Tuscola-Oakland County MI Archives Biographies.....Davis, Lewis C. 1832 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 5, 2007, 11:48 pm Author: Chapman Bros. (1892) LEWIS C. DAVIS, M. D. This prosperous professional gentleman of Vassar was born in Amsterdam, Montgomery County, N. Y., March 24, 1832. His parents, Joshua and Sarah (Lawrence) Davis, both natives of the Empire State, were of British extraction, the father being descended from Welsh, and the mother from English ancestry. At the age of six our subject came to Michigan with his parents, locating in Oxford Township, Oakland County; in 1838, and here upon the farm the boy grew to manhood, profiting so well by the common school and academic education, that he was able to teach school at the age of seventeen years, and followed it for several terms while studying for his profession under his brother-in-law, Dr. George H. Kilborn. He then took lectures in Ann Arbor, and finally graduated in New Orleans, at the age of twenty-six. The young Doctor now began practice in Port Lavacca, Tex., and remained there until the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, at which time he was conscripted into the Southern army, and did duty as a physician and surgeon for about a year and a half. He was taken prisoner by the Union army at Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863, and brought to Springfield, Ill., and gladly took the oath of allegiance and returned to his home in Michigan. He had lost everything which he had accumulated in the South in the line of surgical implements, personal property, some little real-estate, etc. It was in March, 1863, that he returned to Michigan, and in August, 1864, he located in Vassar. The marriage of Dr. Davis took place, December 9, 1863, and his bride was Miss M. Adeline, daughter of Abner and Marian (Kilborn) Day, of Oxford, Mich. This lady was born near Warsaw, Wyoming County, N. Y., and she became the mother of three sons; the eldest, Fenimore C. Davis, is a druggist at Sand Beach, Mich., and has one child. The next son, Selwyn D., lives at Pinconning, Mich., and is a locomotive engineer, while Lewis A. died at the age of thirteen years. The mother of these sons passed from earth in 1876, at Vassar. The gentleman of whom we write has ever taken an active interest in the development of the city of Vassar, and has served on the Village Board for a number of terms besides being School Inspector for a term of years. He is now Township Clerk and has been the Health officer for a number of years for both village and township. He served in the State Senate from January, 1885 to 1887, being the Representative of the Thirtieth Senatorial District of Michigan, consisting of Tuscola, Bay and Arenac Counties. While in the Senate he was on the Committee of Village and Cities, on that of Education and the Public Schools, and also on the House of Correction and Public Health, and was Chairman of the Committee on Emigration. Dr. Davis has had an excellent practice, and is a man of popularity both in his profession and socially. He is a Knight of Pythias, and for fifteen years was Worshipful Master in the Masonic fraternity. He is one of the Knights of the Maccabees, a Knight of Honor, and a Royal Arch Mason. Our subject was married the second time July 8, 1879, to Miss Mary E. Jennings, of Saratoga, N. Y., and to them was born March 23,1882, a son, Frank H., by name. This excellent gentleman was reared a Whig, and from 1859 to 1879 was a stanch adherent of the Republican party. While in Texas during the campaign of 1860, he cast his ballot for Bell and Everett, as there was no opportunity there to vote for Lincoln, which he would have preferred, but he did not vote on the question of secession, and was indeed a happy man when captured by the Federals and given an opportunity to get out of Dixie. He started in the drug business in Vassar, in 1871, but his professional labors compelled him to sell out this branch of business in 1874. He has ever been a Greenbacker in principle, and an anti-Monopolist and a strong advocate of the rights of labor. He never has been an office seeker, and has accepted only when strongly urged so to do. When he was nominated for State Senator, he did not wish the position, and it was forced upon him against his own inclination, the majority in his favor being seventeen hundred votes, he being elected on a fusion ticket of Democrats and Greenbackers. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties, Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of the Presidents of the United States Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/tuscola/bios/davis470gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb