James Harvey Davis

James Harvey Davis

James Harvey Davis (born December 24, 1853 in Walhalla , Pickens County , South Carolina , †  January 31, 1940 in Kaufman , Texas ) was an American politician . Between 1915 and 1917 he represented the state of Texas in the US House of Representatives .

Career

James Davis attended public schools in Wood County , Texas, where he had moved with his parents. Between 1875 and 1878 he worked as a teacher. In 1878 he was elected a judge in Franklin County , although he had not graduated from law school at the time. After he graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1882, he began working in this profession in Mount Vernon . At that time, Davis joined the Farmers' Alliance , for which he gave promotional lectures. He later co-founded the Populist Party in Texas and was a board member from 1892 to 1900 . In 1894 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress . Davis also worked in the newspaper business. Between 1886 and 1888 he was president of the Texas Press Association . In 1914 he declined an appointment as agricultural officer for the Philippines .

In the 1890s Davis joined the Democratic Party . In the 1914 congressional elections , he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the 17th  constituency of Texas , where he succeeded Daniel E. Garrett on March 4, 1915 . Since he lost to Garrett in his party's primary elections in 1916, he was only able to complete one term in Congress until March 3, 1917 .

After serving in the US House of Representatives, James Davis moved to Sulfur Springs , where he worked in agriculture. From 1935 he lived in Kaufman. He died there on January 31, 1940 and was buried in Sulfur Springs. Davis was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his later years .

Web links

• James Harvey Davis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• James Harvey Davis in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Biography in the Handbook of Texas