Wiley Davis

 

SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois," by J. O. Cunningham, 1905

SURNAMES: DAVIS, KOOGLER, ROBERTS, ROBINSON, SLIDER

 

WILEY DAVIS. The subject of the following history bears no unimportant part among the business and agricultural interests of Champaign County. He owns and occupies a fine farm on section 22, in Mahomet Township, of which he took possession in 1849. Since that time he has been industriously employed in its improvement and cultivation, and has made of it one of the most attractive spots in the landscape of Champaign County. The family residence is a handsome and substantial structure, finely located. The barns and other out-buildings are conveniently arranged for the shelter of stock and the storage of grain, and the farm machinery and other appliances are of first-class description. The homestead includes 740 acres, all improved, and under a good state of cultivation. Mr. Davis of late years has given much attention to the breeding of fine stock, and keeps about 150 head of cattle, a flock of sheep, and a number of fine horses. His grain and stock operations probably aggregate more than those of any other man in this locality.

Mr. Davis is a native of Ohio, born in Newark, Licking County, on the 5th of May, 1819. He is the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth (ROBERTS) DAVIS, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. Both became residents of the Buckeye State early in life, and were married in Newark, where they permanently located and where the mother died in 1846. After the death of his wife Zachariah Davis came to Illinois, and located in Champaign County at an early period in its history. After farming here a number of years he removed to Vermilion County, and died at Danville about 1872. The parental household included eight children, six sons and two daughters, of whom four only survive—James, Wiley, Eliza and William. Zachariah, the youngest, died in 1827; Margaret became the wife of William ROBINSON, and died at Danville in 1882.

The subject of our sketch spent the first thirty years of his life in his native county in the Buckeye State, where after reaching years of manhood, he carried on farming and was quite extensively engaged in the shipping of stock. He was married at Dayton, Ohio, Feb. 18, 1847, to Miss Mary J., daughter of Elijah and Margaret (KOOGLER) SLIDER, both natives of Ohio. Mrs. Davis was born at Dayton, June 28, 1821. Our subject and his wife have no children. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, a member of Mahomet Lodge No. 22, F. & A. M., and with his wife is prominently connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Davis has taken a genuine interest in the development and welfare of his adopted county, and has been connected with many of its most worthy enterprises. He is held in the highest respect, not only for his rare business talents, which have enabled him to accumulate a handsome property, but his goodness of heart and genial disposition, which have led him to perform a thousand acts of kindness unknown to the outside world, but held in grateful remembrance by the objects of his sympathy and generosity.