ROBERT W. DAVIS, M. D., a well-known and prominent native-born citizen of Washington county, first saw the light in Hopewell township, October 19, 1832. He is a son of Samuel and Nancy (Hamilton) Davis, natives of Washington county, where his grandparents died before he was born. They had a large family, all long since called to their last homes. Samuel Davis, father of subject, was a farmer by occupation, and also kept hotel for many years. The Middletown road, which was laid out by the Government in 1814, was the chief thoroughfare in use for the conveyance of military supplies between Fort Redstone and Wellsburg during the war of that period, and this hotel was the only one between Washington and Middletown. Samuel Davis was married to Nancy Hamilton, who was descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, and they had seven children, as follows: John, who died in Kansas in 1888; William, who died in 1892, near Cambridge, Ohio; Hugh, in Ogle county, Ill.; Mary deceased wife of John Caldwell; Samuel and Hamilton, both deceased, and Robert W. In 1864 the father died, the mother in 1873, aged seventy- six years. Robert W. Davis was reared to manhood on his father's farm, receiving his primary education at the common schools of his district, after which he attended Washington and Jefferson College. He read medicine with Dr. John Russell Wilson, and attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, but his occupation has been chiefly farming. In 1855 the Doctor married Mary Ann, daughter of James Spriggs, of Washington, and by her had four children: James Samuel, who died at the age of twenty years; Harry H., now living in Washington, Penn.; Robert W., on the farm in Canton township, and one that died in infancy, unnamed. The mother of these children died in 1869, and in 1871 Dr. Davis was united in marriage with Mrs. Susanna Coulter, of Allegheny county, Penn., the mother, by her first marriage, of two daughters, one now deceased, and one married to John Craig, of Keokuk, Iowa. By this last union Dr. Davis has no children. He owns a fine farm in Canton township, situated about two and one-half miles from Washington, on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and his home since his marriage has been on West Chestnut street, in the borough. Politically he was originally a Whig, then, on the formation of the party, a stanch Republican. He was formerly connected with the First Presbyterian Church, but is now a member and trustee of the Third Presbyterian Church.

Text taken from page 129 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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