi volun- teers. He was a member of the state house of representatives from 1855 till 1857, and was elected to congress from Mississippi, serving from 1857 till 1861, when he retired and entei-ed the Confederate army as brigadier-genei'al, commanding a brigade of Mississippi militia in Kentucky. After the close of the civil war Mr. Davis resumed his law practice. He has published " Recollections of Mis- sissippi and Mississippians " (Boston, 1889).

DAVIS, Richard Bingham, poet, b. in New York city, 21 Aug., 1771 ; d. in New Brunswick, N. J., in 1799. He was educated at Columbia, but was not graduated. He pursued the business of his father, wood-carving, until 1796, when he be- came editor of the "Diary," a daily gazette pub- lished in New York, for which he wrote about one year. He then engaged in mercantile business. In appearance he is said to have been somewhat like Oliver Goldsmith — awkward in manner and per- son, as well as in speech. His poems are expres- sions of personal sentiment, tinged with melan- choly. They were collected and published by the " Calliopean Society," of which he was a member (New York, 1807). An " Ode to Imagination " shows his earnestne.-s, and an " Elegy on an Old Wig, found in the Street," his humor. He was also a contributor to the " Drone Papers," published in the " New York Magazine," for which he wrote a well-drawn character-sketch of himself, under the name of " Martlett."

DAVIS, Sylyanus, pioneer, d. in Boston in 1704. In June, 1659, he bought a tract of land of the Indians in Damariscotta, Maine. He resided for some time at Sheepscott, was severely wounded while making his escape from Fort Arowsic, and captured by Indians in August, 1676. He accom- panied Maj. Waldron's expedition early in 1677, and resided in Falmouth, where he owned land, in 1680. He commanded Fort Loj^al, Falmouth, and after a five days' defence was obliged to surrender it to the French and Indians in May, 1690. He was carried to Quebec, and exchanged four months later. He was a counsellor in 1691-'2. His ac- count of the conduct of the war is preserved in the Massachusetts historical collections.

DAVIS, Thomas Frederick, clergyman, b. in Wilmington, N. C, 8 Feb., 1804 ; d. "in Camden, S. C, 2 Dec, 1871. He was graduated at the Uni- versity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1822, studied law, and practised, but subsequently stud- ied theology, and was ordained deacon in Wilming- ton by Bishop Ives, 27 Nov., 1831, and priest by the same bishop in Pittsboro', 16 Dec, 1832. He officiated in Pittsboro' while in deacon's orders, be- came rector of St. James's church, Wilmington, and St. Luke's church, Salisbury, N. C. In Novem- ber, 1846, he removed to South Carolina, and be- came rector of Grace church, Camden. He was elected bishop of the diocese, and consecrated in St. John's chapel. New York, 17 Oct., 1858. Bishop Davis received the degree of D. D. from Columbia college in 1853, and the same year from the Uni- versity of North Carolina.

DAVIS, William Bramwell, physician, b. in Cincinnati, 22 July, 1832. His parents emigrated to the United States from Wales. He was gradu- ated at Wesleyan university in 1852, and in 1855 at Miami medical college, where since 1873 he has been professor of therapeutics. During the civil war he was surgeon of the 137th regiment of Ohio volunteers, and surgeon at the West End military hospital in Cincinnati. He has been identified with many of the public offices of that city, as well as the medical and educational associations. In 1872 he travelled in Europe. Some of his principal publications are " Keport on Vaccination " (Ohio state medical society, 1870) ; " Consumption and Life Insurance " (1875) ; " Re-vaccination " (Cin- cinnati medical society, 1875) ; " Vaccino-Syphilis and Animal Vaccine" (1876); "Intestinal Ob- struction" (1880); "Progress of Therapeutics" (1881) ; and " The AlcohofQuestion " (1886).

DAVIS, Woodbury, jurist, b. in Standish, Ble., 25 July, 1818 ; d. in Portland, 15 Aug., 1871. At an early age he removed with his parents to Brooks, Waldo CO., where he was educated. He studied law in Belfast, began to practise 'his profession in Portland, and was elected a judge of the supreme court. In 1866 he was appointed postmaster of Portland, and relinquished law practice. Judge Davis took an active interest in the temperance reform, and was instrumental in shaping the legis- lation of the state upon thai question. He was an anti-slavery man, and one of the founders of the republican party. He contributed many articles on political and legal subjects to the newspapers of his native state, to the New York " Independent," and to various periodicals, and. published " The Beautiful City," a religious book (New York, 1859).

DAWES, Henry Laurens, statesman, b. in Cummington, Mass., 80 Oct., 1816. He was gradu- ated at Yale in 1839, became a teacher, and edited the Greenfield " Gazette," and subsequently the Adams " Transcript." He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and served in the legislature from 1848 till 1850, when he became a member of the state senate. He was a member of the Constitutional convention in 1858, and attorney for the western district of Massachusetts^ continuing until 1857, when he was elected to congress, and served as a inember of the committee on Revolutionary claims. He remained in congress by successive re-elec- tions until 1878. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia, and in 1875 he succeeded Charles Sumner in the senate, and was re-elected in 1881 and 1887. He has been chairman of the committee on ways and means, has served on committee on public buildings and grounds, and inaugurated the measure by which the completion of the Wash- ington monu- ment was un- dertaken. He is the author of many tarilf measures, and assisted in the construction of the wool and woollen tariff of 1868, which was the basis of all wool and woollens from that time until 1883. He is also a member of the committees on approbations, civil service, fisheries. Revolutionary claims, and Indian and naval affairs. He was appointed on a special committee to investigate the Indian disturbances in the Indian territory, upon which he made a valuable report. The entire system of Indian education due to legislation was created by Mr. Dawes. Among the important bills of his authorship passed are the severalty bill, the Sioux bill, and the bill making Indians subject to and