Davis Street
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also WORCESTER COAL MINE
Observing that other young lawyers reached their offices at 9 a.m. and spent evenings in society, Isaac Davis made it a point to be at his desk by 7 a.m. and in the evening.
He had a flair for oratory, required in public affairs in those days. The simple sentence was unheard of. Describing a night fire in the Baptist Church which he fought in 1836 as the first chief engineer of the Fire Department, he said:
“The fowls of the air to the number of millions gathered thither from leagues around, and hovered fascinated over the awful ascending columns of flame, while for a mile to the northward every roof was on fire from the falling, burning embers.”
Davis was born in Northboro June 2, 1799. Admitted to the bar in 1825, he climbed rapidly to the top of his profession. A sharp business eye netted him a fortune in real estate.
He built a mansion on Main street, opposite the Common, in 1836, paying 16 cents a foot for about an acre. It was worth $8 a foot 47 years later; $20 a foot in 1947.
Davis became a State Senator, State Representative, member of the Governor’s Council, delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, member of the State Board of Education.
That would have been enough for most men – but not for Davis. He was Mayor in 1856, 1858 and 1861; Assessor; Selectman; Overseer of the Poor; Alderman; director of the Public Library. He was a delegate to all National Democratic Conventions from 1828 to 1860. He was a trustee of Brown University, Columbian College, Waterville College, Norwich University, Townsend Academy; a founder and president of Worcester Academy for 40 years.
He was a member of the American Antiquarian Society and its council; president of Quinsigamond Bank; State Mutual Life Insurance Company; Farmers Fire Insurance Company; Mechanics Savings Bank; Worcester County Agricultural and Horticultural Societies; director of Providence and Worcester Railroad; Worcester and Nashua Railroad and a colonel in the state militia!
In 1832, the Secretary of War appointed him to the Board of Visitors to West Point.
“He made himself a leading man of affairs, rather than a scholar, and sought to direct learning to its best uses,” declared Stephen Salisbury, Jr. Mr. Davis bought stock in the Worcester Coal Mine; persistently burned it in his office with an enthusiasm “only surpassed by the difficulty in his grate.” He died April 1, 1883, at 83.
Wrote the Evening Gazette next day: “He was a man punctilious above others in sound, old-fashioned, business principles, prompt, punctual, always ready and untiring in his industry.”
Davis street runs from Piedmont west to Queen street; first appeared in 1869. It honors another great man in Worcester.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
