Virginia, where he resumed banking and coal mining. Davis’ company now controlled , employed 1,600 men of sixteen nationalities, operated two power plants, and worked over 1,000 coke ovens and 9 mines within one mile (1.6 km) of the central office at Coketon in Tucker County. By 1892, the Davis Coal and Coke Company, a partnership between Davis and his son-in-law, Senator Stephen Benton Elkins, was among the largest coal companies in the world. Davis represented the U.S. at the Pan-American Conferences of 1889 and 1901. Candidate for Vice President In 1904, Davis became the Democratic nominee for vice president on a ticket with Alton B. Parker. Parker and Davis lost to the Republican ticket of Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Fairbanks by a wide margin. At the age of 80, Davis was and remains the oldest person to be nominated for president or vice president on a major party ticket. He was chosen primarily because of his ability to provide much needed funds to the campaign. Later years Davis in his last years acted as chairman of the permanent Pan American Railway Committee (1901–1916) and also donated land to build Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. He died in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 1916, at the age of 92. He was interred in the Maplewood Cemetery in Elkins. A bronze equestrian statue of Davis was erected in 1927, at Sycamore Street and Randolph Avenue in Elkins, with an identical twin in Davis Park in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. Legacy Davis and Elkins College, in Elkins, WV; named for Senators Davis and Elkins Graceland (Elkins, West Virginia); the summer home for Davis and a National Historic Landmark Henry Gassaway Davis House; Davis' home at Piedmont, West Virginia, built in 1871 He is the namesake of the town of Gassaway, West Virginia He is the namesake for Davis, West Virginia External Links The West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University houses the papers of Henry G. Davis in three collections, A&M 13, A&M 717, and A&M 1028 References Further reading Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia and the Captains of Industry (1976) Williams, John Alexander. "Davis and Elkins of West Virginia: businessmen in politics" (PhD dissertation, Yale University, 1967) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1967. 6708432. |- |- 1823 births 1916 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives American energy industry executives American people of Welsh descent Burials in West Virginia