Northumberland-Snyder-Crawford County PA Archives Biographies.....Davis, Henry Eyre 1859 - living in 1899 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 2, 2005, 4:33 pm Author: Biographical Publishing Co. HENRY EYRE DAVIS. Judging by results there seems to be something in the atmosphere of Pennsylvania which develops talent for practical affairs. In every section of the Commonwealth there are to be found young men who have disclosed tact and capacity for business enterprises, and without the class schooling, which is applied elsewhere, they master the details and conquer the intricacies of commercial life. Among those who have conspicuously achieved this distinction is Henry E. Davis, of Sunbury, Pa., whose portrait precedes this sketch. He was born in Selinsgrove, Snyder County, on June 7, 1845, and is a son of James K. and Agnes (Swineford) Davis. He was always a bright and industrious boy. He received his rudimentary education in the public schools, and took a course in the Selinsgrove Missionary Institute, a modest but efficient institution of learning, which won deserved praise in the state in its time. At the age of twenty years young Davis began his business career and has been active in affairs ever since. His first experience was as clerk in a store in his native town, in which position he served one year. Then he removed to Meadville, Pa., where he obtained a position in a large retail dry goods store and remained a year. In 1867 he entered the First National Bank of Sunbury, Pa., the most extensive institution of its kind in that section. He remained there some years and mastered every detail of the business. But the arduous nature of the work impaired his health and he was compelled to relinquish the position and seek employment of a less confining character. In 1871 he became the representative of Hall Brothers & Co., a Baltimore firm, which was the sole agent for the sale of anthracite coal mined by the Mineral Railroad & Mining Company and the Lykens Valley Coal Company, both companies being owned and controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. His district embraced Pennsylvania and the West, and his office was located in Sunbury. He held this important relation to the business interests of his community for ten years. At the expiration of that time he severed his connection with the firm he served so long, so faithfully and so well, and went into the business of buying and shipping anthracite coal on his own account. The venture met with gratifying success from the outset, and has been prosecuted with characteristic energy ever since. Some years ago he added to his business the industry of mining and shipping bituminous coal from mines which he acquired in Somerset County, Pa. Mr. Davis has always been one of the most progressive citizens of his adopted home, and every enterprise which promises the promotion of the business and the development of the material interests of the community has found in him a willing promoter. He was first president of the Sunbury & Northumberland Street Railway, which was built by Hon. S. P. Wolverton, F. P. Abercombie and himself. He is president and general manager of the Bethel Coal Company, of Somerset County, Pa.; a director of the First National Bank of Sunbury, the institution in which he spent several years of his early life; and a director of the First- National Bank of Selinsgrove. He was also president and one of the foremost promoters of the Sunbury Electric Light & Power Company, which was among the first and is now among the most perfectly equipped electric plants in the Commonwealth. In addition to that he has always been among the first and most active men in the community to advocate progressive ideas and improvements in the affairs of the town, and many of the advanced steps which mark Sunbury as among the leading towns in the interior of the state are traceable to his enterprise and foresight. He is a trustee of the Mary M. Packer Hospital of Sunbury. Mr. Davis is an active and earnest Democrat. Naturally a man of his progressive spirit would be called upon by his party to serve in official capacity, and he has proved himself not only useful, but faithful, in the discharge of municipal functions imposed on him in town council, the school board and other honorary capacities. He has frequently been delegate to state and county conventions, and has discharged every trust which he has accepted with scrupulous fidelity and notable intelligence. But he has never consented to take an office of emolument, and to those who have suggested such compliment his invariable answer has been that he had too much business to attend to, to sacrifice his time in the discharge of public duties, which there were plenty of competent persons willing to assume. But while he thus abstained from political aspirations on his own account, he has always been zealous and active in the advancement of his friends, and thus exercised an important influence in the affairs of the county. Of honorary offices, however, he has had a full share, and in 1876 the Democrats of Northumberland County named him for state senator, but he readily yielded the district nomination to his friend, Hon. A. H. Dill. When Mr. Dill resigned to become the Democratic candidate for governor two years later, the eyes of the party naturally turned to Mr. Davis, but he was among the first earnest advocates of Hon. S. P. Wolverton. In 1878 he was a member of the state committee, and in 1880, during the Hancock campaign for presidency, was on the electoral, ticket for the Twenty-seventh Congressional District. In 1886 he was one of the secretaries of the Democratic State Convention, and was an earnest advocate of the nomination of Hon. William A. Wallace for governor. In 1898 he received the Democratic nomination for Congress. He has always been a liberal contributor to the party campaign funds and is regarded by the Democratic leaders of the state as one of the safest party counsellors and most sagacious political advisers. On October 18, 1869, Mr. Davis was married to Kate C. Haas, a member of one of the most respected families of Sunbury. The fruits of the union are two accomplished daughters, Helen A. and Mary C. Mr. Davis lives with his family in a beautiful and comfortable home in Sunbury, the hospitalities of which he takes delight in dispensing to strangers visiting the town. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District Published by Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899) This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 6.9 Kb