Romanzo E. Davis

Romanzo Davis was born on April 8, 1831, in Varysburg, New York. He was raised and educated there, and moved to Attica in Green County, Wisconsin Territory, in 1846 with his parents. He attended the University of Wisconsin for three years, graduating in 1851,{{cite news |title=Riley |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55392076/romanzo-e-davis-1831-1908/ |newspaper=Wisconsin State Journal |date=May 13, 1908 |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate=July 15, 2020}} {{Open access}} and then later spent some time in business in Cole County, Missouri. He returned to Wisconsin in 1861, first to Cross Plains, where he became a farmer and grain merchant. He moved to Middleton in 1856, becoming active in the shipping of produce and grain from 1863 to 1873.

Davis was an unsuccessful independent candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1864, running in what was then Dane County's 3rd Assembly district.

In 1869 he was elected as a Republican to the Senate's 26th District (the Dane County Towns of Berry, Black Earth, Blue Mounds, Cross Plains, Dane, Fitchburg, Maxomanie, Middleton, Montrose, Perry, Primrose, Roxbury, Springdale, Verona, Vermont and Westport). He was re-elected in 1871. In 1873 he changed his affiliation to Liberal Republican, and was re-elected with 2,019 votes to 1,668 for Republican Assemblyman Phineas Baldwin. He was re-elected once more in 1875 as a member of the Liberal Reform Party, a short-lived coalition of Democratic, reform and Liberal Republicans, and Grangers, receiving 2,662 votes against 1,667 for Republican Assemblyman Sereno W. Graves.

In 1877, Davis was the Democratic nominee (the Liberal Reform coalition having collapsed) for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, but lost his race (although he did better than any other Democratic candidate for state office) to James M. Bingham.{{cite report|url= https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Z2BBQ7OUYLAX78W |title= Wisconsin Blue Book |year= 1878 |publisher= State of Wisconsin |chapter= Official Directory |page= [https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A5I72MHGLI4VMO8O/full/AFH5PUUG2E6IN28A 453] |accessdate= July 10, 2022 }} The next year, he was the Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district.{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=124510|title=Davis, Romanzo E.|publisher=Our Campaigns.com|accessdate=2013-10-19}} He lost to incumbent Lucien B. Caswell, a Republican, who polled 12,607 votes to Davis' 9502 and Greenback Horace A. Tenney's 2,376 (Tenney was a former Republican Assemblyman). He was succeeded in the Senate by Matthew Anderson, also a Democrat.

He also served on the board of trustees for the Wisconsin Hospital for the Insane through April 1879.

Davis opened a general store in Middleton in 1879, which he operated until retiring in 1887. He was active in the International Order of Odd Fellows and as a Freemason. Davis died in 1908 and is buried in Middleton.

{{Election box begin | title= Wisconsin Lieutenant Gubernatorial Election, 1877}}

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 6, 1877

{{Election box winning candidate with party link|

|party = Republican Party (United States)

|candidate = James M. Bingham

|votes = 77,926

|percentage = 43.12%

|change = -5.84%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Romanzo E. Davis

|votes = 74,656

|percentage = 41.31%

|change = -8.34%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Greenback Party

|candidate = E. H. Benton

|votes = 25,745

|percentage = 14.25%

|change =

}}

{{Election box plurality

|votes = 3,270

|percentage = 1.81%

|change = +1.11%

}}

{{Election box total

|votes = 180,720

|percentage = 100.0%

|change = +5.03%

}}

{{Election box gain with party link no swing|

|winner = Republican Party (United States)

|loser = Democratic Party (United States)

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin | title= Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District Election, 1878{{cite report|url= http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.WIBlueBk1879 |title= The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin |year= 1879 |publisher= State of Wisconsin |editor-last= Warner |editor-first= Hans B. |chapter-url= http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.WIBlueBk1879 |chapter= Biographical Sketches |page= 472 |accessdate= May 29, 2022 }}}}

| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, November 5, 1878

{{Election box winning candidate with party link|

|party = Republican Party (United States)

|candidate = Lucien B. Caswell (incumbent)

|votes = 12,607

|percentage = 51.49%

|change = +1.02%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Romanzo E. Davis

|votes = 9,502

|percentage = 38.81%

|change = -10.72%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Greenback Party

|candidate = Horace A. Tenney

|votes = 2,376

|percentage = 9.70%

|change =

}}

{{Election box plurality

|votes = 3,105

|percentage = 12.68%

|change = +11.74%

}}

{{Election box total

|votes = 24,485

|percentage = 100.0%

|change = +113.67%

}}

{{Election box hold with party link no swing|

|winner = Republican Party (United States)

}}

{{Election box end}}

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• {{Find a Grave|20334691}}

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{{s-ttl|title = Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin |years = 1877 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Romanzo}}

Category:1831 births

Category:1908 deaths

Category:Farmers from Wisconsin

Category:Businesspeople from Wisconsin

Category:People from Cole County, Missouri

Category:People from Middleton, Wisconsin

Category:Politicians from Dane County, Wisconsin

Category:People from Wyoming County, New York

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Wisconsin Liberal Republicans

Category:Wisconsin state senators

Category:Wisconsin Reformers (19th century)

Category:Wisconsin Republicans

Category:Wisconsin independents

Category:Wisconsin Democrats

Category:People from Green County, Wisconsin

Category:19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature