Jamestown Evening Journal

Memorial Day Speaker

Announcement has been made in The Journal that the G. A. R. committee on Memorial Day observance had secured the service of Parke H. Davis of Easton, Pa., as speaker for that occasion Mr. Davis is an old Jamestown boy of wide acquaintance. He comes from a family prominent in this section for nearly one hundred years. His father, Josiah Davis, was a lifelong resident of Chautauqua County, his grandfather, Simeon Davis was a veteran of the war of 1812, and the first settler of the town of Kiantone. His great grandfather, Paul Davis, was an officer in the Continental army, serving from Bunker Hill to Yorktown.

Paul Davis came to Chautauqua County in 1816. He was a pioneer Baptist minister, riding from Warren to Fredonia, attending funerals, weddings and baptisms, and founding most of the early churches of that denomination in this county. He was a charter member and the first chaplain of Mt. Moriah lodge, F. & A. M. Paul and Simeon Davis are buried in the cemetery at Falconer.

Parke H. Davis is an active lawyer in the Lehigh Valley, for years leader of the majority political party in that section and an orator of statewide reputation. When a pupil at the Jamestown Union school, now the high school, he organized a series of football games between the school and the Business College which were played upon the "flats" and were the first football games in Jamestown. Graduating in 1889 he entered Princeton University and became prominent in many lines of student activity, literary and athletic. Despite his business demands he has never lost interest in football at Princeton but is today the university's chief counselor, being offered a professorship last December at a salary of $5,000 per annum to secure his permanent residence at Princeton and supervision of the university's athletic interests. With Walter Camp of Yale, Mr. Davis is regarded as the foremost football authority in America and as a member of the intercollegiate rules committee is at present leading in the reform of the game,


The additional financial assistance of the community is critical to the success of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.
We gratefully acknowledge these individuals and organizations for their generous support.