USA > West Virginia > Myers' history of West Virginia (1915) Volume II > Part 26
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Mrs. Davis' sister was the mother of the late Senator Arthur Pue Gorman and the two first cousins wer . aiways intimate associates, both politically and socially, until icath separated them.
Former Governor Howard, of Maryland, who lived in t'e same neighborhood with the Davises, realizing their poverty stricken condition upon the death of their father, gave them a home on his farm and furnished young Henry, who was then a robust youth of fifteen years, work on the farm at twenty five cents per day.
The only education that the boy had an opportunity to imbibe was at a three months' term school which he attended in the winters until the time he became the breadwinner for the family.
HIe then insisted upon his younger brother going to school and deprived himself of the continuance of his meagre educa tional advantages that he might keep the younger boy in
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school. However, he studied some at random under the direc- tion of his mother, who was a woman of much refinement and many accomplishments, until the age of nineteen when a life- long friend of the family, Dr. Woodside, who was superin- tendent of the new railroad which the Baltimore & Ohio Com- pany had extended to Cumberland, gave him a position as freight brakeman. Young Davis took the position for two reasons : first, because he had always nourished a fascination for railroad work ; second, because it paid more money and he could then be of more substantial aid to his mother and his younger brothers, for Mrs. Davis had been sewing and doing other work since her husband's death that she might keep the little family together and maintain the home for them.
Railroading in the early "forties" was indeed crude and attended with far more danger than characterizes the opera- tion of trains today. The modern self-coupler, the air brake, the almost countless safety appliances, were unknown luxuries in those days, but despite the obstacles that beset his way, young Davis soon realized that he had found his natural call- ing and made a fresh determination that through the means of railroad life he would pave his way to fame and fortune.
Vigilant and careful in his duties he soon became known over his division, which then extended from Baltimore to Cum- berland, as "the energetic brakeman." His work attracted the commendation of the division superintendent and after about a year's service as brakeman he was promoted to freight con- ductor.
The same seriousness, energy and steadiness that attended him as brakeman characterized him as conductor. His busi- ness was attended to with dispatch and complaints filed against Conductor Davis were unknown.
One morning, after he had been conductor but a few months, a derailment occurred near Piedmont. Wrecks in our days are tremendous obstacles to the transportation depart- ment, but we cannot realize the magnitude of their annoyance in the days when young Davis handled trains over what is now one of the greatest trunk-lines. The wrecking equipment of today was then unknown and a wreck that would now inter- fere with traffic but a few hours would in those days cause
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delay for a week. It happened that on the morning on which the derailment occurred, President Thomas Swann, of the Balti- more & Ohio, was following Davis' freight on a passenger train. There was additional confusion among the trainmen of the derailed freight, owing to the fact that their president was close at hand and would soon be upon the ground. Davis took charge of the work, accomplished it with so much pre cision and utilized such business-like methods that he had un- knowingly attracted the attention of President Swann and upon the latter's arrival at Baltimore, Freight Conductor Da- vis received notice that he had been awarded a passenger run between Baltimore and Cumberland, hence afterwards he be- came known as "Captain" Davis.
Young Davis was learning well the lessons of experience ; the poverty and deprivations of youth had. in a certain sense, moulded his character. His early hardships tended to make him business-like, to make him value the significance and true worth of the dollar. His early poverty was a school, it started him upon the career of success that afterwards attended him. His critics have said that Senator Davis was penurious, have said, to make use of the popular phrase, that he was "Close ;" it must be remembered that the hardships, the battles for a living that attended him at the age that the majority of our boys are enjoying the advantages of an education provided by liberal parents, the subject of this sketch was learning the practical lessons of the dollar's value which were driven home by tutors personified by toil and poverty.
Henry G. Davis owes a debt of gratitude to his career as passenger conductor, for it was during this period of his life that the interest in politics and the welfare of his country w .s stimulated in him, by his being brought into direct contact with Henry Clay and other prominent men who traveled upon his train to and from Washington ; Henry Clay and Mr. Davis forming an intimate and life-long friendship at this tim . T'e Kentucky commoner would travel by stage coach from his blue grass home to Cumberland, at which point he would board Captain Davis' train and travel with the young con- ductor as far as Washington.
When young Davis was twenty-four, President Swann.
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who had been closely watching the energetic conductor's pro- gress, made him division superintendent of the sa .. c division on which he had served as brakeman and cond intor. This new position gave him the chance he had long desired, the opportunity to realize his executive ability, and by the use of his ability he rapidly gained distinction, and within a few years became known as the president's right hand man, which in those days, was a position similar to the present office of gen- eral manager.
Heretofore the idea of running trains after night had been looked upon in the light of a vain possibility. Young Davis told President Swann that there was no reason why trains could not be operated at night equally as well as during day- light. The president laughingly told the aspiring young su- perintendent that if he didn't drop such notions he would be- come the laughing stock of the entire company. Davis, ignor- ing his chief's opinion, begged for the opportunity to try his ideas by practical tests. In order to satisfy him the president granted his permission to do so, and shortly afterwards the superintendent was running night trains on regular schedule over his entire division.
But during all these vicissitudes of his railway career Mr. Davis was not blind to the opportunities that presented them- selves through the medium of West Virginia's natural re- sources, which he gazed upon daily as his train wended its way from Cumberland to what is now known as Deer Park, Mary- land.
At his own request, in 1853, he was given the position of agent at Piedmont, which was then the most responsible posi- tion on the line west of Baltimore.
In Mr. Davis' choosing Piedmont as his home, we see the first concrete illustration of his far-sighted business sa- gacity that made him millions. He realized that Piedmont was the gateway to a country almost unbounded and un- limited in the extent and magnitude of its natural resources.
In these years he was no doubt enjoying day dreams of what a man's industry could create in the broad and undevel- oped territory that met his eye as he gazed from Piedmont toward the Alleghanies, and which was destined to afterwards
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become the garden spot and means of subsistence for an un born state.
Shortly previous to this, Mr. Davis married Miss Kate, the daughter of Judge Gideon Bantz, of Frederick, Maryland. Her death in 1902, after nearly fifty years of happy, married life, was a very severe shock to the senator. The Davis Memorial Hospital at Elkins (see history of Elkins in this book), probably the most complete and modern institution of its kind in the state, is an appropriate monument to the mem- ory of Mrs. Davis and a tangible illustration of the regard he held for her.
Mr. Davis' career as the Baltimore & Ohio agent at Pied- mont was short, already having foreseen a development of the marvelous natural resources southeast of him, he resigned as agent and left the Baltimore & Ohio to enter the mere. lumber and coal business.
Hle established his brother, William R. Davis, in the business and the firm traded under the name of II. G. Davis & Brother.
A large portion of Mr. Davis' savings from his salary had been spent in buying up hundreds of acres of timber and coal lands lying in close proximity to the courses of Cheat River and its tributaries. These lands were bought for trifling sums from their owners who did not realize the ultimate value that must some day be attached to the properties.
The prices of these lands often ranged from fifty and seventy-five cents to a dollar and a half per acre.
Rapidly the Davis brothers built up a thriving trade, the outbreak of the Civil War helping them materially in a finan- cial way. Because of their accessible location they obtained large army contracts for supplying the soldiers with food stuffs and other supplies. Their business continued to prosper until it reached enormous proportions.
An extensive wholesale as well as retail trade was estab lished.
It is indeed an "ill wind that blows no one any good." and brothers profited directly and indirectly by the Civil War.
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Every cent that they could possibly lay their hands upon, every cent of profit from a successful and extensive mercantile business was invested in the coal and timber lands of what is now Garrett County, Maryland, and Mineral, Grant, Tucker, Preston, and Randolph Counties, in West Virginia.
The Baltimore & Ohio's line from Washington to Cum- berland suffered extensive damages to their bridges, stations, and other equipment during the four years of warfarc. Young Davis had always made it his business to keep on most friend- ly terms with the company that had formerly been his em- ployer, and now the rewards of his far-sightedness began to show themselves. For several years his firm was kept busy in supplying the orders for timber and coal, principally the former, for the Baltimore & Ohio, who were now completely overhauling their entire system and repairing the damages to their lines that had been inflicted during the war. The romance of success was now well under way and the former B. & O. brakeman was reaping thousands from the road for which he had previously worked for the meagre sum of twenty- five dollars per month.
At this juncture occurred the idea of laying out a summer resort and establishing a town upon the summit of the Alle- ghanies that might serve ås a place of amusement and recrea- tion for the hordes of nature seekers from the city during the summer months. The result of his determination is in evi- dence today in Deer Park, Maryland, which town he laid out and where he built an elaborate summer home.
Having accumulated sufficient wealth to insure his inde- pendence and position, his ambition turned to political chan- nels. His friendship with Henry Clay had made him a de- voted Whig and his first ballot was cast for the Kentuckian.
During the Civil War he had maintained very friendly relations with the Union, and owing to the fact that his army contracts were always extensive, he had been brought into close contact with the national authorities.
Accordingly Mr. Davis' sympathies were naturally wit's the Republicans, and he would probably have acted in full accord with that party had it not been that some Republican opponents defeated him for the legislature by, in some manner,
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having his name stricken from the registry list, and an un registered voter could not hold office. This incident deter mined his career as a Democrat, and in 1866 he was elected to the lower branch of the West Virginia legislature.
He served one year in the lower house and his career in that body was a noteworthy one and was largely occupied with legislation concerning the financial system of the nen born state.
Two years later he was elected to the state senate and took a still more prominent part in financial legislation.
Again in 1870 he was a candidate to succeed himself in the upper house. His opponent this time was a foe worthy of his steel, the lon. W. 11. H. Flick, of Pendleton County, one of the new state's leading Republicans, making the fight against him. The campaign was a memorable one, the two candidates traveling together and discussing the issues at joint debates in country stores and school houses. Mr. Davis won by a small majority, and because of his victory over so renowned a Re- publican as Mr. Flick, he became the leader of his party in the state senate; at the same time serving as chairman of the finance committee. The importance of Senator Davis' work in the two branches of the legislature is often underestimated.
When he first took his seat the new state was scarcely three years old, he was a leader during the majority of his service and much of the credit for the firm and substantial foundation of the state government should be accorded him for he was largely a precedent maker during his six years of ser- vice in the state's legislative halls.
Although during these busy years the senator's time was largely occupied with political duties, he in no wise relin- quished his ideas and projected plans for the developing of the thousands of acres that he and his brother (for Thomas B. had associated himself with the firm several years before this time) had acquired, and he utilized the advantages affor led him by being brought into contact with other capitalists in public life, to interest them in his investments and in his pro- i cted development of the vast area already mentioned !. Far -. ticularly valuable in this respect were his twelve years spent in the national senate, a little later. Such service brought him
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into contact with the leading financiers of the nation; they respected him for what "he had already wrought" and placed confidence in the plans of the West Virginian because they respected and admired his business foresight, examples of which he could already refer to them. Consequently he had little difficulty in winning their confidence and obtaining their capital and in this fashion his dreams were made practicable when, with their capital added to his own, he was able to span the almost insurmountable Alleghanies with the West Vir- ginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway and open for develop- ment an enormous territory whose resources were heretofore unknown and whose possibilities were considered impractica- ble and futile.
His political career was simply an agent to the later career as a developer, in order to obtain the latter he must acquire prestige through means of the former.
In 1870, when the duty of electing a successor to the Hon. Waitman T. Willey devolved upon the legislature, Mr. Davis, then the Democratic leader of the state senate, was chosen by an almost unanimous vote. Representatives of both parties voted for him over such distinguished men as Hon. Daniel Lamb and Col. B. H. Smith, who were candidates. He was also elected to a second term, his twelve years of service in the national senate expiring March 4, 1883.
It has been told of him that he never held public office except by the votes of the opposite party and this rule is said to have held good throughout his political career.
Mr. Davis could never be regarded in the light of a par- tisan. He was pre-eminently a conservative. His ideas were far from the political views entertained by leading Democrats today, and if Henry G. Davis were actively engaged in politics today, he could not be a leader of his party without changing his views: he was always what might be termed a "Protec- tion" Democrat. He believed in incidental protection. He was not a man who would be lined up behind reciprocity treaties or movements which have for their purpose the put- ting of coal, lumber and other natural resources upon the free list.
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His antagonism toward the lamented William L. Wilson is well known by his intimates, and it is no secret that he pre- ferred Federal Judge Alston G. Dayton, an uncompromising Republican congressman from the "Old Second," to Wilson, whose tariff views were widely at variance with those enter- tained by Senator Davis.
Judge Dayton has often made the remark that Senator Davis was the maker of his career, Dayton being the man who finally reclaimed the district for the Republicans in the mem- orable campaign of 1894, when William L. Wilson, thought by many to be West Virginia's greatest Democrat, went down to defeat, only to become postmaster-general in President Cleveland's cabinet.
Senator Davis' twelve years work in the senate was large- ly occupied by the study of transportation problems, monetary conditions, reforms in the business system in vogue in the treasury department and the work of the department of agri- culture.
The record of Senator Davis' twelve years service in the national senate is largely taken up by his work on the old transportation committee out of which has grown the present interstate commerce commission, the committee on appropria- tions, of which he was chairman during the two years that the Democrats controlled the senate, and his efforts toward raising the efficiency of the agricultural resources of the country and toward inaugurating a new and more practical system of book- keeping in the treasury department.
- When Mr. Davis took his seat on the minority side of the senate in the spring of 1871, that body was composed of a notable and eminent array of brilliant statesmen, of whom each political party had a goodly share. Among the Republic- ans were Conkling, Harrison, Sherman, Blaine and Windom : white among the Democrats could be found Bavard, Thurman, and Morgan. Senator Davis quietly took his place amongst them as the junior senator from West Virginia, the late John- : ) N. Camden being his colleague. He applied to his new duties in the senate the same business-like precision, the same i'd fatigable energy that had characterized him as a business man.
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His becoming modesty and his desire for doing unosten- tatious work made him a power in the committee rooms. In fact, Senator Davis' work of greatest usefulness was done in committee. He early acquired a place on the transportation committee, which was at that time one of the most important of the upper house committees. It was here that his vast and unlimited knowledge of transportation problems began to show itself and within a short while his colleagues on the com- mittee became accustomed to seek his advice and rely upon his judgment on every important question that arose.
The committee was sent to Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and other cities to investigate the transportation facili- ties to the seaboard, afforded by the country's leading trunk lines and on these investigating trips, shippers and other busi- ness men soon found out that Mr. Davis was the best posted man on common carriers' and shippers' problems, on the com- mittee, and he continued to be the moving spirit throughout his entire senatorial career.
When the Democrats gained control of the senate, they selected Mr. Davis; as has been stated, for the chairmanship of the committee on appropriations, one of the most powerful of the big senate committees. Here again in the committee room was his next effective work accomplished. His careful judgment and almost unlimited store of knowledge upon trans- portation and monetary problems again found a field of use- fulness, and indirectly his chairmanship of this committee was a powerful agency toward promoting the prosperity and hap- piness of the people of his own state.
The securing of many substantial appropriations for the improvement of the state's waterways and the system of dams and locks in the Great Kanawha, Monongahela and other rivers is largely the result of Mr. Davis' efforts.
In the second session of the forty-third congress, Mr. Da- vis was made a member of the committee on agriculture. Senator Davis' earliest work, it must be remembered, was done on the farm, and before he left the employ of former Governor Howard to take the position of brakeman on a rail- road, he had become superintendent of the farm on which he worked, and a lively interest in agriculture had remained with
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him ever since. The committee on agriculture, at the time Mr. Davis joined it, was not regarded as very important or influential, but before the West Virginian's term of service upon it expired, he had made it become, in importance, one of the leading committees in the senate.
Few are aware that our present national department of agriculture is largely indebted for its creation to Mr. Davis' untiring work on the agricultural committee. Two of his best speeches, during his entire career in the senate, were devoted to the advantages that the people wouldl reap from the maintenance of such a national department.
During his first term Senator Davis had severely criti- cised the system of bookkeeping in vogue in the national treasury. Ile did not charge defalcation or misappropriation of funds, but claimed that through the red tape and old fash- ioned methods in vogue in the department that the people were kept in ignorance of the real financial condition of the country. So long as the Republicans were in power little heed had been given to his utterances on the subject, but when the Demo- crats finally obtained control of the senate, Mr. Davis was made chairman of a special committee to investigate the condi- tions of the treasury. His allegations were sustained and the reforms recommended by him were adopted, many of them later becoming laws which now govern the conduct of our financial policy and business.
As a young man at Piedmont, Mr. Davis had frequently made exploring and investigating trips southeastward across the Alleghany Mountains, and as before stated, no one realized better than he. the innumerable, undeveloped, natural re- sources of the region mentioned. His political career had made him friends of and brought him into direct contact with, the leading financiers of the nation. He was now able to in- terest them and to obtain their co-operation in the fulfillment of his desires, of his day dreams as a youth to some day span the region southeast of Piedmont with a railroad.
lle had now been marketing coal for many years, having established houses at Baltimore and other important eastern ports which he operated in conjunction with his Piedmont
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stores, and still traded under the name of HI. G. Davis & Brothers.
Two years before he left the senate, having associated with him, Bayard, Gorman, Schell, Windom and other finan- ciers who were in the senate at the time he served, and several prominent capitalists from New York, this long projected rail- road had been commenced, and at his retirement from the senate in 1883 had reached a point near the Fairfax Stone on the summit of the Alleghanies. Some time after the death of President Garrett of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Mr. Davis became convinced that the company was not treating him fairly, and as a means to obtain relief, commenced the construction of a road from Piedmont to Cumberland, a dis- tance of twenty-five miles; upon the completion of which he would have access to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal and the Pennsylvania lines as transporters of his coal. In spite of strong opposition on the part of the B. & O. Railroad Com- pany, the work of construction was rushed along and within one year trains were running over his connecting spur which made him then independent of the B. & O. The West Vir- ginia Central and Pittsburgh was then extended on to Elkins, and later on to Belington where the line connected with the Baltimore & Ohio. During the progress of the construction of this road Senator Davis was joined in the work by his son- in-law, the late Stephen B. Elkins, and the two together pro- ceeded to found the city of Elkins, which is now fast becoming one of the leading cities of the state.
Upon the founding of the town, Senator Davis moved his home from Piedmont to Elkins, and on a commanding hill, overlooking the town, he erected the most costly and palatial mansion in the state. In close proximity to his residence, the late Senator Elkins and Ambassador Kerens, both of whom were actively associated with Mr. Davis in his development of the state, have since built handsome homes which adjoin his property. In addition to the spur from Elkins to Beling- ton, a line was built to Durban, on the C. & O., and another to Huttonsville.
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