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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
upper Mississippi, and, in 1825, was appointed the first postmaster at Rock Island, being the only white civilian resident there. In 1826 he united his business with that of the American Fur Company, in whose service he remained. Although he employed every effort to induce President Jackson to make a payment to Black Hawk and his followers to induce them to emigrate across the Mississippi voluntarily," when that Chief commenced hostilities, Mr. Davenport tendered his services to Governor Reynolds, bj whom he was commissioned Quartermaster-General with the rank of Colonel. Immigration increased rapidly after the close of the Black Hawk War. In 1835 a company, of which he was a member, founded the town of Davenport, opposite Rock Island, which was named in his honor. In 1837 .and '42 he was largely instrumental in negotiating treaties by which the Indians ceded their lands in Iowa to the United States. In the latter year he gave up the business of fur-trading, having accumulated a fortune through hard labor and scrupulous integrity, in the face often of grave perils. He had large business interests in nearly every town in his vicinity, to all of which he gave more or less personal attention. On the night of July 4, 1843, he was assassinated at his home by robbers. For a long time the crime was shrouded in mystery, but its perpetrators were ultimately detected and brought to punishment.
DAVIS, David, jurist and United States Senator, was born in Cecil County, Md., March $, 1815; pursued his academic studies at Kenyon College, Ohio, and studied law at Yale. He settled at Bloomington, Ill., in 1836, and, after practicing law there until 1844, was elected to the lower house of the Fourteenth General Assembly. After serving in the Constitutional Convention of 1847, he was elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit under the new Constitution in 1848, being re-elected in 1855 and '61. He was a warm, personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who, in 1862, placed him upon the bench of the United States Supreme Court. He resigned his high judicial honors to become United States Senator in 1877 as successor to Logan's first term. On Oct. 13, 1881, he was elected President pro tern, of the Senate, serving in this capacity to the end of his term in 1885. He died at his home in Blooming-ton, June 26, 1886.
DAVIS, George K., lawyer and Congressman, was born at Three Rivers, Mass., January 3, 1840; received a common school education, and a classical course at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. From 1862 to 1865 he served in the
Union army, first as Captain -in the Eighth
