Biographical Sketches:  JAMES O. DAVIDSON


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The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin Compiled and Published under
the direction of J. D. Beck, Commissioner of Labor and Industrial
Statistics 1907.

The Wisconsin Blue Book. VII. Biographical Sketches. Members of the
Sixtieth Congress. State Officers. Governor, p. 1120.

JAMES O. DAVIDSON (Rep.), of Soldiers Grove, was born in Norway, Feb.
10, 1854, and was educated in the common schools of his native
country. He came to Wisconsin in 1872, residing first at Madison,
later at Boscobel, and since 1877 at Soldiers Grove. He has been
engaged for twenty-three years in the mercantile business. He was
president of the village of Soldiers Grove in 1888 and 1889, treasurer
in 1892 and 1893, and again in 1897 and 1898; was elected to the
assembly in 1892 and re-elected in 1894 and again in 1896. He was
chairman of the republican committee of the third congressional
district for several years; was elected state treasurer in 1898 and
re-elected in 1900; was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1902, and re-
elected in 1904, upon the resignation of Gov. R. M. La Follette he
became Governor, Jan. 1, 1906. The following September he was
nominated as the republican candidate for governor, receiving 109,583
votes at the primary election, against 61,178 for I. L. Lenroot. He
was elected in November, receiving 183,526 votes, against 103,114 for
J. A. Aylward (Dem.), 24, 435 for W. R. Gaylord (Soc. Dem.), 8,215 for
E. L. Eaton (Pro.) and 456 for O. T. Rosaas (Soc. Lab.).