U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Davis, Thomas E. (1846-1906) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Ritchie County by Minnie Kendall Lowther Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911 Pages 484-485 T. E. Davis. — For many years the late T. E. Davis was a prominent citizen of this town. He was born at Holbrook, this county in 1846. His father, Thomas N. Davis, crossed to the other side, shortly before his birth, and he began life as an orphan. His mother, Mrs. Amelia Zinn Davis, some years later married Eli Heaton of this town, and two children were the fruits of this union: the late Mrs. J. N. Peirpoint, and W. H. Heaton, of Spokane, Washington. At the age of fourteen years, Mr. Davis came to Harrisville, and attended school, and became one of the first teachers of the county, under the free school system. He spent three years in the Washington and Jefferson University, at Washington, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He served as Prosecuting Attorney for two terms, (being the first native son of Ritchie to attain to this office) and was a member of the House of Delegates; was deputy sheriff and deputy County and Circuit clerk all at the same time. He had a brief connection with the "West Virginia Star" here in the seventies, and was a member of the Masonic order, he having attained to the degree of Master Mason in 1872. He died at his residence here, on February 15, 1906, and was laid in the Harrisville cemetery. On December 24, 1869, he was married to Miss Anna Leggett, daughter of the late Enoch B. Leggett, and of this union four children were born: one died in infancy, and the others are, Mrs. H. B. Woods, Mrs. Juniata Boggess, who with her husband the Rev. Wheeler Boggess, has just returned from a several years service in the Mission-fields of Southern India; and Thomas J. Davis, who is a prominent young barrister of this town. The Davises are of English descent. Four brothers, William, John, Thomas, and Alexander, came from England in 1600, and settled in New Jersey, near the present site of Jersey city. William had four sons and three daughters, and from his son, William, junior, this family comes. His son, David, married Miss Lydia Jeffrey, and they were the parents of the late Thomas N. and the grandparents of the late T. E. Davis of this place. From this same ancestral line, the Hon. Henry G. Davis, of Elkins, is said to be descended. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Register of Deaths, Ritchie County, WV (Page 39) FULL-NAME: Davis, Thomas AGE-AT-DEATH: 59y-7m-4d DEATH-DATE: February 15, 1906 MARITAL-STATUS: Married OCCUPATION: Lawyer CAUSE-OF-DEATH: Consumption INFORMANT: H. M. Rymer, Physician There's a tombstone in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Harrisville, WV Thos. E. Davis 1846-1906 ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Ritchie County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/ritchie/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------