Biography

Horace Davis is the son of Gov. John and Eliza Davis--he graduated from Harvard in 1849 and then moved to San Francisco in 1852, taking control of the Golden Gate Flouring Mills in 1860. For ten years, from 1866-1876, Davis was the President of the Produce Exchange of San Francisco. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1877 and represented California's 1st District until 1888. "In 1888 he was appointed the sixth President of the University of California in Berkeley until his resignation in 1890." From 1885 until his death in 1916, he was president of the board of trustees of Stanford University.
Horace married Lavinia Smith Macondray Davis and they had one child together, who died at 3 months. Lavinia died in 1872, and Davis got remarried to Edith Sawyer King Davis sometime before 1876, when their daughter was born.