Reuben DAVIS, Congress, MS (1813-1890)

DAVIS Reuben , A Representative from Mississippi; born in Winchester, Tenn., January 18, 1813; moved with his parents to Alabama about 1818; attended the public schools; studied medicine, but practiced only a few years, when he abandoned the profession; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1834 and commenced practice in Aberdeen, Miss.; prosecuting attorney for the sixth judicial district 1835-1839; unsuccessful Whig candidate for the Twenty-sixth Congress in 1838; judge of the high court of appeals in 1842, but after four months' service resigned; served as colonel of the Second Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers in the war with Mexico; member of the State house of representatives 1855-1857; 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; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as brigadier general; resumed the practice of law; unsuccessful Greenback candidate for the Forty-sixth Congress in 1878; died in Huntsville, Ala., October 14, 1890; interment in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Aberdeen, Monroe County, Miss.

Bibliography

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.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present