Denver, History of Colorado, BIOS: DAVIS, Leverett (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 500, 502
photo p. 501


LEVERETT DAVIS.

 Colorado is Indebted in large measure to her great mineral 
resources, as her mines have been a chief source of wealth and have 
called for the energies and have led to the business development of 
many men who are now prominent factors in industrial and commercial 
circles in the state. Prominent in this class is Leverett Davis, the 
president of the Colorado Coal Company, with offices in the Foster 
building in Denver. Mr. Davis was born in Kioto, Japan, June 15, 1887. 
Through his paternal grandmother, Leverett Davis is descended from the 
Woodbury family, prominent in New England, to which belonged Captain 
John Woodbury, who served with distinction in the Sutton (Conn.) 
Regiment through the Revolutionary war. On the records of the Woodbury 
family appear many names prominent in connection with military, naval 
and political affairs. One Lieutenant Woodbury was an aide to General 
Wolfe when he made his attempt to storm the heights of Quebec. Another 
member of the family was a midshipman on the United States Ship 
Constitution and had his thumb cut off in the wheel of that frigate 
while steering her into action with the British Guerriere. At the time 
of the War of 1812 a great-uncle of Colonel Jerome Davis, father of Mr. 
Davis of this review, was serving as one of the first governors of 
Vermont, while a cousin of his mother. Senator Levi Woodbury, served as 
secretary of the navy under President Jackson and was the secretary of 
the treasury in President Van Buren's cabinet. He was also elected on 
the democratic ticket to the office of governor of New Hampshire in 
1823 and later he served on the bench of the supreme court of the 
United States. Thus on the pages of the family history appear many 
illustrious names, the names of those who have done much to promote 
American standards of citizenship, to uphold her interests and promote 
her welfare. The father of Leverett Davis, Colonel Jerome D. Davis, was 
born in the state of New York and traces his ancestry back to Isaac 
Davis, who came to the new world in 1623 on the third ship that 
followed the Mayflower. He settled on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 
historic records bear evidence of the fact that he was a carpenter and 
builder and erected a number of the public buildings and residences in 
the town of Sutton, Massachusetts. He was a member of Governor 
Endicott's council and deputy to the colonial court. He was also lord 
high constable for the colony and official surveyor to the colonial 
government. He it was who staked out the Harvard campus. Later members 
of the family participated in the Revolutionary war and in the War of 
1812. Colonel Jerome D. Davis was a young lad when his parents removed 
to the middle west and he pursued his education in the schools of 
Illinois and Wisconsin. While a student at Beloit College in Beloit, 
Wisconsin, his patriotic spirit was aroused by the attempt of the south 
to overthrow the Union and he enlisted in its defense, joining the 
Fifty-second Illinois Infantry, with which command he was rapidly 
advanced, and during the last two years of his service he was colonel 
of his regiment. He was seriously wounded at the battle of Shiloh but 
recovering his health rejoined his command and continued with his 
troops until the close of the war. He afterward became a valued member 
of the Loyal Legion. Following the close of hostilities between the 
north and the south he studied for the ministry and in 1871 went to 
Japan as a missionary after having previously served as the First 
Congregational minister in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He continued there for a 
considerable period and during his residence in Cheyenne he took an 
active part in the city's early development. Through his efforts the 
Union Pacific Railroad donated a plot of ground for the first burial 
place in Cheyenne and he was instrumental in establishing the first 
city water system there. In 1871, feeling called upon for more active 
religious work, he went to the foreign field as a missionary, making 
Japan his destination. He afterward founded and became a professor in 
the Doshisha University at Kioto and continued there in religious and 
educational work until 1910. He was a man of high literary attainments 
and was the author of more than forty volumes on educational and 
theological subjects. After long service in Japan he returned to 
Oberlin, Ohio, where he passed away at the age of seventy-two years. He 
had prepared for the active work of the ministry as a student in the 
Chicago Theological Seminary and at his graduation therefrom the Doctor 
of Divinity degree was conferred upon him. Colonel Jerome D. Davis was 
united in marriage to Prances Hooper, who was born in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, and was of French Huguenot and English descent. In the 
maternal line she was a descendant of Governor Leverett, the first 
governor of the state of Massachusetts, and on the Hooper side she was 
also a representative of a very early Massachusetts family. She is 
still living in Japan. By her marriage she became the mother of two 
children, the younger being Jerome D. Davis, who is general Young Men's 
Christian Association secretary for all the western armies in Russia.

 Leverett Davis, born in the flowery kingdom of Japan, began his 
education in that country and afterward continued his studies at 
Newton, Massachusetts, in the Colorado School of Mines and in the 
Armour Institute of Technology at Chicago. He came to Colorado in 1906, 
pursued his course in mining and made it his purpose to thoroughly 
acquaint himself with every phase of mining in all of its departments. 
In 1906 he secured employment at the Smuggler Union mine at Telluride 
and also worked at various other mining camps in order to learn the 
various methods of metalliferous mining. In 1911 he entered business on 
his own account in metalliferous mining at Leadville, Colorado. 
Incidentally he worked as a laborer with the company of which he is 
today the president. He followed metalliferous mining successfully from 
the beginning of his operations in that field, and gradually working 
his way upward as the result of his expanding powers, growing 
experience and ability, he ultimately became president of the Colorado 
Coal Company in April, 1916. He is likewise a director and secretary 
and treasurer of the Commonwealth Mining Company, a Colorado mining 
corporation, and is a director and the secretary of the American 
Ceramics Company, a Colorado corporation. There are indeed few phases 
of mining with which he is not thoroughly familiar, his studies having 
been most comprehensive and his experience particularly broad.

 On the 11th of April, 1913, Mr. Davis was married in New Haven, 
Connecticut, to Miss Susan F. Gulick, a native of Kioto, Japan, and a 
daughter of the Rev. Sidney L. and Cora (Fisher) Gulick. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Davis have been born two sons: Louis L., who was born in Elgin, 
Illinois, March 3, 1914; and Robert Nelson, born in Denver, February 
12, 1916.

 Politically Mr. Davis is a stanch republican and keeps well 
informed on the questions and issues of the day but has never been an 
aspirant for office. He was made a Mason in Monitor Lodge at Elgin, 
Illinois, and has since been an exemplary follower of the fraternity. 
He belongs to Kappa Sigma, a Greek letter fraternity, and his religious 
faith is that of the Congregational church, to the teachings of which 
he loyally adheres. He has membership in the American Mining Congress, 
in the Colorado Metal Miners' Association and in the Technic Club. Back 
of him is an ancestry honorable and distinguished and he is fortunate 
in that his lines of life have been cast in harmony there with. In 
person, in talents and in character he is a worthy scion of his race 
and in a field of great usefulness he has put forth effective effort 
productive of most substantial and gratifying results.