David Williamson Nevin was an American politician from Easton, Pennsylvania, who served as the city's mayor and is considered to be "Easton’s greatest citizen". Early life Nevin was born on September 9, 1853, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, to a farmer, Samuel Williamson Nevin and his wife Harriet Macomb Née Balch. He had an older brother, Joseph Pierce Nevin a physician, a younger sister Anna Mary Nevin and a younger brother George Balch Nevin, a composer. When he was 10 years old his father took him to Gettysburg where he heard the Gettysburg Address. His uncle, David Robert Bruce Nevin was a major in the Union Army and later an attorney from Philadelphia. Nevin went to study law at Lafayette College however, while he was studying he was nearly killed by Tuberculosis in 1872. This near death experience played a key role in the remainder of Nevin's life as he would be described as full of energy, boundless, and never took anything for granted. Career Early legal career Following his belated graduation in 1875 Nevin worked for a city attorney for two years before passing the Northampton County bar and opening his own law firm in 1877. That year he would also run for Northampton County district attorney, but would lose the election. Real estate development In 1887, Nevin's "butter and egg man" a local farmer named John Mann, who delivered produce to Nevin every Friday afternoon, was asked if he would be willing to sell his farm to Nevin on behalf of his uncle from Philadelphia, D.R.B. Nevin. Mann agreed citing the rising taxes which where threatening to put him out of business. Shortly after the sale was closed the Lafayette Traction Company, of which David was a principle shareholder, built the first electric trolley line up College hill in 1888. This came despite resistance from the city's influential Republicans who sought to preserve the rural nature of the area. Shortly after Nevin constructed an inn on Mann's former property on the summit of Weygadt Mountain named the Paxinosa Inn at the price of $100,000 in 1889 (roughly $34,500,000 in 2023). The inn was named after Chief Paxinosa of the Shawnee Indians who was pivotal in the ratification of the 1757 Indian treaty. Shortly after in 1890 Nevin began developing the area around his inn into luxury villas and a neighborhood known as "Paxinosa Heights", the district is still intact today