Davis ELKINS, Congress, WV (1876-1959)

ELKINS, Davis, (son of Stephen Benton Elkins and grandson of Henry Gassaway Davis), a Senator from West Virginia; born in Washington, D.C., January 24, 1876; attended the Lawrenceville (N.J.) School, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and Harvard University; during the war with Spain enlisted as a private in the First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, becoming assistant adjutant general in 1898; industrialist with interests in railroads, banking, utilities, and coal mining; appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father, Stephen B. Elkins, and served from January 9 to January 31, 1911, when a successor was elected; during the First World War served in the United States Army in France 1917-1918; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1919, to March 3, 1925; was not a candidate for renomination in 1924; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce (Sixty-sixth Congress); owner of the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Company 1936-1956; died in Richmond, Va., on January 5, 1959; interment in Maplewood Cemetery, Elkins, W.Va.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present