Davis, Edwin Wm. (1839-1903)

DAVIS

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Date: 3/5/2010 at 23:44:18

Edwin William Davis
Apr 25, 1839 - Sep 17, 1903

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.134, Knox Twp.)
E. W. Davis, Banker, Avoca, bom in Danielsonville Conn., in 1839; his mother still lives there; father died in 1861. They had a family of eight children - five girls and three boys - all living. Subject went to Michigan in 1863; remained there three years; traveled for one year; went to Harlan, this State, in 1867, remaining there four years, when he moved to Avoca, in April, 1871, engaging in merchandise, under the firm name of E. W. Davis & Co.; opened a bank in August, 1872, and built a new building in 1874, the firm name being J. W. & E. W. Davis, organized with a capital of $25,000. but in 1876 the capital was raised to $50,000. Subject is a Freemason, and was married, May 20, 1871:, to Miss May Benham, of Cascade, Dubuque County, this State. They have two children - Vinnie D., aged seven; and Joseph V., aged two.

(1907 History of Pottawattaie County.)
HON. EDWIN WILLIAM DAVIS.
There are few men whose lives are crowned with the honor and respect which were uniformly accorded to Edwin William Davis, a brother of J. W. Davis; but through long years of active connection with the history of Pottawattamie county and western Iowa his was an unblemished character. With him success in life was reached by his sterling qualities of mind and a heart true to every manly principle. He never deviated from what his judgment would indicate to be right and honorable between his fellowmen and himself. He never swerved from the path of duty and he had the consciousness of having gained for himself by his straightforward career the confidence and trust of the entire community in which he lived. He was a man of kindly spirit, of broad philanthropy, of marked patriotism and of excellent executive and business ability, and all these combined to make him a man of prominence and influence in every locality in which he resided for any length of time.
Several generations of American ancestry precede Edwin William Davis, the family having been founded in the new world at an early period in its colonization. His father, Randall Davis, was a typical New Englander, large of frame and of marked mental vigor. Independent in thought, he was unable to accept the narrow creeds of his day and yet was rugged and sturdy in his integrity, teaching the severest ethics of honor and of honesty and most absolute righteousness. His wife, Mrs. Phylia (Kies) Davis, was a woman of great intellectual strength and exceptional Godliness. She was a great-aunt of the fate Dr. Marietta Kies, altruist, who was the first woman upon whom the University of Michigan ever conferred (1891) the Doctor of Philosophy degree and who, accepting the invitation of Edwin W. Davis to spend some time at his home in Colorado for the benefit of her health, there died of consumption in 1899, her needs being ministered unto by Mrs. Davis during her last days. Randall Davis was one of four brothers whose united height exceeded twenty-four feet and whose united weight, mostly bone and muscle, was over eight hundred pounds.
His son, Hon. Edwin William Davis, was born at the old family homestead in Danielson, Connecticut, about a mile and a half above the postoffice, on what is now Main street, April 25, 1839. At the usual age he began his education by attending the public schools of Danielson and subsequently continued his studies in Killingly in the West Killingly Academy and in the Rhode Island Normal School at Bristol. The liberal education .which he thus acquired qualified him for teaching and he followed that profession for several terms in Windham and New London counties in Connecticut. Attracted by the opportunities of the middle west, he made his way to Michigan in 1862 and taught in the schools of Saginaw and Ontonagon. His next step brought him into the field of commercial operation. He entered the employ of the firm of Condon & Holland, of Hancock, Michigan, and soon afterward was given charge of their branch store at Carp Lake, Michigan. Later he purchased the store and removed the stock to Rockland, Michigan, where he disposed of it.
In 1866 Mr. Davis arrived in Iowa and taught one term of school in Prairie City. In the spring of 1867 he began general merchandizing at Harlan in partnership with his friend, A. G. Vinton, under the firm style of Vinton & Davis. This relation was maintained until Mr. Vinton's health failed in 1868, when he sold his interest to his partner, Mr. Davis conducing the store alone until 1870, when he was joined by his brother, J. W. Davis, to whom he sold a half interest. In April, 1871, nearly two years after the completion of the Rock Island Railroad to Council Bluffs, Edwin W. Davis, in partnership with his brother and his former partner, A. G. Vinton, established at Avoca, Iowa, a large general mercantile store, which they conducted until 1873. In that year Mr. Vinton became proprietor of the Avoca store, while the firm of Wood & Robbins (soon afterward and better known as William Wyland & Company) became owners of the store which the firm of Vinton & Davis had established at Harlan. E. W. Davis disposed of his commercial interests in order to give his entire time and attention to banking and for some years was closely associated with the financial interests of the county. On the 1st of August, 1872, the banking house of J. W. & E. W. Davis was organized and opened for business in the brick building now occupied by the Journal-Herald office in Avoca. In 1874 they erected a business block especially designed for banking purposes and now occupied by the Avoca State Bank. To the new structure they removed in the spring of 1875 and in less than ten years this bank developed its business until it was the largest of any financial institution in the state of Iowa located in a town of like population. The business was incorporated under the name of the Avoca Bank on the 1st of August, 1885. About two years later E. W. Davis sold his interest to his partner and withdrew from the banking business. In his early days Edwin W. Davis was known to walk often from Dunlap to Harlan and from Avoca to Harlan in the morning, taking a couple of hours for the trip and making better time by an hour than the stage when roads were good. In the evening he would return to Avoca. He would even walk to Council Bluffs at times, making the trip in eight or nine hours from Avoca. Throughout those years of remarkable physical strength he was making steady progress in the business world, utilizing his advantages in the best possible way and gradually working upward from a comparatively humble position to one of prominence and affluence.
In the autumn of 1885 Edwin William Davis removed to Minneapolis, where he was identified with the real-estate and brokerage business until 1890 and during that time laid out the Vinton Park addition to the city, so naming it in honor of his old-time friend and partner. During the succeeding nine years he was connected with various financial interests, particularly in Colorado, making his home in Pueblo, where he opened up a brokerage office in 1893. In 1899 he returned to Harlan, having purchased on October 4 a controlling interest in the Shelby County State Bank, and assumed the presidency of that institution, which under his capable control more than doubled its business in three years. At the time of his demise, which occurred September 17, 1903, the bank ranked among the large institutions of the state in towns of about three thousand population. On the organization of the Commercial Exchange of Harlan for the purpose of promoting the moral and new material growth of the town Mr. Davis was chosen its president and put forth most earnest and effective efforts for the benefit of his city. He was instrumental in securing the location of the canning factory in Harlan, whereby employment was furnished to a large number of men. A gasoline engine factory and several other smaller business enterprises were secured through his influence and Harlan acknowledged its indebtedness to one of its earliest business men for his effective efforts in its behalf. He was also president of the Old Settlers' Association and contributed largely to the success of its annual reunions.
Mr. Davis' aid and co-operation could always be counted upon to further progressive measures and in fact he was the promoter of many movements that were of decided benefit to the community in which he loved. He presented on August 28, 1893, to his native town of Danielson, Connecticut, a park in memory of his father and mother, now called Davis park. He was the donor of a site for the Congregational church and parsonage at Harlan. He and his brother each gave five hundred dollars toward the erection of a church of the same denomination at Avoca. Edwin W. Davis gave a block of lots to the Young Men's Christian Association in Minneapolis, but perhaps the gift which he made with greatest sacrifice was bestowed when he was but a boy of twelve years. He attended a Fourth of July celebration in Danielson, carrying with him some spending money which his father had given him for the occasion. At the celebration he met the first and only Revolutionary soldier he had ever seen and when some appeal was made for contributions he gave freely all that had been given to him. This was indeed a sacrifice for a boy of his years when so many amusements are offered that are dear to the heart of a youth. The same generous spirit, however, characterized Mr. Davis throughout his entire life and no worthy person ever sought his aid in vain, while his contributions to benevolent and charitable objects were liberal and most freely bestowed.
Mr. Davis remained throughout his entire life a student of current events, of the signs of the times, and the questions of the day and a conversation with him displayed a mind trained in the severest school of investigation and to which close reasoning had become habitual and easy. He was not rash in forming his opinions but on the contrary gave earnest consideration to each question which came up for settlement. This was manifested in his legislative career, when in 1884 he was called to represent Pottawattamie county in the twentieth general assembly. He never faltered in expressing his opinions upon any question of public moment and was ever loyal to his belief. He labored for the interests of the commonwealth and for his home locality as well and was foremost in encouraging and advancing every enterprise that in any way helped to make the city of his residence more prosperous and more progressive. He loved the plain people and early learned the invaluable lesson concerning the brotherhood of man. .The cause of his neighbors he made his own when he felt that he might benefit or aid them in any way. He was rugged but sympathetic and those who knew him best trusted him most.
E. W. Davis was married on the 24th of May, 1874, to Miss May Benham, a daughter of Dr. Lucius and Rebecca (Van Horn) Benham, of Cascade, Dubuque county, Iowa. Mrs. Davis is a lady of much native ability and natural refinement and has carefully utilized her advantages and. numerous opportunities for self-culture through means of travel and study. She has visited various sections of the east and middle west in her native land and has also made a trip abroad to include Egypt, the Holy Land and various points of modern, historic and scenic interest in Europe. She is an entertaining conversationalist and her home surroundings indicate her love of music, art and literature, while many souvenirs of her travels are proof of the keen interest which she felt in the places and scenes which she visited in foreign lands. She was made administratrix of her husband's estate in Colorado, South Dakota and Minnesota and is now residing in Minneapolis, being actively interested in the management of property in that city belonging to the family.
Four children were born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Davis, of whom three are yet living: Vinnie D., a graduate of the Pueblo (Colorado) high school and now the wife of Thomas A. Duke, of the firm of Henckel & Duke, wholesale grocers of Pueblo; Joseph V., who is a graduate of the Providence (Rhode Island) Business College and is now associated with the Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank of Harlan, Iowa; and Ada E., who will graduate from Wellesley College near Boston, Massachusetts, in June, 1908. Mrs. Davis is a member of the Minnequa club and of the chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Pueblo, Colorado. Since her husband's death in the administration of the estate she has displayed excellent business qualifications, as well as those truly womanly traits of character that indicate natural culture and refinement and bespeak an ease in the highest social circles.
In July, 1857, Mr. Davis joined the Westfield Congregational church of Danielson, Connecticut, and during the early days of his residence in Harlan he became affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. In his business career he was successful, justly believing that the talent given him for business was one which should be used. He was never selfish in the accumulation of wealth, however, and was ever ready to extend a helping hand to those less fortunate than himself. He has been spoken of as a large man, large in his intellect as well as in his physique, large in his loves and his interests. He belonged to that class of men and women who shed around them much of the sunshine of life, a man who though strong in his physical and mental manhood yet was not without gentleness and kindliness--a splendid type of that American manhood which is the chief glory of the nation.