Reuben O. Davis (January 18, 1813 – October 14, 1890) was a United States representative from Mississippi. Born in Winchester, Tennessee into a family of

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

origin, he moved with his parents to Alabama about 1818. His grandfather Joseph Davis was born in Wales in 1763 and emigrated to Virginia. Reuben Davis attended the public schools. Later, he studied medicine,Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in

Horace W. Fuller Horace Williams Fuller (June 15, 1844 – October 26, 1901) was an American lawyer and editor who served as the first editor of ''The Green Bag'', a late-19th- and early-20th century legal news and humor magazine. Life and career Born in Aug ...

, ed., '' The Green Bag'', Vol. XI (1899), p. 509. but practiced only a few years, when he abandoned the profession. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and commenced practice in Aberdeen, Mississippi. Davis "became one of the most successful criminal lawyers in the South", and was elected prosecuting attorney for the sixth judicial district 1835–1839. He was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for the Twenty-sixth Congress in 1838. He was then appointed by Governor

Tilghman Tucker Tilghman Mayfield Tucker (February 5, 1802 – April 3, 1859) was Governor of Mississippi from 1842 to 1844. He was a Democrat. Biography Tucker was born in North Carolina near Lime Stone Springs, and lived in Alabama for a time before moving ...

as a judge of the high court of appeals in 1842, but after four months' service resigned. Leslie Southwick
Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996
18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997–1998). Davis served as colonel of the Second Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican–American War. After the war, he was a member of the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected fo ...

1855–1857. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses and served from March 4, 1857, to January 12, 1861, when he withdrew. According to the US Census, the Davis household kept 4 slaves in 1840, 18 in 1850, and 42 in 1860. During the American Civil War, Davis served in the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

as brigadier general. After the war, he resumed the practice of law. He was an unsuccessful Greenback candidate for the Forty-sixth Congress in 1878. During this period he purchased a Greek Revival style house in Aberdeen, Mississippi, known as Sunset Hill, and wrote his ''Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians''. He died suddenly, while in Huntsville, Alabama in 1890 and was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen.

References

Retrieved on 2008-10-18 * Davis, Reuben. ''Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians''. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890. Rev. ed., with a new introd. by William D. McCain. Pref. and an expanded index by Laura D. S. Harrell. Hattiesburg: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1972. 1813 births 1890 deaths People from Winchester, Tennessee American people of Welsh descent American slave owners 19th-century American politicians Mississippi Whigs Mississippi Greenbacks Justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Mississippi American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Confederate States Army brigadier generals 19th-century American judges {{AmericanCivilWar-bio-stub