William Morris Davis (congressman)

This article is about the Pennsylvania Congressman. For the geographer, geologist and meteorologist, see William Morris Davis.

William M. Davis
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 5th district
In office March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863
Preceded by	John Wood
Succeeded by	Martin Russell Thayer
Personal details
Born	(1815-08-16)August 16, 1815 Keene, New York
Died	August 5, 1891(1891-08-05) (aged 75) Keene, New York
Political party	Republican

William Morris Davis (August 16, 1815 – August 5, 1891), was an abolitionist, author and a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Among his friends were the New York sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, and the lock inventor Linus Yale.

Biography

William Morris Davis was born in Keene, New York. He moved to Pennsylvania and became a sugar refiner in Philadelphia. Davis was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1883.

He died in Keene Valley in 1891. Interment in Friends Fair Hill Burial Ground in Germantown, Philadelphia.

Works

• Nimrod of the Sea or The American Whaleman – AOSTON (Harper & Bros., New York 1874)

Sources

• United States Congress. "William Morris Davis (id: D000143)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The Political Graveyard

Bibliography

• William Morris Davis (1815–1891) : the story of a nineteenth century American – Arthur M. Johnson (Washington DC, 1951)

External links

• The Davis, Brown, and Yale Families Correspondence, including personal letters from William Morris Davis, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.