Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/146

 in company with six others purchased a large tract of land on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, opposite the island. Here a town was platted which was called Davenport. In 1842 he rendered the Government valuable service in assisting Governor Chambers in negotiating a treaty for the purchase of Iowa lands from the Sac and Fox Indians. On the Fourth of July, 1845, while alone in his house, Colonel Davenport was robbed and murdered. Three of the murderers were convicted and executed for the crime.  SAMUEL T. DAVIS, one of the pioneers of Sioux City, was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1828. His early education was acquired in Mercer County, of his native State, and at the age of twenty he entered the preparatory department of Allegheny College at Meadville, taking a course which he thought would best serve him in a business career. After leaving college he first became principal of Greenville Academy, but having the practice of law in view soon began that study and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Coming west he located at the frontier town of Sioux City in 1856, opening a law and real estate office. He has been the promoter of several important lines of railroad in Northwestern Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebraska, and has aided local manufacturing. Mr. Davis served as Register of the United States Land Office at Sioux City, under President Lincoln's administration, and was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate in 1868 to fill a vacancy. He was a Democrat until the fall of Sumter when he became a Republican. He was one of the founders of the Sioux City Journal.  TIMOTHY DAVIS was born in Newark, New Jersey, in March, 1794. He received but a common school education, went to Kentucky and studied law in 1816. He practiced his profession for twenty years in the State of Missouri and then removed to Dubuque in Iowa. In 1847 he was nominated by the Whigs of the Second District for Representative in Congress but was defeated by Shepherd Leffler the Democratic candidate. He united with the Republicans upon the organization of that party and was elected to Congress in 1856 but retired at the end of the term. JAMES G. DAY, jurist, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, June 28, 1832. In youth he attended Richmond Academy and afterwards graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in the class of 1857. He soon after located at Afton, in Union County, Iowa, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1861, when it became evident that the Civil War was to be a long and desperate conflict. Mr. Day closed his law office and joined a military company which was incorporated into the Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry. He was chosen one of the lieutenants of Company F, and was soon at the seat of war, where for gallant service he was