BIOGRAPHICAL.

PROF. JOSEPH BAKER DAVIS, C. E.

PROF. DAVIS was born in Westport, Massachusetts, in 1845. His father was Ebenezer Davis, a shiprigger, whose skill in his trade was so great that it was said of him that he could plan the rigging of a large vessel so exactly that not a yard of rope would be left over. Mr. Davis's mother died when he was but a few months old, and he was taken to live during his infancy with a Quaker maiden lady, the cousin of his grandfather. This was Miss A. Baker, one of the calm, severe, prudent Quaker type, whose steady character, unswerving devotion to duty, and good deeds, had given her judgment unusual weight in the family. Her influence over Mr. Davis, acquired while he was very young, remained unchanged through her life. After he left home, he kept up a correspondence with her; and when she died, he traveled over a thousand miles to attend her funeral. In her later years, her straight figure, her calm, pure face, her white hair, and her quaint and severe Quaker garb, made her an attractive and striking personage.

Mr. Davis remained with Miss Baker at Westport until he was eight years of age, when he returned to the house of his father, who had in the meantime married again, and was living in New Bedford. His father was also of Quaker tendencies, so that in Mr. Davis's early life there were two especial and interesting features, Quaker surroundings, and association with persons interested in marine matters. In those days, whale fishing was yet pursued with great activity, and the center of this activity was about southeastern Massachusetts. Whale fishing is a picturesque and fascinating trade, and its influence on the imagination of a young boy must always be notable. Mr. Davis's reminiscences are always full of pictures of whale fishing.

He remained in New Bedford until 1863, when his father pur chased a farm a few miles out from New Bedford. From here the father used to go into the city on business, and here young Davis spent the last year with his father's family.

In 1864, he presented himself among the crowd of expectant freshmen asking admission to the University of Michigan. He was admitted, and graduated in the class of 1868, a class which has left more of its members in the University faculty than any other class ever graduated there. In his University course, Mr. Davis's work was marked by the characteristics which have marked his life since. His sterling manliness and loyalty to his convictions gave him the thorough respect and confidence of his instructors and his classmates. His means were limited, and in addition to the work which he performed with his classmates, he had also to provide for his own subsistence. This he did in

such a way that his standing as a student did not suffer. His sterling ability, his sturdy conscientiousness in his work, and his unremitting industry, overcame all obstacles, and kept him among the first in an unusually strong class. Meantime, in all matters of college or class politics, his fellow students were never in doubt as to where Davis would stand. His strong common sense, with a tincture of Quakerism, was always his guide. His classmates well remember the thickset, strong, good-natured, and fair young man, plainly dressed, unpretentious, hearty in his bearing, and loyal to his class and to his friends. In those closely associated with him at this time, he aroused a feeling of affection which was founded on a basis of respect and confidence. There is no sentiment that is more enduring than an affection founded on such corner-stones. It can only be changed by the conviction that the corner-stones are unsafe. In this case the sentiment has remained unchanged through the quarter of a century which has elapsed since the sturdy young Davis used to occupy the seat of a student.

In the summer of 1867, and therefore while yet a student, Mr. Davis spent a season on Lake Superior, in the employ of the United States Lake Survey. It was while he was here that he laid claim, with what seriousness may be seen by what follows, to a descent from an ancient Welsh family. The chief of the party was, though a civilian, strict in the enforcement of army etiquette, and his assistants, of whom Mr. Davis was one, found themselves treated very formally at the officer's mess. The chief had the lead in conversation at the first dinner table, and he took the opportunity to enlarge on his ancestry, tracing it back that day as far as the Winthrops of Massachusetts. This continued day after day, and those who had been in his party before said it would continue all summer. At last Mr. Davis put an end to it in some such way as this:

Mr.

"May I be permitted to make a statement as to my ancestry,

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?"

Certainly."

"You remember that Llewellyn, prince of Wales, applied to Henry III. for protection from his own subjects?"

"Yes."

"It is said that we are descended from Llewellyn!"

The chief stood - or rather sataghast. He had been boasting of descent from various provincial governors; but there sat a descendant of the Welsh kings, a relation, consequently, to the reigning English family through the Tudors. The rest of the party did not dare to even smile until out of sight of the chief, but the subject of his ancestry was not discussed further during that

summer.

In those days, members of the senior class in the University of Michigan finished their college work at class-day, then a month earlier than commencement. Mr. Davis did not wait during this

month to enjoy his new-found ease, but went at once into the city surveyor's office in Detroit. Office work did not, however, agree with him, and he cheerfully accepted a position which was soon after offered him on the new Kansas, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad. He went to Kansas, and was occupied there in laying out the road until the autumn of 1869, when he returned to Michigan, and took part in running a new line of railroad near Big Rapids. At the end of this job he returned to New Bedford, and spent a part of the winter of 1869-70 with his father.

In the spring of 1870, De Volson Wood, professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan, wished for assistance in his department, and could find no one more suitable than Mr. Davis. He was consequently made assistant professor at this time, and he has been a teacher of civil engineering ever since. In the following summer he acted as prospector on the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw road. Before the college year of 1871-72 began, he was offered the professorship of civil engineering at Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia. At the end of this college year his alma mater required his services again, and he returned to Ann Arbor, again as assistant professor. Prof. Wood left the University at this time, and was succeeded by Prof. Greene, and the department was re-organized. Mr. Davis has retained his position from 1872 to the present day.

A large part of Mr. Davis's professional activity has been spent in teaching; in fact, with the exception of a year or so, he has been teaching ever since he graduated. During this time, a very large number have passed out from under his instruction to their professional duties. They look back with both respect and affection to their instructor, and with good reason; for, aside from those qualities of head and heart to which I have already referred, and which command these sentiments, he brought to his work as teacher a thorough knowledge of his subject, combined with a conscientiousness and painstaking which would permit no member of his class to slur over his work, or to think himself well prepared when he was not. Mr. Davis insists on as good, accurate, thorough, and honest work on the part of his pupils as he would perform himself, and he often calls their attention to what might be called the ethical side of the profession. Lives and property depend on the honesty and knowledge of the engineer and architect, and an engineer who undertakes work for which he is not competent, betrays the confidence of his employers, and may be punished by law. Thorough and conscientious work must always be done, and this wholesome lesson Mr. Davis especially impresses on his pupils.

In 1872, Mr. Davis married Miss Mary Hubbard Baldwin, daughter of Deacon J. D. Baldwin, one of Ann Arbor's most beautiful and most highly esteemed young ladies. They had been acquainted from the time that Mr. Davis was a student; and the happiness of their life together has been interrupted only by the afflic

tions which Providence, with a wisdom that surpasses ours, has seen fit to bring on them. They have lost two boys, the eldest and the youngest, and have one living. The living son, Charles, was born in July, 1875. In 1879, they built a pretty and unique house, which they still occupy.

Prof. Davis has written but little; he has been too busy. Nor has he sought honors or employment, but has wait for them to come to him. In addition to his duties as a teacher, he has had as many professional labors as he could attend to. He was made city engineer of Ann Arbor ten or fifteen years ago, without solicitation, and while seven hundred miles away; and, through all the vicissitudes of local politics, he has retained this position. During this time, the appearance of the city has been rendered much better, and many improvements have been introduced. In 1874, he became a junior in the American Society of Civil Engineers, and he remains a junior to this day, probably the junior of the longest standing on the list. In 1883, he was made president of the Michigan Engineering Society, and held the position for three consecutive terms. He has been for a long time a consulting engineer of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad, and of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Railroad. He was for two years vice-president of the "Council of Engineering Societies on National Public Works."

He has interested himself especially in highway bridges, and many of the important ones in the State were built according to his designs. He has also interested himself in city waterworks, and the works of Greenville, Mich., are a standing illustration of the effectiveness, thoroughness, and economy of his plans. He takes, apparently, especial interest in that difficult, time-consuming, and exasperating duty of surveyors, that of finding missing corners, and to this he brings to bear an amount of tact and experience rarely found elsewhere, and a willingness to expend more labor than most surveyors are willing to put on it. The result is that with him the lost corners are always found, and with the finding of them comes the definite and authentic settlement of boundaries so necessary to the comfort of land owners.

M. W. HARRINGTON.