It is always pleasant to write of men who have been successful in life by virtue of their own industry, energy and perseverance, who started poor and comparatively friendless, and have won for themselves a competent and honorable standing among their fellow men. Jacob A. Davy was born on the 26th day of October, 1854, in Delaware county, Ohio. In 1861 his parents moved to Mt. Vernon, Knox county, where they remained seven years. In 1868 they came to Miami county and located on a farm in Elizabeth township. The father, Henry D. Davy, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1811, and died in September, 1895, at the ripe old age of eight-four years. He was of English ancestry. His father emigrated to Philadelphia in 1806. Henry D. Davy was a prominent minister of the German Baptist church, and chairman of the executive committee and moderator of the annual conference for twenty years. His wife, the mother of our subject, was Catharine Bosteter, who was born near Frederick City, Maryland, in 1821. She was married to Henry D. Davy on November 17, 1850, and died in February, 1896. They reared ten children, all living; four of their sons were in the army of the Union in the late rebellion.

While living in Mt. Vernon, Jacob A. Davy attended the public schools in that city, and when he removed to Miami county he attended the country schools in the winter and worked on the farm in the spring, summer and Autumn. After attaining his majority he followed farming as an occupation until he commenced the study of law, in Troy, on the 19th day of August, 1879, in the office of Theodore Sullivan, at present circuit judge, and M. B. Earnhart, who is now police judge in the city of Columbus. He afterward attended the Cincinnati Law School and was graduated there in the class of 1881.

In March, 1882, Mr. Davy opened a law office in Troy, has devoted himself to the profession of law up to the present date, and now has a lucrative and growing practice. In the early years of his practice, being conscious of the defects of his early education, he took a literary and scientific course of reading, during which he regularly recited to a gentleman noted for his attainments as a scholar. It is needless to say that such a course added to his qualifications as a lawyer, and to his reputation as a cultured, educated gentleman, and he now has in his home a fine selected library of law books, also a good library of literary books. As a practitioner he is devoted to the cause of his clients, watchful of their interests, and always prepares his cases well for the court and jury.

He is an earnest Republican, but never an office-seeker. In 1892 he was chairman of the Republican central committee, and largely as a result of his energy and good judgment, Miami county gave a majority of eight hundred and thirty-nine for Benjamin Harrison, notwithstanding the strange and remarkable political change that made 1892 noted in the political history of this republic. One of the leading papers of Troy paid him this handsome compliment: "Harrison's majority over Cleveland is eight hundred and thirty- nine. Under the circumstances this is a handsome, majority for old Miami, and in itself is an eulogy for the faithful and able work of the central committee and its efficient chairman. When we consider the failure, the signal and disastrous failure, of almost every county of the state to bring out the Republican strength, it must be conceded that Miami is second to none in the ability, vim and vigor of her Republican hustlers."

J. A. Davy was married, in Piqua, Ohio, on the 4th day of February, 1886, to Miss Gertrude Edith Mitchell, who was born near Fletcher, this county, in 1864. Her father, John Mitchell, is a retired farmer and capitalist, who was born December 25, 1822, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, and by his industry has accumulated a handsome competency. He has three hundred and twenty-nine acres of land in this county, and a large amount of personal property. He was married to Miss Henrietta Simmons, in Fletcher in 1855. She was a daughter of William T. and Margaret Simmons. Mr. John Mitchell and wife have but two children living: Mrs. Mary E. Spencer, of Piqua, Ohio, and Mrs. Gertrude E. Davy.

Mrs. Davy is an accomplished lady and a prominent and cultured musician. She has a clear, sweet, soprano voice, trained under the able instruction of Professor Blumenschine, Dayton, Ohio, and other prominent teachers of music. Mr. Davy is now in the prime of manhood, and has before him a pleasant and prosperous future. The past has had its dark days, but with his energy and perseverance he has outridden the storm and is now living in the sunshine of prosperity. He is professionally and financially responsible for all that he undertakes.