Bio of DAVIES, William H. (b.1857), Hennepin Co., MN
=========================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities,
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is
obtained from the contributor of the file.
These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or
presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to
use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written
consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter,
and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.

If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives 
Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm
Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find 
the submitter information or other files for this county.
FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives

Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Laura Pruden
Submitted: June 2003
=========================================================================
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
========================================================
EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
========================================================

WILLIAM H. DAVIES - Vol II, pg 533
For a period of forty-one years William H. Davies has been a resident of
Min­neapolis and with the exception of the initial year has been continuously
"engaged in the undertaking business in this city. His birth occurred at
Castine, on the banks of the Penobscot river, in Maine, July 3, 1857, his
parents being Edward F. and Caro­line W. (Eaton) Davies, both representatives of
old New England families. The father engaged for many years in business as a
furniture dealer and undertaker, but during the period of the Civil war put
aside all business and personal considerations and joined the army, becoming a
federal officer. He served as captain of Company K, Sixteenth Maine Infantry,
which regiment was assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac, and with that
command he participated in a number of the hotly contested engagements of the
war. He is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.
William H. Davies completed his education with a high school course in his
native, state and afterward learned the undertaking business in his father's
estab­lishment in New England. He was a young man of twenty-four years when in
1881 he sought the opportunities of the west and made his way to Minneapolis,
where he has since lived. In 1882 he became one of the organizers of the
undertaking firm of Hume & Davies, opening an establishment opposite where the
West Hotel now stands. That partnership relation was continued for a quarter of
a century and since its dis­solution Mr. Davies has had no partner until he took
his son into the business. Both father and son are expert embalmers and they
also employ two others who are very proficient in that line, one of these being
George Russell, who has been connected with the business for twenty years, the
other Arthur Fraley, who has been in the employ of the firm for fourteen years.
Mr. Davies' thorough knowledge of the busi­ness and close and careful attention
thereto have made him very successful and won him high reputation in his chosen
field of labor.
On the 20th of September, 1886, Mr. Davies was united in marriage to Miss Mary
F. Ransier and they have become the parents of a son and a daughter, Edward
Charles and Florence E., the latter now the wife of Otto Sanaker. The parents
hold member­ship in Trinity Baptist church and Mr. Davies gives his political
allegiance to the republican party. He is also connected with John A. Rawlins
Post, G. A. R., Citizens. Staff, and with the Loyal Legion, an inherited right
of membership from his father. He is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to
Khurum Lodge, F. & A. M.; St. Johns Chapter, R. A. M.; Zion Commandery, K. T.;
Minneapolis Consistory, A. & A. S. R.; and Zuhrah Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
He is also connected with the Min­neapolis Lodge of Elks and his deep interest
in the city and its welfare is shown in his active connection with the Civic &
Commerce Association. He has always felt that any individual who enjoys the
benefit of the opportunities afforded in a city and the protection of its laws,
who has shared its prosperity, enjoyed its society, benefited by its public
service and gained a competence within its borders, owes something to that
community and should pay his debt of citizenship, and Mr. Davies has been
zealcus in the work of discharging his own obligations to Minneapolis.