Davis, Levi

Born: 1808-07-20 Cecil County, Maryland

Died: 1897-03-03 Alton, Illinois

Davis was admitted to the bar in Maryland and moved to Vandalia, Illinois, around 1830. He was a volunteer during the Black Hawk War. In 1832, Davis married Lucy Ann Stapp in Vandalia, and together they had eight children. In 1835, Governor Joseph Duncan appointed Davis as auditor for the state. In 1839, Davis moved to Springfield, Illinois, when it became the state capital, and retained his position as auditor until 1841. He continued the practice of law, and in 1846, he moved to Alton, Illinois, where he worked for a number of years as the attorney for the Chicago and Alton Railroad and as the director of the St. Louis, Alton, and Terre Haute Railroad.

Nathaniel B. Curran, "Levi Davis, Illinois' Third Auditor," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 71 (February 1978), 2-12; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:181-82, 2:682-84; The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Illinois Volume (Chicago: American Biographical, 1876), 247-48; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fayette County, 15 November 1832, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.