George H. Davis, MD Biography Hancock County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, 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. ********************************************************************** Submitted by Valerie F. Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 257 Hancock County GEORGE H. DAVIS, M. D. Not only is Dr. George H. Davis of Weirton, a leading and learned member of the Hancock County medical fraternity, enjoying a high pro- fessional standing, but is likewise a public-spirited citizen who has contributed materially to the advancement of educa- tion and other attending features of modern civilization, His career has been one of constant activity and well- achieved success, worthy of the fine old family of which he is a representative. Doctor Davis was born on the north side of the Ohio River, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where two Davis brothers, soldiers of the Revolution, had settled after the winning of the struggle for American independence. The family has resided in Western Pennsylvania ever since. There have been three generations of physicians in this immediate line, although the father of Doctor Davis was an agriculturist, with two brothers being practitioners of medicine. George H. Davis attended the public schools of his native locality and Mount Hope (Ohio) College, after leaving which institution he began teaching. After six years spent as an instructor, during which time he applied himself in his leisure hours to the study of medicine, he en- tered the Baltimore Medical College (now the University of Medicine) at Baltimore, Maryland from which he was duly graduated as a member of the class of 1895. Among his classmates were Dr. Spillman Follansbee and Dr. Chris Fairmont, of Charleston, West Virginia. Doctor Davis began the practice of his profession at Chester, West Vir- ginia, and remained in that community until coming to Weirton as the pioneer physician and surgeon of this place. He has built up a large and representative practice and has won the full confidence and esteem of his clientele, as well as the respect of his professional brethren. He was formerly surgeon for the Weirton Steel Corporation. Doctor Davis holds membership in the Hancock County Medical Society, the West Virginia Medical Society and the Amer- ican Medical Association. Since his young manhood, when he applied himself to educational work. Doctor Davis has been intensely interested in the public schools. For several years he served as a member of the School Board, and it was during this period that the public school system experienced its greatest era of advancement in the city, having grown from a condition where only five teachers were necessary to one where sixty teachers were demanded for the various classes. Doctor Davis has ever stood for advanced ideas, a uniform program of class recitation and other progressive features, and it was largely through his efforts and influence that the dis- trict supervisor's office was created. The system at this time is creditable, although the lack of suitable buildings is a handicap which the Doctor and others are trying to have removed. Doctor Davis has also interested himself in the cause of religion. In 1910 he established the first Sunday School, the old Union Sunday School, established in the open, under a locust tree, which thereafter held its regular meetings in unfurnished dwellings until the Union Sunday School Building, now the Methodist Episcopal Church, was built. Next, Doctor Davis started a Presbyterian Sunday School, which was followed by the establishment, largely through his efforts of the First Presbyterian Church. He is also active in civic affairs, and belongs to the Masonic Club at Weirton. He is a York Rite Mason, a Knight Templar in the Commandery at Wheeling and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and also holds membership in the Knights of Pythias. While still a medical student at Baltimore, Doctor Davis was united in marriage with Miss Catherine L. Candler, of that city, who is a representative of two royal families. On the German side she is descended from the Hotz family, with a castle on the Rhine, and on the English side is a descendant of Lord Seymour, and retains the coat-of-arms of this family in her home. Doctor and Mrs. Davis are the parents of two daughters: Lydia Ann, who graduated from the Weirton High School as a member of the class of 1922; and Margaret M., attending high school and is a member of the class of 1924.