Other Events:

• Residence: (SETTLED, CA 1788), Harrison Co, (W)VA
• Residence: ORIGINALLY, Maryland

Joseph married Lucy BEALL. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Occupation: farmer, Harrison County Sheriff
• Census: 1880, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV

Lemuel married Mary R. MORRIS 16 Jan 1851, Harrison Co, (W)VA. [Group Sheet]

Lemuel married Martha Letitia MCCANN 12 Jun 1862, Harrison Co, (W)VA. Martha (daughter of James MCCANN and Achsah Jane PRICE) was born 9 Feb 1833, Virginia; died 18 Nov 1933, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1900 10 20 30 40, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Education: 2 years college
• Census: 1880, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV

Lillie married William Brent MAXWELL 10 Jul 1895, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. William (son of Franklin MAXWELL and Frances Jane REYNOLDS) was born 27 Apr 1850, Doddridge Co, (W)VA; died 10 Jun 1930, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Occupation: banker, cattleman

Hugh married Harriet "Hattie" MAXWELL 28 Feb 1900, Harrison Co, WV. Harriet (daughter of Porter MAXWELL and Columbia Virginia POST) was born 19 Mar 1877; died 21 Oct 1966, Harrison Co, WV; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1940, 131 W MAIN ST, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Occupation: Medical Doctor

Other Events:

• Residence: Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1900, 1910, 1920, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1940, Washington, DC

Ruth married Louis Arthur JOHNSON 7 Feb 1920, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. Louis (son of Marcellus A. JOHNSON and Kate LEFTWICH) was born 10 Jan 1891, Roanoke, VA; died 24 Apr 1966, Washington, DC; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1900 10 20 30 40, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Education: West Virginia University
• Occupation: Postmaster, Clarksburg Post Office
• Residence: Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Military: From 1917 to 1919; World War I - Ambulance Service in Europe (Italy, France, Germany, Belgium)

Notes:

Birth:
Birth date given as Nov 11 1897 in death record and SSDI, but 1900 Census (enumerated in Jun 1900) shows age as 1 and birth date as Nov 1898.

Frank married Clara Friend GIBSON 12 Oct 1920, Harrison Co, WV. Clara (daughter of Francis Sprigg GIBSON and Sevilla Shaffner FRIEND) was born 22 Oct 1898, Beaver Falls, Beaver Co, PA; died 14 Aug 1948, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1900 10 20 30 40, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Education: 5 years college
• Residence: 529 W. PIKE ST., Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV

William married Edith Marguerite WOODDELL 11 Nov 1938, Baltimore, MD. Edith (daughter of William Laurence WOODDELL and Marguerite A. MILLER) was born 6 May 1904, West Virginia; died 17 May 1965, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1910, 1920, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Residence: 1927, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1930, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV

Notes:

Died:
Newspaper article, "The Baltimore Sun," February 20, 1939, in its entirety:

BODY OF MRS. J. H. DAVIS IS RETURNED TO HER HOME
MEMBER OF PROMINENT CLARKSBURG FAMILY APPARENTLY LEAPT IN FRONT OF TRAIN
Clarksburg, W.Va., Feb. 19 (AP) - The body of Mrs. J. Horner Davis 2nd, 35-year-old member of a prominent Clarksburg family, who was killed by a train near Stockbridge, Mass., was returned to the home of her mother, Mrs. W. Brent Maxwell, where funeral services will be held tomorrow.
She apparently jumped in front of the train yesterday after skating near the Riggs Foundation, a private hospital, where she had been under treatment for a nervous disorder, reported Dr. George S. Wickham of Lee, Mass., medical examiner.
Mrs. Davis was the wife of Charleston attorney, who has served in the House of Delegates and was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Charleston four years ago.

Martha married James Hornor DAVIS, II 28 Sep 1927, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. James (son of Edward Rezin DAVIS and Garnett Amelia HORNOR) was born 29 Jan 1904, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; died 7 Aug 1963; was buried , Spring Hill Cemetery, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Residence: Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1930, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1940, Washington, DC

Other Events:

• Residence: New York City, NY
• Census: 1930, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1940, Washington, DC

Katherine married Ronald Farrow MOIST, Jr. 9 Jan 1943, Gallipolis, Gallia Co, OH; divorced 12 Jul 1944, Reno, Washoe Co, NV. Ronald (son of Ronald Farrow MOIST and Susan Elizabeth GILLIE) was born 4 Oct 1923, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV; died 10 Feb 1994, Georgia. [Group Sheet]

Katherine married Arthur Cheney Clifton HILL, Jr. 12 Apr 1946. Arthur was born 23 Mar 1903, Boston, MA; died Jul 1983; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Military: (ENLISTED 3/22/1943); U.S. Army, World War II (duty at Letterkenny, PA)
• Education: Harvard University (1946, A.B. cum laude in history & literature)
• Education: Harvard University (1949, L.L.B.)
• Education: Phillips Exeter Academy (boarding school in New Hampshire)
• Education: Washington Irving High School, Clarksburg
• Occupation: attorney (Steptoe & Johnson), title insurance
• Residence: Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Census: 1930, 1940, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Residence: 1942, Cambridge, Middlesex Co, MA
• Occupation: From 1951 to 1956; West Virginia House of Delegates
• Occupation: From 1972 to 1984; Clerk of the Harrison County Commission
• Occupation: From 1984 to 1992; Judge of the Circuit Court of Harrison County

Notes:

The Honorable Frank Jarvis Maxwell, Jr.
July 13, 1921 - December 12, 2017

The Honorable Frank Jarvis Maxwell, Jr, 96, passed away at his home in Clarksburg on December 12, 2017.

Judge Maxwell was born in Clarksburg on July 13, 1921. The older son of Frank Jarvis Maxwell and Clara Gibson Maxwell, he attended Washington Irving High School and Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1940 before going on to Harvard College and receiving an A.B. cum laude degree in History and Literature. Since his college studies were interrupted by the war, he completed part of his undergraduate coursework at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and, though a member of the class of 1944, his Harvard degree was not awarded until 1946.

Maxwell subsequently attended West Virginia University, where he joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, before enrolling in Harvard Law School, from which he received his L.L.B. degree in 1949. He was admitted to the West Virginia Bar Association that same year and became an associate of the Clarksburg office of the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson in 1950. He began his own title insurance practice in 1958.

Maxwell was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from Harrison County for two terms, from 1951 to 1956. He was delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1956 (Adlai Stevenson) and in 1972 (George McGovern). He served as Clerk of the Harrison County Commission for twelve years until his election as judge to the Circuit Court of Harrison County in 1984, an office he held until 1992.

He was a director of the Union National Bank and of its successor, Key Centurion Bankshares, from 1980 to 1988. A member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Elks, the Jaycees, the Civitan, and the American Legion, in 1983 he was chosen as the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival’s Honorary Italian Man of the Year.

Maxwell served as a founding member of the Cultural Foundation of Harrison Country. As a member of its board of trustees, Maxwell played a pivotal role in the construction of the Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library, both convincing the City Council of the need for a new building and of the hiring of the internationally renowned architectural firm of Marcel Breuer. Maxwell further served as a founding member of the Cultural Foundation of Harrison County. As President of the Concerned Citizens of Harrison County, Maxwell was an advocate on behalf of the environment, speaking out forcefully about the consequences of surface mining. He made a special public protest at the Charleston State Capital in 1972 when mining applications were being made for areas within Watters Smith State Park.

Along with his late wife, Susan Harnish Maxwell, the Judge was a great enthusiast of the arts, regularly attending classical music performances in Washington, D.C., New York, Pittsburgh as well as Sarasota, Florida, where he spent many of his more recent winters. He was particularly passionate about opera and could often be found listening to the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts on his Buckhannon Avenue home’s front patio. He credited his regular reading of opera libretti for keeping up his French, Italian, and German language skills, all of which he read and spoke with fluency.

While a soldier in the U.S. Army, Maxwell was stationed at Letterkenny, Pennsylvania. As a result of his foreign language aptitude, he was placed in charge of Italian prisoners of war. Among his duties was accompanying some of these prisoners on weekend visits to their American relatives in New Jersey and surrounding areas.

Despite his fluency in European languages, Judge Maxwell did not travel abroad until he was well into his forties. But in following years he and his wife made regular trips to England, France, Germany, Austria or Italy, all part of well-planned pilgrimages to various museums and “great houses” to see first-hand the art and architecture Maxwell had studied in school. As serious a tourist as he was a reader, his personal collection of literature and art books, along with his music recordings, was extensive.

As avid genealogist, Maxwell devoted a considerable part of his time to the care of his family’s business concerns, as had his late father. His great-grandfather, Franklin Maxwell, of Doddridge County, served as State Senator from 1881 to 1884. Another Doddridge County ancestor, Lewis Maxwell, served in the Virginia House of Delegates (before West Virginia had become an independent state), as well in the United States Congress from 1827-1833.

Judge Maxwell is survived by his brother, William B. Maxwell, III, of Charleston; two daughters, Clara Gibson Maxwell and Mary Maxwell Keller; a granddaughter, Saskia Maxwell Keller; two stepchildren, Michelle Gales Berry and Timothy William Gales; two step-granddaughters, Susan Gales and Kathleen Gales; and two great-step- grandchildren, Romeo Soto and Armani Gonzalez. He was lovingly cared for in his later years by Mary Katherine and Vickie Brown.

Family and friends may call at the Amos Carvelli Funeral Home 201 Edison Street, Nutter Fort on Monday, December 18, 2017 from 2:00 to 8:00 pm.
Funeral services will be held at Christ Episcopal Church, 123 S. 6th Street, Clarksburg on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 11:00 am with Reverend Nora Becker officiating. Interment will follow in the Elkview Masonic Cemetery.

Expressions of sympathy may be extended to the family at www.amoscarvelli.com. A service of Amos Carvelli Funeral Home.

http://amoscarvelli.com/funerals/obituaries/the-honorable-frank-jarvis-maxwell-jr/435/

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/renaissance-man-judge-frank-jarvis-maxwell-jr-dies-at-age/article_2ea01bba-b442-50e8-881b-c8bd2a715934.html

Education:
Caption with photo in the Class of 1944 section of the 1943 Harvard University yearbook, "The Harvard Class Album":
Frank Jarvis Maxwell, Jr.
Born July 13, 1921, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Prepared at Exeter. Home address: 355 Buckhannon Avenue, Clarksburg, West Virginia. Eliot House. Liberal Union (1-3). Field of concentration: History and Literature of England. Intended war service: Army. Intended permanent vocation: Law.

Frank married Susan Cone HARNISH 13 Jul 1957, Morgantown, Monongalia Co, WV. Susan (daughter of Douglas Henry HARNISH and Mary Humbird SMITH) was born 5 Nov 1923, Parkersburg, Wood Co, WV; died 2 May 1995; was buried , Elkview Masonic Cemetery, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Military: U.S. Navy Reserves, Norfolk Va., World War II
• Education: Harvard University (1950)
• Education: Phillips Exeter Academy (boarding school in New Hampshire) (1943)
• Education: Washington Irving Hight School, Clarksburg (one year)
• Education: West Virginia University (1952, L.L.B.)
• Education: West Virginia University (one year, 1943-44, Phi Kappa Psi)
• Occupation: attorney at Preston & Davis (13 yrs, chancery law)
• Occupation: attorney at Spilman, Thomas, Battle & Klostermeyer (real property)
• Occupation: deputy commissioner of Forfeited & Delinquent Lands (1963-79)
• Census: 1930, 1940, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Residence: 1943, Exeter, Rockingham Co, NH
• Residence: 1984, 2017, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV

Notes:

William Brent Maxwell, III
Date of Birth : June 02, 1925
Date of Death : November 30, 2018

William Brent Maxwell, III, 93, passed away November 30 at The Ridgemont at Edgewood Summit, following an extended illness. Born in Clarksburg, WV, June 2, 1925, he was the second son of Frank Jarvis Maxwell, Sr. and Clara Gibson Maxwell.

After one year at Clarksburg’s Washington Irving High School, Maxwell attended Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1943, Among his classmates at Exeter was the novelist John Knowles, author of the classic prep-school novel "A Separate Peace." Knowles, also a West Virginia native, would regularly ride with Maxwell on the train up to the New Hampshire school.

The journalist and editor George Plimpton was also a classmate and occasional dinner companion; both students smoked Camel cigarettes (which was allowed at the time), Plimpton being notorious for "bumming smokes" from friends and acquaintances, as Maxwell would later recall.

After one year at West Virginia University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, he transferred to Harvard College. In 1944, Maxwell was drafted. During World War II, he served in the Navy Reserve, working in Norfolk, Virginia on projects relating to the detection and neutralization of magnetic sea mines. His mother’s brother, Francis Gibson, was a Captain in the Navy, and Maxwell fondly remembered visiting with his uncle at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C.

Returning to Harvard in 1946, as an undergraduate Maxwell was suite-mate at Eliot House with the poet Frank O’Hara, and through O’Hara, become an acquaintance of the future illustrator and writer Edward Gorey, Both were memorable figures even as students, though Maxwell would remember “Ted” Gorey as especially eccentric, even then. Maxwell himself was a member of Harvard’s Hasty Puddiing, a college social club whose contemporaneous alumni included the actor Jack Lemmon and (by no coincidence) George Plimpton.

With a focus on American history and literature, Maxwell graduated with a degree in General Education in 1950.

As a result of his particular interest in the state’s legal and political history, Maxwell chose to attend West Virginia University’s College of Law, receiving his L.L.B. degree in 1952; that same year he was admitted to the state bar.

After working for his brother Frank J. Maxwell, Jr. as an attache to the West Virginia House of Delegates, he joined the practice of Preston & Davis, working there with a specialization in chancery law for thirteen years. When Preston & Davis dissolved, Maxwell joined Spilman, Thomas, Battle and Klostermeyer, where he headed the real property department. He served as deputy commissioner of Forfeited and Delinquent Lands in Kanawha County from 1963 to 1979 and as special commissioner for accounts for nearly the same period.

Maxwell’s love of history led him to write several publications which discussed the law firm’s early members; one about its founders was entitled, “Benjamin Harrison Smith and the Quieting of West Virginia’s Land Titles.” With “an encyclopedic memory for detail,” as noted in Spilman Thomas & Battle’s History of Service: The First 150 Years, his law partners rightly considered Maxwell the firm’s distinguished historian. He retired in 1989.

Other published essays and talks by Maxwell addressed the subject of West Virginia’s first European settlers. Articles such as “Two James Craiks and the Early History of the Kanawha Valley,” published in the West Virginia Historical Society Newsletter, explored the area’s early leaders and landowners.

He was a lifelong supporter of the arts, though he had a special enthusiasm for music. Following from its beginnings the singing career of fellow Clarksburg native Phyllis Curtin, while a college student he attended her first performances with the New England Opera under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky. Such experiences made him a life-long opera enthusiast. Maxwell would attend performances at the City Opera and Metropolitan Opera in New York City (where Curtin also sang); Glyndebourne, England; Vienna State Opera; as well as, in later years with his brother, the Sarasota Opera season.

Also on his trips to Europe, he paid visits to the ski slopes of Austria, Switzerland and France. Music and skiing also nicely overlapped at Snowshoe, where for many years he had a condominium apartment; this allowed him to enjoy alternating seasons of winter sports and the summer residency of the West Virginia Symphony. Also an avid squash and tennis player, he played on the Edgewood Country Club senior tennis team well into his late eighties.

As well as the West Virginia Symphony and Chamber Music Society, Maxwell was a supporter of the West Virginia Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council, At his alma mater, the West Virginia University College of Law, he endowed the William Brent Maxwell Scholarship as well as the William B. Maxwell III Oil and Gas Research Fund. He was inducted as a Dean’s Partner this past August.

Predeceased by his brother Frank only last year, he is survived by his nieces Clara Gibson Maxwell and Mary Maxwell Keller; his great-niece, Saskia Maxwell Keller; step-niece Michelle Gales Berry and step-nephew Timothy William Gales; as well his cousins William Maxwell Davis and James Hornor Davis, IV. Many other local and far-flung Maxwell relatives will long remember him for his kindness and generosity.

A member of St. John’s Episcopal Church congregation, his funeral will be held there on December 6 at 3pm. The Rev. Marquita L. Hutchens will officiate. St John’s is located at 1105 Lee Street E, in downtown Charleston.

Barlow Bonsall Funeral Home has been entrusted to handle the arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, a donation in his name may be made to HospiceCare,1606 Kanawha Blvd W., Charleston, WV 25387 or at: http://www.hospicecarewv.org/make-donation/

https://www.barlowbonsall.com/obituaries/william-brent-maxwell-iii/

Education:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Exeter_Academy

Other Events:

• Education: Princeton University (1950), University of Virginia Law School (1953)
• Residence: White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier Co, WV
• Residence: Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV
• Census: 1930, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV
• Residence: 1935, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV
• Census: 1940, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Military: From 1953 to 1955; Judge Advocate, US Air Force (2 yrs in mid-1950s)

Notes:

https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/james-hornor-davis-iii-%E2%80%9950

https://prabook.com/web/james_hornor_davis_.iii/915121

http://wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Text_HTML/2004_SESSIONS/RS/Bills/sr42%20intr.htm

Obituary:
Charleston Gazette (WV) - Saturday, March 6, 2004
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - James Hornor Davis III of White Sulphur Springs and Charleston died March 4, 2004, in Greenbrier Valley Medical Center, Fairlea.

He was a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School and was a member of the Order of the Coit and the Raven Society. He was admitted to the West Virginia Bar in 1953; served in the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1955; was staff judge advocate; a partner in Preston and Davis from 1953 to 1965, Spillman, Thomas, Battle & Klostermeyer from 1965 to 1986; counsel of Campbell, Wood, Bagley, Emerson, McNeer & Herndon from 1987 to 2003; a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1961 to 1962 and the West Virginia Senate from 1963 to 1966; president of Dingess-Rum Properties Inc. from 1987 to 2004; honorary trustee for Eastern Mineral Law Foundation; Coal Lawyer of the Year in 2002; a life member of the America Law Institute; a Fellow of the American Bar Association; chairman of the West Virginia Judiciary council from 1973 to 1981; president of the West Virginia Bar Association from 1985 to 1986; Kanawha County Bar Association; chairman of the National Council of Coal Lessors from 1980 to 2004; chairman of West Virginia Manufacturers Association from 1973 to 1975. He was a member and trustee of St. Matthews Episcopal Church.

Surviving are his wife of 54 years, Ouida Caldwell Davis; two sons and a daughter-in-law, James Horner IV and Frederica Davis of Charleston, Lewis Caldwell of Wilmington, Del.; one brother, William Maxwell Davis of Charleston; and five granddaughters.

Service will be 11 a.m. Monday, March 8, at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Charleston, with the Rev. Bill Thompson and the Rev. Keith Butler officiating. Burial will follow in St. Matthews Cemetery, Charleston.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hubbard Hospice Building Fund, c/o Kanawha Hospice Care, 1143 Dunbar Ave., Dunbar, WV 25064; Greenbrier Valley Theater, P.O. Box 494, Lewisburg, WV 24901; or Carnegie Hall, 105 Church St., Lewisburg, WV 24901.

Wilson Funeral Home, 420 Lee St. W, Charleston, is in charge of arrangements.

Charleston Gazette () , obit for James Hornor Davis III, GenealogyBank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/1013BF83C397DDA3-1013BF83C397DDA3 : accessed 2 February 2018)

https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/1013BF83C397DDA3-1013BF83C397DDA3?h=5&fname=james&lname=davis&fullname=&rgfromDate=&rgtoDate=&formDate=2004&formDateFlex=exact&dateType=date&kwinc=&kwexc=

Census:
In household of paternal grandmother, Garnett (Hornor) Davis.

James married Ouida Smith CALDWELL 1 Jul 1950, Kanawha Co, WV. Ouida was born 3 May 1928, Huntington, Cabell Co, WV; died 14 Dec 2014, White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier Co, WV. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Military: U.S. Army (overseas)
• Education: Lawrenceville School (New Jersey), Princeton University (1953)
• Occupation: Bank of West Virginia (president, retired 1979)
• Occupation: West Virginia Commission on the Arts (1968-2004)
• Residence: 1935, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV
• Census: 1940, Clarksburg, Harrison Co, WV
• Residence: 2004, Charleston, Kanawha Co, WV

Notes:

Obituary
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- William Maxwell Davis, age 89, died peacefully at his home in Charleston, WV, on July 2, 2021. Mr. Davis was born in Charleston, WV, on March 21, 1932, the son of the late James Hornor Davis II and the late Martha Davis.

He was preceded in death by his only brother, James Hornor Davis III; his sister-in-law Ouida Caldwell Davis and his step-mother, Eolyne Davis. He was the last of the 11 grandchildren of William Brent Maxwell of Harrison County WV.

He received his early education in Clarksburg and Charleston public schools and was a graduate of the Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ and Princeton University. His entire business career was spent with the Bank of West Virginia, where he stepped down as president in 1979. In it, he followed a several generation of banking leadership. He was a world traveler and some of his earliest trips included the World's Fair in 1939 and the opening of the Olympic Games in Helsinki. He also served overseas in the U.S. Army. He twice served as the head of the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, appointed by the governor in 1968 a year after the commission's founding. He remained on through 2004. He also served on the foundation board of the Kanawha County Public Library and was eager to see the renovation through, which he hoped would be quite welcoming to all. His vast philanthropic interests included the Clay Center for Arts and Education (formerly Sunrise Museums), various music organizations - Chamber Music and WV Symphony, the University of Charleston of which he once served as acting president, The Historic Glenwood House Foundation for which he was serving his 41st year as president, WVU, his schools Princeton and Lawrenceville and many auto related museums and his church. Retiring early from his banking career, he dedicated much time to serving on the boards of various non profits across a broad array of interests throughout his state and the country.

A passionate automobile enthusiast from his very early days, he often recalled childhood events (and throughout his life) by the car that was involved. He was also among memberships and roles in a dozen different auto clubs, especially active with the Classic Car Club, the Classic Car Club of America Museum and the Rolls Royce Owners Club and Foundation and served as national president of all and judged the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance for over 30 years. He was the oldest continuous American member of the UK based 20-Ghost Club the oldest Rolls Royce auto club in the world and his cars often won best in class. An especially memorable event among many was his delight in taking an American built 1928 Rolls Royce Springfield (MA) roadster with left hand drive to England for a tour- creating some sensation on both continents, including New York Times photo coverage of it boarding the QEII for his Atlantic crossing.

Mr. Davis is survived by his nephew, James Hornor Davis IV (William Hague); his niece, Frederica Davis; his five great nieces: Frederica Morgan Davis, Faith Maxwell Davis Iselin (Alex), Tilden Davis Arnold (Alex), Warren Davis and Baird Davis.

He was predeceased by his nephew, Lewis Caldwell Davis. He cherished his ongoing contact with Caldwell's longtime partner, Beth Secor. He took great pride in them and their generations. He will be remembered for his great charm and for his genuine devotion to West Virginia, his community and his family -- and for his bowties.

In Charleston WV, visitation will be from 4 - 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 7 at Bollinger Funeral Home, 420 Lee Street West. The memorial service will be Thursday at 1 p.m. July 8, at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 36 Norwood Road, Charleston, WV 25314.
Persons desiring to make memorials should make them to the charity of their choice.

Exponent Telegram (Clarksburg, WV) - July 6, 2021
https://www.wvnews.com/theet/obituaries/william-maxwell-davis/article_088f6dc5-1c5b-5cb6-83b0-73214eb1fb77.html

https://www.dominionpost.com/2021/07/06/william-davis-2/
https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/william-maxwell-davis-53
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/365222-the-hobby-has-lost-a-true-iconwilliam-maxwell-davis/

Education:
At Princeton, he joined Tiger Inn, majored in history, and wrote his thesis on "The Growth of Manufacturers and Railways in the South: 1840-1860."
https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/william-maxwell-davis-53

Census:
In household of paternal grandmother, Garnett (Hornor) Davis.