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HENRY L. DAVIS, M. D.
The multiplicity of experiences of Dr. Davis which interspersed the years covered by his medical training from an especially interesting attribute to his life, and in divers ways add to his many qualifications as a competent practicing physician and surgeon. His two years of army service as a nurse in the Philippines after a brief medical course was wonderfully rich in life's experiences, and serves as a most valuable adjunct to his regular medical training. Since his degree was awarded to him in 1906 Dr. Davis has been active in the practice of his profession, and in the years which have elapsed since then he has accomplished much from a humanitarian point of view, as well as winning to himself a pleasing reputation in a professional way.
Henry L. Davis, M. D., was born on December 11, 1878, in Anna, Union county, Illinois. He is the son of Stephen M. Davis, born 1843, and who died in 1899, a native of Union county, Illinois, and the son of Reverend Levi Davis, also a native of Union county. For sixty years Reverend Levi Davis was an able expounder of the faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Southern Illinois, and when he passed away he left the rich and undying heritage of a life of well spent endeavor in a worthy cause, and of good he was able to do among the people for whom he labored no reasonable estimate can be made. He was the son of Thomas Davis, who immigrated from Wales, and represented a family which, since its foundation, has been known by its good works.
Stephen M. Davis, the son of Rev. Levi Davis and grandson of Thomas Davis, who founded the family in America, married Amanda Day, a native of Cumberland county, Tennessee, who moved to Union county, Illinois, when she was ten years of age, in company with her brother, Henry Day, in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Davis were the parents of ten, children, of whom three sons and five daughters are now living. They are: William, H., a practicing physician of Castle, Oklahoma; Virgil B., an attorney of note in Indianapolis; Etta H., in Okemah, Oklahoma; Henry L., of Mount Vernon; Mrs. Alice H. Williams, living in St. Louis, Missouri; Lulu May, who died at the tender age of two
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years; Mrs. Cora B. Davis, living in Murphysboro; Martha E., of the same place; Mrs. Eunice A. Huck, living in Iola, Kansas; and Stephen M., who died in infancy.
Henry L. Davis was educated in the common schools of Union county, the Dexter, Missouri, high school and the Illinois Normal University at Carbondale. On May 28, 1898, when he was but twenty years of age, he enlisted in Company I of the Sixteenth United States Infantry for service in the Spanish-American war. He was sent with his regiment to Santiago de Cuba, where they were in service one month and returned to Montauk Point, New York. From there they were sent to Huntsville, Alabama, and discharged nuder the act of Congress of 1899. On his return home he attended the Southern Illinois Normal during the winter and spring term which ended in July of 1900. He then enlisted in the hospital corps of the United States Army, his former experience in the army having been sufficient to whet his appetite for larger accomplishments, and was sent to Manila, where he served two years as a nurse, and returned to his home in August, 1902, after having circumnavigated the globe in the two years of his absence. His taste for foreign travel appeased, the young man once more entered the medical department of. St. Louis University in the fall of 1902, and was graduated therefrom in May, 1906, receiving his degree of M. D. Dr. Davis immediately began the practice of medicine in Carbondale, remaining there until August 1, 1907. He next located in Herrin, where he remained from August 10, 1907, until September 10, 1908. The place did not meet with his expectations and he next settled in Oakland, Coles county, where he remained until August 10, 1910. It was then that he located in Mount Vernon, which it would seem is the ideal spot for him, and where he already commands a wide and constantly growing practice, and is prominent in both a social and professional way.
Dr. Davis is a member of the Spanish War Veterans, and among the fraternal societies he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen. He is a member of the Baptist church.
On October 24, 1907, Dr. Davis was married to Miss Tallie Link, of Ewing, Illinois, daughter of William J. Link. One child, Theodore, born October 24, 1908, has come to them.