Davis, Levi
b. July 20, 1808, in Cecil County, Maryland; d. March 3, 1897, in Alton, Illinois. Davis was admitted to the bar in Maryland
and moved to Vandalia, Illinois, in c. 1830. He was a volunteer during the Black Hawk
War. In 1835, Governor Joseph Duncan appointed Davis as auditor for the state. In 1839, Davis moved to Springfield, Illinois,
when
it became the state capital, and retained his position as auditor until 1841. He continued the practice of law, and in 1846,
he
moved to Alton, Illinois, where he worked for a number of years as the attorney for the Chicago and Alton Railroad and as
the
director of the St. Louis, Alton, and Terre Haute Railroad.
Nathaniel B. Curran, "Levi Davis, Illinois' Third Auditor," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 71
(February 1978):1:2-12; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago:
Lewis Publishing, 1899), 1:181-82, 2:682-84; United States Biographical Dictionary: Illinois Dictionary (Chicago:
American Biographical Dictionary, 1876), 247-48. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library,
Springfield, IL.