David Davis
U. S. Supreme Court Justice, 1862-1877
U. S. Senator, Illinois, 1877-1883
Born: March 9, 1815, near Cecilton, Cecil County, Maryland.
Died: June 26, 1886, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois.
- Attended the public schools of Maryland.
- Kenyon College, Ohio, graduate, 1832.
- Studied law in Lenox, Massachusetts, and at the law school in New Haven, Massachusetts.
- Admitted to the bar in 1835 and commenced practice in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois.
- Moved to Bloomington, Illinois, in 1836, and continued the practice of law.
- Member of the Illinois State House of Representatives, 1844.
- Delegate to the Illinois State Constitutional Convention, 1847.
- Elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, 1848, and held the office by repeated elections until his resignation in October 1862.
- Delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, Illinois, 1860.
- Appointed by U. S. President Lincoln as an Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court in October 1862, serving until March 4, 1877, when he resigned to become a Senator.
- Was a candidate for nomination for U. S. President at Cincinnati, Ohio, 1872, on the Liberal-Republican ticket and received ninety-two and a half votes on the first ballot.
- Elected from Illinois by the Independents and Democrats to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1877 - March 3, 1883.
- Was not a candidate for renoinination, 1882.
- Elected President Pro Tempore of the U. S. Senate, October 13, 1881, serving nearly two years.
- Retired from public life.
Buried: Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois.
(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)