Biographical Sketch of William H. Davis, Crawford County, Missouri >From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888. ********************************************************************** William H. Davis, of the firm of Davis & Hamil, of Steelville, is a son of Ewin and Mary (Ficklin) Davis, natives, respectively, of Vir- ginia and Kentucky. Ewin Davis was born in 1798, and in early life came to Washington County, MO., where he married and resided until about 1830, when he moved to Crawford County, and located about one mile east of Steelville. A farmer by occupation, he served for many years as circuit court clerk of Crawford County, which county he rep- resented in the State Legislature in 1840. He was the first school commissioner of the county, and in politics, though formerly an old line Whig, was later a stanch Republican. He died in 1880. Mrs. Mary Davis was born in 1801, and died in 1864. Both were strict mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church. William H., was the sixth in the family of nine children, and was born near Steelville, May 30, 1836. Previous to the war he taught school about six years, and then, having served in the State Militia until 1864, he organized Company G, Forty- eighth Missouri Infantry, of which he was made first lieutenant, and, after three months' service in that capacity was promoted to the cap- taincy. Returning home, he taught school more or less until 1877, when he engaged in merchandising in Steelville, which business he has since continued uninterruptedly. In 1874 he married Hattie J. Melvin, a native of Franklin County, MO. They have one child, Eda. Mrs. Davis is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Davis is a Republican in politics, and is one of the oldest established business men in Steelville, having been a resident of the place for fifty-one years. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joe Miller Penny Harrell ====================================================================