Cushman K. Davis, born in Henderson, N.Y., graduated from the University of Michigan in 1857, studied law and began practice in Waukesha, Wis., at the beginning of the Civil War. He was promoted to assistant general on the staff of General practice of law in St. Paul, and was appointed to the Minnesota Attorney General's office in 1867, and in 1868, to the United States Attorney's office in Minnesota. He was elected Governor of the State on the Re-partitioning ticket in 1873, and again in 1893.