Administrative/Biographical History
James E. Davis (1860-1888), son of Carl Ludwig Davis and Rose Newman Davis, was born in Flora Township, Illinois, and schooled in Belvidere. After completing his secondary education, he attended the Union College of Law of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University from which he graduated in 1886. The young attorney then journeyed to the Dakota Territory (Huron, S.D.) to practice his profession. One year later he married Viola Van Voorhees in Fielding (Fairdale), Illinois, on July 6, 1887, and they returned together to make their homestead in Carthage, Dakota (near Mitchell, South Dakota). James Davis caught pneumonia during that winter and succumbed to it April 2, 1888, just shy of two months before the birth of his only child, Jamie Elizabeth Davis.
William Biester (1863-1937), son of Christopher and Elizabeth Biester, was born on a farm near Elgin, Illinois, and graduated from South Belvidere High School in 1883. For a short time he was a school teacher in DeKalb County and then took up the study of law, passing his bar examination in 1887. He spent his career as a practicing attorney in Belvidere, Illinois, where he gained prominence in handling cases involving large property interests.
Davis and Biester became friends in high school.
