Davey, John C.

Submitted by Mike Miller

John. C. Davey has been a member of the State Senate since 1912. He is a lawyer, and has been active in the practice of law and politics in his native city for a quarter of a century.

He was born in New Orleans, in 1879, son of John C. and Anna E. (McCormack) Davey, also natives of New Orleans. His grandfather, Martin McCormack, came to New Orleans from Ireland. The paternal grandfather, John C. Davey, a native of Ireland, located in New Orleans about 1840, and founded and for many years was head of the John C. Davey Harness & Saddlery Company. He died in 1885. John C. Davey, father of Senator Davey, died in 1909. He was a brother of Robert C. Davey, who died in December, 1908, after a long and distinguished career as a public leader in New Orleans and as a member of Congress. He was elected a member of the State Senate in 1879, in 1884 and in 1892, and in 1880 and 1884 was elected judge of the First Recorder's Court of New Orleans. He was gifted with remarkable sound sense, a broad experience with men and affairs, and performed his judicial duties with great skill. In 1888 he was unsuccessful as candidate for mayor. In 1892 he was elected to represent the Second Congressional District of Louisiana in Congress, but declined to become a candidate for reelection. In 1896 he was again elected, taking his seat in the Fifty-fifth Congress and by reelection served continuously until his death twelve years later. At that the he was dean of the Louisiana delegation in Congress.

Senator John C. Davey was educated in public Schools, attending the Boys' High School and Studied law in Tulane University, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1900. Since that year he has conducted a successful general practice, having his law offices in the Canal-Commercial Bank Building. He is a member of the Louisiana Bar and American Bar Associations, is a Catholic, and from early manhood has been affiliated with the Old regular branch of the democratic party.

He is now senior state senator from the Parish of Orleans. He was elected to the Senate, representing the first senatorial district, in 1912, and was reelected in 1916, 1920 and 1924. In the State Senate he is leader of the Orleans delegation; is chairman of the Committee on Judiciary Section "A" and of the joint judicial Committee, and for a number of years has been a member of the senate finance committee and of the city affairs committee, which handles the legislative program affecting New Orleans.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 353, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.