Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography of Raymond Moses DAVIS ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , April 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 66-67 RAYMOND MOSES DAVIS, coal operator and broker at Morgantown, Monongalia County, is one of the vital and pro- gressive young business men of this city and is a native son of West Virginia. He was born on a farm eighteen miles south of Pennsboro, Ritchie County, January 28, 1882, and is a son of Moses H. and Mary Ellen Davis, who now reside at Pennsboro, the father having been born in Ohio and the mother in West Virginia. On the home farm Raymond M. Davis was reared to adult age, and that he profited fully by the advantages afforded in the public schools is shown by the fact that as a youth of only sixteen years he passed the required examination that gained to him a teacher's certifi- cate of the second class. The youthful pedagogue then bent his energies to securing a school in which to put his ac- quirements to practical test. He walked three miles to the top of a hill for conference with one of the school trustees who was working in a clearing. Upon making application to this trustee the latter, after a careful survey of the ap- plicant, said, "Boy, you should be in school instead of trying to teach." Thereafter Mr. Davis rode on horseback through all parts of his native county in search of a school, but his youth caused him to be unsuccessful in his quest, with the re- sult that he abandoned his pedagogic ambition and entered the employ of the Eureka Pipe Line Company in Ritchie County. He continued three years in the employ of this com- pany at nominal wages, and in the meantime learned from an operator at the company's headquarters the rudiments of telegraphy. Until he had attained to his legal majority Mr. Davis sent his wages to his parents, and at the age of twenty-one years he entered the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg, and he paid his own way while pursuing his studies in this institution eight months. There- after he passed about three months in the railroad office at Pennsboro, after which he went to New Martinsville, Wetzel County, where for a short time he held the position of telegraph operator at the station of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He next engaged in the hotel business at Pennsboro, on borrowed capital, and two years later he sold the hotel business at a good profit, marking this suc- cessful issue by marrying and going with his bride to California. There he passed two years as a street-car con- ductor in the City of Los Angeles, and in 1907 he and his wife returned to West Virginia and established their resi- dence at Reedsville, where he became station agent and telegraph operator for the M. & K. Railroad, at a salary of $35 a month. In January, 1908, he was transferred to Albright, at increased salary, and there he continued his services until 1911, when he was promoted train dispatcher and relief agent at Morgantown, in which city he has since maintained his home. Here he was promoted agent, operator and dispatcher at the Sabraton yards of the M. & K. Railroad, and in 1917 he was advanced to the posi- tion of train dispatcher. This office he resigned July 15, 1918, and permanently retired from railroad service. In the meanwhile he had invested his savings in the timber business in Braxton County, and after a period of three years he sold his interests in this line at a good profit. In January, 1918, Mr. Davis and Ernest H. Gilbert, who had long been associated in railroad service and who had gained considerable knowledge of the coal industry through handling large shipments from the mines, organized the Davis Coal Company, a partnership concern, and they have since continued as successful coal operators and brokers. In 1919-20 they purchased eight different mines in the Morgantown District, the same having an approximate output capacity of 4,000 tons daily, and under normal con- ditions the annual brokerage business of the firm involves the handling of 1,000,000 tons of coal. Messrs. Davis and Gilbert have won success entirely through their own ability and efforts and have made for themselves secure vantage- ground as reliable, progressive and substantial young busi- ness men. Mr. Davis married Miss Fannie Wilson, who was born at Pennsboro, Ritchie County, a daughter of Sherman V. and Alice (Broadwater) Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two children: Alice Irene, born April 6, 1908, and Mary Margaret, bora June 30, 1913.