Limestone County AlArchives Biographies.....Davis, Lawrence Ripley 1819 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 4, 2011, 11:00 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

    LAWRENCE RIPLEY DAVIS, Postmaster at Athens, was born in Limestone County
February 27, 1819, and his parents were Nicholas and Martha (Hargrave) Davis, of
Virginia.

    Nicholas Davis came to Alahama in 1817, settled on Limestone Creek, this
county, and followed planting the rest of his life. He died in 1850, at the age
of seventy-six years. He was a public-spirited man, and one of the first men of
distinction in this county. Prior to 1817 he was a United States marshal in
Virginia, and, after coming here, was a member of the first Constitutional
Convention (1819), and was a representative in the lower house of the first
Legislature after Alabama was admitted to the Union as a State. From 1820 to
1828, inclusive, he was a member of the Senate, and for five sessions was
President of that body. He was the Whig candidate against Chapman for Governor
in 1847, and ran for Congress against C. C. Clay in 1829, and was defeated by
only eighty votes, though the district was known to be largely Democratic. He
was a captain in the War of 1812.

    Another writer, in speaking of Captain Davis, says: "That he was a man of
great experience in public affairs, and of the highest personal worth: that he
occupied a high rank in the estimation of all parties as a citizen, and for
faithful public services; and in the councils of the Whig party his views were
received with confidence."

    In 1844, he was at the head of the Whig electoral ticket, and in speaking
further of him in this connection, the author above referred to says: "In his
speech at the close of the convention, in taking leave of his fellow Whigs he
was very impressive; he was truly the 'old man eloquent.' He was a great lover
of his country, and in alluding to its future under under a good government, and
the visions opened up to him in the distance, and the important influence his
party was destined to exert in developing the energies and greatness of the
country, he was overpowered with emotions, which brought relief in a flood of
tears as he took his seat."

    The subject of this sketch was educated in Limestone County, read law, and
was licensed to practice, but never went to the bar. He followed farming up to
the beginning of the late war, and probably up to 1863. In 1873 he came into
Athens, and started the Limestone News, conducted it for one year, and sold it
out. It was in this year that he was appointed private secretary to Governor
Houston, which took him to Montgomery. In 1849, to recur to a much earlier
period in his life, he ran for the Legislature on the Whig ticket against W. H.
Harrison, and, notwithstanding the great Democratic majority to be overcome, he
was elected by about 500. In 1855 he was again a candidate for the Legislature,
and was opposed by the Hon. Luke Pryor and the late Major Hobbs. The leading
question before the people at that time was in reference to the aid, by
taxation, of the North & South Road. Mr. Davis, as an anti-taxation man, was
defeated. In 1859 he was again elected, and was a member of the Legislature when
the State seceded. He was opposed to secession at the beginning, but yielded
gracefully to the will of the majority, and at the request of the Governor he
canvassed Northern Alabama, urging the people to a peaceful acquiescence in the
result of the Secession Convention. It will be remembered that there was much
bitter opposition in the Tennessee Valley to secession, and particularly was
this the case in Limestone County: so when Mr. Davis reached this part of the
State, he encountered the most intense excitement. In 1860 he was the elector
for his District on the Bell and Everett ticket, and took an active part in that
heated contest.

    Mr. Davis was appointed Register in Chancery in 1876, and was still holding
that position when appointed postmaster by President Cleveland, October, 1885.
He has always been recognized as an active worker, and a man of far more than
ordinary influence in the ranks of the Democratic party. He edited the Post in
1882: has represented his party in the various State and Congressional
Conventions from time to time, and has delivered more stump speeches than any
other man in Northern Alabama. His last important canvass was in support of the
Hon. Luke Pryor for Congress, as against D. D. Shelby.

    Mr. Davis was married first in Russell County, Ala., to Miss Mary
Abercrombie, March 27, 1851. She died in 1859, and in l861 Mr. Davis was married
to Miss Sarah A. McClellan.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
CEREAL BELT.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/limestone/bios/davis846gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb