William Augustine Davis was born on September 21, 1809 in Barren County, Kentucky, United States. He was the son of Hardin and Elizabeth (Wynne) Davis and a descendant of Nathaniel Davis who came from England about 1690 and settled in Virginia.
Davis attended the district schools in winter and helped with the farm work until he was fourteen, and was then sent alone on horseback over the mountains to Charlottesville, Virginia, to live with a relative and attend private school there.
His uncle was postmaster at Charlottesville and in his spare time while at school, and later while at the University of Virginia, young Davis helped in the post-office and became thoroughly acquainted with mail distribution methods.
At the age of twenty-one and before completing his University work Davis accepted a position in the Richmond, Virginia, post-office. Here he remained for twenty-five years, serving several terms as postmaster.
In the spring of 1855 he resigned his position and moved with his family to St. Joseph, Missouri, United States, where on October 19, 1855 he was commissioned postmaster.
Within a year this position was made a presidential one and he was recommissioned, serving until 1861, when a Republican was appointed, and after that continuing as assistant. The St. Joseph post-office was at that time the point where all western mails were transferred from railroad cars to overland stage-coaches.
To make their journeys the stagecoaches had to leave promptly and although there was a three-hour interval in which to sort the mail between the scheduled train arrival and stage-coach departure, the irregularity in arrival of the former rarely permitted sufficient time for this work to be completed, so that the stage-coaches often departed without their consignment of mail.
To alleviate this condition, Davis, in the spring of 1862, suggested that the distribution of mail for the West be made on the railroad cars before they reached St. Joseph. With his recommendation he submitted drawings and sketches of his proposed arrangement of cars for the purpose.
As a result and with the approval of the Post Office Department, in July 1862 a railroad post-office was successfully inaugurated on the Hannibal & Saint Joseph Railroad with Davis in charge of the undertaking.
He operated the system until by the extension of railroads westward to connect with the Union Pacific Railroad, the distribution of overland mails was changed.
On June 25, 1843 Davis married Anne Hopkins of Richmond, Virginia, by whom he had four sons and four daughters, all of whom with his wife survived him at the time of his death in St. Joseph.
