Harrison County, West Virginia    Biography of Hon. John William DAVIS

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Submitted by Ann Schwirian, <TrKeGram@aol.com>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pgs. 284-285

    HON. JOHN WILLIAM DAVIS, who was the Solicitor-General of the United 
States throughout the period of the Great War, and supplemented this service 
by three years as American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, is a native 
son of West Virginia, and earned his early honors in public affairs while a 
practicing lawyer at Clarksburg.  For the original qualities of his mind and 
character he is indebted in almost equal measure to his father, the late John 
James Davis, and the rich and beautiful nature of his mother, Anna (Kennedy) 
Davis.
    He was born at Clarksburg, April 13, 1873, and had every advantage that a 
good home and a liberal education could supply.  Graduating in 1892, and as 
LL. B. in 1895 from Washington and Lee University of Virginia, he was 
admitted to the bar in 1895.  He remained at Washington and Lee as Assistant 
Professor of Law during 1896-7.  The honorary degree LL. D. was bestowed upon 
him in 1915 by the University of West Virginia, by Washington and Lee in 
1916, in 1919 by University of Birmingham, England, and Union College and 
Yale in 1921, and by the University of Glasgow, Scotland.  He began the 
practice of law at Clarksburg with his father in the firm of Davis & Davis in 
1897.
    He was elected a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1899; 
was democratic candidate for presidential elector at large in 1900; a 
delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1904 at St. Louis, and was 
one of the strong candidates before the convention in San Francisco in 1920, 
for the democratic nomination for president.  Mr. Davis was elected to 
Congress from the First West Virginia District in 1910, and re-elected in 
1912, serving in the Sixty-second and Sixty-third congresses.
    He resigned his seat in Congress to become Solicitor-General of the 
United States, August 30, 1913.  At no other period in American history was 
this office burdened with such heavy details of responsibility as the period 
from 1913 to 1918, practically coinciding with the period of the World war.  
In November, 1918, Mr. Davis was appointed and confirmed as Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and continued as the 
American representative at the Court of St. James until 1921.  Since his 
return to America, Mr. Davis has been engaged in the practice of law at New 
York City.
    Mr. Davis was counselor of the American Red Cross from 1913 to 1918.  He 
served as a member of the American delegation for conference with Germans on 
the treatment and exchange of prisoners of war at Berne, Switzerland, in 
September, 1918.  He is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple, England; 
was president of the West Virginia Bar Association in 1906; is a member of 
the Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Beta Kappa, a Mason and an Elk and a member of the 
Metropolitan, University, National Press, Chevy Chase, and Lawyers clubs of 
Washington and is a trustee of the Washington and Lee University and a 
director of the Rockerfeller Foundation.
    June 20, 1899, Mr. Davis married Miss Julia T. McDonald, a native of 
Kentucky.  She died in 1900, leaving a daughter, Julia McDonald Davis.  
January 2, 1912, Mr. Davis married Ellen G. Bassel, daughter of the late John 
Bassel, a prominent Clarksburg lawyer.