Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/195

 DAVIS

DAVIS

DAVIS, Timothy, representative, was born in Gloucester, Mass., April r>, 1821. He became a printer and later a merchant in Boston. He represented Massachusetts in the 34th and 35th congresses, 1855-59; and was appointed a clerk in the custom house. Boston, in 1861. He died in Boston, Mass. Oct. 23, 1888.

DAVIS, Varina Anne, author, was born in the executive mansion of the Southern Confederacy, Richmond, Va., June 27, 1864; daughter of Jef- ferson and Varina (Howell) Davis. She was educated chiefly by her father and mother and studied the French and German languages and literature abroad, principally at Carlsruhe, Baden, in Ger- many, and in Paris. She be- came known as ' ' the Daughter of the Confed- eracy," the name having been given her by Gen. John B. Gordon.

This adoption by an entire people brought her promi-

nently forward at reunions and other public meetings in the south. She was in Paris when her father died on Dec. 6. 1891, and on her return to America she located with her mother in New York city and from there made frequent journeys in Europe and the East. At the assembling of Confederate veterans at Atlanta, Ga., July 21, 1898, she was the guest of honor and during the ceremony she was exposed to a sudden shower which caused the illness resulting in her death. She was accorded a public funeral at Richmond which was with- out precedent as an expression of grief for the loss of an American woman. She received sep- ulture in Hollywood cemetery by the side of her illustrious father, and the Daughters of the Con- federacy and some of the Confederate camps, assisted by the contributions of her friends in the North and West, erected a suitable tomb to her memory. Her more notable contributions to cur- rent literature were: Snnke Myths; The Women of the South Before the War, and The Home Life of Jeffer- son Davis. She published Life of Bohert Emmett and two novels: The Veiled Doctor (18Q2); and .4 Eomance of Shimmer Seas (1898). She died at Narragansett Pier, R.I., Sept. 18, 1898.

DAVIS, Warren Ransom, representative, was born in Columbia, S.C, May 8, 1793. He was graduated from South Carolina college in 1810; was admitted to the bar in 1814, and became a lawyer in Pendleton, S.C He was state solic- itor of the western circuit, 1818-24, and repre- sented South Carolina as a State Rights Demo- crat, in the 20th-23d congresses, 1827-35. He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 1885.

DAVIS, Webster, politician, was born in Ebensburg, Pa., June 1, 1861; son of Daniel J. and Elizabeth Davis. His father emigrated from Wales, and his mother was a native of Pennsylvania. His parents removed to Davies count3^ Mo., in 1868, where his father purchased a farm and also carried on his trade as shoe- maker. The family removed to Chillicothe in 1874 and in 1875 to Gallatin, Mo., where Web- ster learned the shoemaker's trade. He went to Chicago in 1881 where his earnings as a shoe- maker gave him one year's tuition at Lake Forest university. Subsequently, while working at his trade in Gallatin, he studied law, giving his services as bookkeeper and copyist for his tuition. In 1884 he removed with his mother to Lawrence, Kan., and was a student at the State university, 18 ■i4-86. He was admitted to the bar in 1886 an<l practised in Garden City, Kan. He was graduated in law at the Univer- sity of Michigan in 1887, and then located in Kansas City, Mo., where he continued the prac- tice of law. He was defeated for representative in the 53d congress in 1892; was mayor of Kansas City, 1894-96, and was a candidate before the Republican state convention of Missouri for gov- ernor in 1896, but was defeated by three votes. In June, 1897. President McKinley appointed him assistant secretary of the interior. Mr. Davis was chosen as orator on the occasion of the semi- centennial of the University of Michigan in 1887, although the j'oungest member of his class, and in 1896 delivered the annual address of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity of his Aima Mater. He was also orator at the Steubenville (Ohio) centennial, 1897; at the League convention of Republican clubs at Detroit, Mich., in 1897; at the Memorial day ceremonies at Arlington, Va., in 1897, and on Memorial day at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1898. In the Congressional campaign of 1898, under the auspices of the Republican national committee, he traveled 14,000 miles, from ocean to ocean, and made fifty speeches on the tour of eight weeks' duration.

DAVIS, Werter Renick, educator, was born in Circleville, Ohio, April 1, 1815. He was a brother of Edwin Hamilton Davis, the archfeolo- gist, and of Joseph Slocum Davis, law partner of Columbus Delano, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, jurist, and paymaster in the U.S.A., 1864-65. He was edu-