Morrill Ingalls Daviss

HON. MORRILL INGALLS DAVISS, a prominent farmer of Fairview township, Labette county, Kansas, represents his district in the state legislature of Kansas. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 2, 1841, and is a son of Joshua L. and Jemima (Ingalls) Daviss.

Joshua L. Daviss was born at Ryegate, Vermont, and was there reared and schooled. He applied himself to agricultural pursuits and followed that occupation all his life. He moved from Boston to Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he lived fifteen years, and then removed to Minnesota, and thence to Missouri, where he lived on Gen. U. S. Grant's farm, near St. Louis, until his death. He married Jemima Ingalls, who was born in Vermont, and died at the age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of five children: James; Augustus J.; Cordelia (Mullen) ; Morrill Ingalls; and Fred W.

Morrill Ingalls Daviss is distantly related to Peter Morrill, of Vermont, and to ex-Gov. Morrill, of Kansas. He received his mental training in Ohio, and lived there until his nineteenth year, when he went to Winona county, Minnesota. There he resided and was engaged in farming until 1875. He enlisted from that county, in 1864, in Company K, 1st Reg., Minn. Heavy Artillery, and served in Tennessee most of the time. He was honorably discharged in 1865. In 1875 he moved from Minnesota to Missouri, and lived on Gen. Grant's farm, near St. Louis, for three years, whence, in 1878, he came to Kansas. He settled on a farm near Columbus, Kansas, and lived there for sixteen years. In 1894 he moved to Labette county, Kansas, and purchased his present farm in the southwest quarter of section 15, Fairview township. He has been a very successful farmer. He is a Populist, in politics, and has taken an active interest in party work. He was trustee of his township in 1896, and was trustee of the Labette County High School from 1896 to 1899. At the fall election of 1899 he was elected a member of the state legislature, and is now serving in that body. He has been faithful to the best interests of his district and county, and his service has met with the hearty approval of his constituents.

Mr. Daviss was united in wedlock with Philena L. Taylor, a daughter of Jonathan Taylor, of Winona county, Minnesota, and they became the parents of six children, namely: Royal, who married Jennie Kenworthy, by whom he has a daughter, Erma; Worthy, who married Ethel Rosenberg, and has five children: Earl, Floyd, Jennie, May, and M. J; Bertha (Shigley), who has four children, - Irving, Owen, Arthur and Lena; Mima (Stowell) and Ernest, deceased; and Tena, who was graduated from the Labette County High School, and is now teaching. Mr. and Mrs. Daviss and their family belong to the Methodist church.