Garrett Davis

Birth Date

1801-09-10

Death Date

1872-09-22

Gender

Race Description

White

Entity Type

Person

Bourbon County, Kentucky, attorney, farmer, and politician. Kentucky native. Married to Rebecca Trimble Davis in Bourbon County, Kentucky, on September 21, 1826. Father of Robert Trimble Davis, Caroline Scott Davis Magowan, and Rebecca T. Davis. Married to Eliza Jane Morrow Davis. Father of Garrett Morrow Davis. Clerk in the Office of the County Clerk in Montgomery County, Kentucky. Clerk in the Office of the County Clerk in Bourbon County. Admitted to the bar in 1823. Attorney in Bourbon County. Member of the House of Representatives for the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Bourbon County from 1833 to 1838. Member of the Whig Party. Member of the House of Representative of the United States from the Twelfth Congressional District of Kentucky from 1839 to 1847. Member of the House of Representative of the United States from the Eighth Congressional District of Kentucky from 1843 to 1847 Delegate to 1849 Kentucky Constitutional Convention from Bourbon County, Kentucky. Attorney in Bourbon County in 1850. Owned nine enslaved persons in Bourbon County in 1850. Declined the nomination of the American Party for President of the United States in 1856. Attorney and farmer in Bourbon County in 1860. Owned fifteen enslaved persons in Bourbon County in 1860. Member of the Senate of the United States from Kentucky from 1861 to 1872. Regent of the Smithsonian Institution from 1864 to 1872.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Bourbon County, District 1, p. 289B.
Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Bourbon County, District 1, p. 498.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Bourbon County, Eastern Division, p. 683.
Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Bourbon County, Eastern Division, p. 136B.
Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Bourbon County, Paris, Ward 2, p. 446A.
Charles Lanman, Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States (Washington: J. M. Morrison, 1887), 129.
“Davis, Garrett,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, accessed January 11, 2017, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000099.
“Davis, Garrett,” The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 255-256.
“The Death of Garrett Davis,” Louisville Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), September 23, 1872, p. 2.
Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Bourbon County Marriages, Film 000183145.
"Garrett Davis (1801-1872)," Find A Grave, Memorial 7773367, accessed January 11, 2017, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7773367.

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