Background
Avis was born in Deerfield, New Jersey, the son of a New Jersey assemblyman, and the great-great grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier who had fought at Valley Forge.
Avis was born in Deerfield, New Jersey, the son of a New Jersey assemblyman, and the great-great grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier who had fought at Valley Forge.
Educated Public school, Deerfield. Honorary Doctor of Laws, South Jersey Law School, of Camden, 1938.
He read law from 1890 to 1894 with John South. Mitchell and from 1897 to 1898 with David O. Watkins in Woodbury, New Jersey. Avis married Minnie G. Anderson on September 27, 1899. He was a New Jersey state senator from 1906 to 1908.
In 1912, he attended the Republican National Convention, where he was a delegate for Theodore Roosevelt.
Avis was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Avis was nominated by President Herbert Hoover on September 9, 1929, to a seat vacated by Joseph L. Bodine, who had joined the New Jersey Supreme Court.
He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 2, 1929, and received his commission the same day. Avis served in the courthouse in Camden, New Jersey, until his death on January 21, 1944, after an illness of two months.
Among his most famous cases was the sentencing of Skinny Doctorate"Amato"s guilty plea, and ruling on the authorship of the "Old 97" ballad, a decision eventually reversed by the Third Circuit.
Member New Jersey General Assembly, 1902-1905 (speaker 1904-1905). Member New Jersey State Senate, 1906-1908. Mason, Odd; member Grange.
Married Minnie Genung Anderson, September 27, 1899 (deceased).
