BIOGRAPHIES, HARRISON COUNTY, WV: HON. JOHN J. DAVIS ********************************************************************** 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. THIS BIOGRAPHY WAS DONATED TO THE HARRISON COUNTY WVGenWeb PROJECT/ARCHIVES ONLY: www.rootsweb.com/~wvharris ********************************************************************** Hardesty's 1882 Biographical Atlas of Harrison County HON. JOHN J. DAVIS - The subject of this sketch was born at Clarksburg, May 5, 1835, the eldest son of John and Eliza A.(Steen)Davis. More than sixty years ago, the father settled in Clarksburg, and the son (earlyexhibiting a desire for knowledge)was sent to the private schools taught in the place, and aferward to the Northwestern Virginia Academy; at the age of seventeen, studied law under the late Hon. George Lee, and at eighteen attended the law school of the late Hon. John W. Brockenborough, at Lexington, Virginia; when now quite twenty years of age obtained a license to practice, and admitted to the bar in his native county at twenty one; in May, 1861, elected to the House of Delegates of the Virginia Legislature, and (having been elected as a Union man) took his seat in the legislature which met at Wheeling, in June, 1861; re-elected in 1870, being the first Democrat who succeeded in carrying his county after the war closed, and Nathan Goff, Sr. (Republican), was his colleague from this county; 1870, elected to the Forty- Second Congress from the First Congressional District, and re-elected in 1872, when his seat was contested, but decided by Congress in his favor. At the expiration of his term he retired to private life and devoted himself to his profession, carrying with him the respect and esteem of his colleagues without distinction of party. He has attained great prominence as a jurist, stands among the leaders of the bar, and his public record is without a stain. In August, 1862, he was married in the city of Baltimore, to Miss Anna Kennedy, and now has four children living.