Background
Henry Davis was born on September 15, 1771 at East Hampton, Long Island, United States. He was the son of John and Mary (Conkling) Davis, who were of Connecticut stock.
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Henry Davis was born on September 15, 1771 at East Hampton, Long Island, United States. He was the son of John and Mary (Conkling) Davis, who were of Connecticut stock.
Davis graduated from Yale in 1796.
Davis was for a time tutor at Williams and then, from 1798 to 1803, at Yale.
During the latter period he studied theology with Rev. Charles Backus of Somers, Connecticut. In 1801 he was elected professor of divinity at Yale, but while he was preparing to assume this position the failure of his health caused him to decline it.
Leaving Yale, Davis spent some time in travel for his health, and in 1806 became professor of Greek at Union College. Three years later he became president of Middlebury College, which had been established in 1800. His administration was such that after eight years he was offered in 1817 the presidency of Hamilton College and that of Yale, in succession to Timothy Dwight, both of which he declined. Later in the year, however, he was again elected president of Hamilton and took office. The college was only five years old, and his task in many ways was that of a first president, not a second. Under his direction Hamilton at first prospered, the number of students rising to about a hundred. Before long, however, he and the leading trustees were in disagreement. The country was booming, and the trustees wished the college to boom likewise. They were unacquainted with college management, as they showed by interference in discipline, and were overconfident in their use of funds. Davis was conservative in opinions and temper, and steeped in New England college traditions. His disapproval of Finney’s methods in revivals in neighboring towns increased opposition to him among the trustees.
In this discord the college lost most of its faculty, and in 1829 had only nine students. Davis held on in almost impossible circumstances and was ultimately victorious. Having seen the board of trustees and faculty reconstituted and the student body restored, he resigned the presidency in 1832.
The rest of his life was spent at the college, in much bodily feebleness.
His earnest religious life moved many students to enter the ministry, especially through Auburn Theological Seminary, in the establishment and early life of which he took an important part.
He published several sermons and addresses and A Narrative of the Embarrassments and Decline of Hamilton College (1833), recounting the college troubles in excessive detail.
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While very kindly in spirit and manner, Davis was undiplomatic, humorless, and unyielding in what he thought his duty.
On September 22, 1801 Davis married Hannah Phoenix, daughter of Thomas Treadwell of Smithtown, Long Island, a member of the Continental Congress.