Читать книгу History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, Volume 2: Biographical - George Curtis Waldo jr. - Страница 11

Daniel Davenport was born at Wilton, Connecticut, January 13, 1852, the son of George A. and Mary (Sturges) Davenport. He is a direct descendant of the Rev. John Davenport, founder of New Haven colony, of the Rev. Abraham Pierson, the founder of Newark New Jersey, and of Major Nathan Gold, of Fairfield, Connecticut, one of the petitioners for the Connecticut Charter, 1662. His grandfather, Nathan Davenport, born in New Canaan, Connecticut, August 8, 1768, was educated in the public schools there, married Mary Smith, sister of the Rev. Daniel Smith, of Stamford, Connecticut, and became the proprietor of a fulling mill at Wilton, Connecticut, where he resided until his death in 1816. Their son, George A. Davenport, was born at Wilton, Connecticut, January 31, 1808, was educated at Wilton Academy and Staples Academy in Easton and received his legal education at Yale Law School. He was for a time state's attorney for Fairfield county and practiced law at Norwalk, Connecticut, as partner of Chief Justice Butler until the latter's elevation to the bench. For more than thirty years and until he was constitutionally disqualified for the office at the age of seventy he was the judge of probate for the district of Norwalk. Although what was known as a war democrat, he was usually nominated for that office by both parties, and notwithstanding his activity in politics was never defeated. His studious habits remained with him until his death. When past eighty years of age, he began and successfully prosecuted the study of Hebrew. He married Mary, daughter of Erastus Sturges, of Wilton, Connecticut, the member from Wilton of the constitutional convention of the state of 1818, member for very many sessions of the state legislature from that town, selectman and trial justice of the town and a very prominent and active supporter of the democratic party of which he was a lifelong member.

To Mr. and Mrs. George A. Davenport were born six children, five of whom are still living: Mrs. Mary A. White, born in 1844; Julia Abigail, who was born in 1847 and died in 1890; Benjamin, born January 20, 1850, and now a practicing lawyer in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Daniel, the subject of this sketch; Timothy, born February 8, 1854, now a member of the bar of New York city; and Sarah L., who was born October 31, 1856, and now resides at Wilton, Connecticut.

Daniel Davenport was educated at Wilton Academy and at Yale College, where he was graduated in the class of 1873. He read law with Judge Asa B. Woodward and Judge John H. Perry, of Norwalk, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar of Fairfield county on September 24, 1875, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he has ever since resided and practiced law. Before he was admitted to the bar, he was elected a member of the general assembly from the town of Wilton. The following year he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the city of Bridgeport, which office he held for one year. In 1893 he was chosen city attorney for Bridgeport, which office he held for two years. He was the delegate from the town of Bridgeport to the state constitutional convention of 1902. Though reared a democrat and always voting that ticket until 1896, he has been an independent in politics ever since.

Mr. Davenport has practiced extensively before the state and federal courts of Connecticut and other states, in the supreme court of the District of Columbia and the United States supreme court at Washington. In 1903, he instituted in the federal courts the suit of Loewe & Company vs. Lawlor, et als., known as the Danbury Hatters' case, which established the individual responsibility under the Sherman anti-trust act of the members of labor unions for the inter-state boycotting acts of their officers, and conducted the case to its close in 1917. He also instituted in the supreme court of the District of Columbia the suit of The Buck Stove & Range Company vs. The American Federation of Labor to restrain the activities of that organization in conducting a nation-wide boycott against the plaintiff, and also the subsequent contempt proceedings against Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison for disobeying the injunction issued in that case, and conducted all that litigation to its close. He was also counsel for the plaintiffs in the United States supreme court in the suit of the Paine Lumber Company, et als. vs. The Brotherhood of Carpenters of America, which determined the liability of labor unions under the Clayton anti-trust act for inter-state boycotting. He has been for twelve years the general counsel of the American Anti-Boycott Association, in charge of the legal work of that organization, and has represented them before the Congressional committees at Washington in opposition to anti-injunction legislation. He is a member of the American Bar Association and of the Connecticut State Bar Association.

Mr. Davenport married Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Lockwood) Jones, of New York, daughter of William and Sophia (Halsey) Lockwood, of New York city. They have one daughter, Mrs. Beatrice D. Emmons, of Schenectady, New York, who has one son, Nathaniel Davenport Emmons, born February 2, 1916.

Mr. Davenport belongs to the Brooklawn Country Club and the University Club, of Bridgeport.