John Davis (August 9, 1826 – August 1, 1901) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Early life

Born near Springfield, Illinois, Davis moved with his parents to Macon County in 1830. He attended the country schools, Springfield Academy, and

Illinois College Illinois College is a private liberal arts college in Jacksonville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (USA). It was the second college founded in Illinois, but the first to grant a degree ( ...

, Jacksonville, Illinois. He engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits near Decatur, Illinois.

Career

Davis moved to Kansas in 1872 and located on a farm near Junction City. He was elected president of the first distinctive farmers' convention held in Kansas in 1873, out of which grew the Farmers' Cooperative Association, of which he was the first president. He later served as president of the Grange convention in 1874 and became proprietor and editor of the Junction City Tribune in 1875. Davis also served as Secretary of the Central Kansas Horticultural Society for many years.

Politics

Davis was an anti-slave Republican and believed in the principle of government supported agricultural education. He was also "a neighbor and intimate acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln". Davis was an unsuccessful candidate of the

Greenback Party The Greenback Party (known successively as the Independent Party, the National Independent Party and the Greenback Labor Party) was an American political party with an anti-monopoly ideology which was active between 1874 and 1889. The party ran ...

for election in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress and in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress. Davis was elected as a Populist to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1895). In congress, he made speeches on finance, tariff reform, transportation, the income tax, and was an advocate of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. Davis was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress.

Later life

After his political career Davis devoted his time to literary work until his death at the residence of his daughter in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

, August 1, 1901. He was interred in Topeka Cemetery.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, John 1826 births 1901 deaths 19th-century American politicians American abolitionists American women's rights activists Illinois College alumni Kansas Greenbacks Kansas Populists Kansas Republicans People buried in Topeka Cemetery People from Junction City, Kansas People from Macon County, Illinois People's Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kansas Politicians from Springfield, Illinois Writers from Kansas Writers from Springfield, Illinois Members of the United States House of Representatives from Kansas