SHSND Home > Archives > Archives Holdings > Archives & Manuscripts > Politics/Government > 11274
To schedule an appointment, please contact us at 701.328.2091 or archives@nd.gov.

OCLC WorldCat Logo

SHSND Photobook - Digitized images from State Archives

Digital Horizons

2019-2021 Blue Book Cover

Federal Depository Library Program

Chronicling America

Manuscripts by Subject - Politics / Government- #11274

Title:  John E. Davis        

Dates: 1955-1976

Collection Number: 11274

Quantity: 7 feet
 
Abstract:  Consists of ten scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings and photographs of John E. Davis's time campaigning for governor of North Dakota (1955-1956), his time as the National Commander of the American Legion (1966-1967), and as the Civil Defense Chief (1969-1976). Also included in the collection are three 16mm films. The films contain footage of American governors in the Soviet Union, a tour of South Vietnam, and the Lawrence Welk Show. John E. Davis served as governor of North Dakota for two terms from 1957-1961.

Provenance: John Davis, son of John E. Davis, donated the collection to the State Historical Society on October 13, 2015

Property rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.

Copyrights: Copyrights of the Burleigh F. Spalding Papers have been dedicated to the public. Consideration of all other copyrights is the responsibility of the author and publisher.

Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

John E. Davis, Republican governor of North Dakota from 1957 to 1961 died in Rancho Mirage, CA in 1990 at the age of 77. 

Davis, a highly decorated U.S. Army veteran of World War II, also parlayed interests in politics and national defense into stints as the National Commander of the America Legion and Director of the Civil Defense Preparedness Agency.

Davis was born April 18, 1913 in Minneapolis to James Elsworth and Helen Wilson Davis.  He grew up in North Dakota, attending schools in Goodrich, Fargo, and Bismarck and graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1935 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
 
He served in the U.S. Army from 1940-45, receiving the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.  As a combat infantryman in the European Theater during World War II, he earned four battle stars.

At the end of the war, Davis returned to North Dakota and entered the political arena.  He served as mayor of McClusky from 1948-56 and was a state senator from Kidder and Sheridan counties from 1952-56.

In 1956, Davis, a political conservative, defeated Democrat Wallace Warner and became governor of North Dakota, an office he held from two two-year terms. During his second term as governor, in February 1960, he declared himself a candidate for the U.S. Senate, to fill out 4.5 years of the late Sen. William Langer’s unexpired term.

The Republican Party endorsed Davis from the senatorial seat in March 1960.  His Democratic opponent, then Rep. Quentin Burdick, defeated Davis by fewer than 1,000 votes in a special election in June 1960.

In November 1960, Davis announced he planned to live in Bismarck and continue his connection with the banking industry as president of First National Bank in McClusky.  He also planned to continue ranching on a 5,000-acre spread near Goodrich.

But his interest in politics, and desire for a seat in the U.S. Senate, had not waned.  In 1962, Davis unanimously elected chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party, and in January 1964 he announced that he would seek the party’s endorsement for the U.S. senate, an endorsement he did not win.

Three years later, in May 1965, Davis entered another kind of politics when a campaign as North Dakota’s candidate for national American Legion commander.

At the time, he was serving as chairman of the Legion’s National Security Commission and was a past commander of the North Dakota American Legion (1947-48).

In September 1966, Davis was elected national American Legion commander, a post he used to air his conservative view on the Vietnam War and his distaste for anti-Vietnam demonstrators.
In October 1966, Davis declared at a press conference in Bismarck that the U.S. should intensify its war against the North Vietnamese.

“This is where we disagree with the president,” Davis said. “If you are going to win you have to break their will. We should use our conventional weapons to a greater extent.”
At the end of 1966, he made a month-long tour of U.S. military bases in Vietnam, and in April 1967, Davis blasted Vietnam War protestors, saying that by demonstrating against the war, they were jeopardizing their own right to dissent.

A Davis-for-Governor committee was formed in January 1968 to promote Davis’ candidacy, but in June 1968 he announced he was “not a serious candidate” for the Republican endorsement. Instead, he served as chairman of North Dakota’s Citizens for Nixon Committee during the 1968 campaign.

His Republican loyalty was rewarded in May 1969, when he was named national Civil Defense director in the Nixon administration.  Three years later, he was named by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird as the first director of the newly created Civil Defense Preparedness Agency, a post he held for eight years.

When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, Davis lost his job and returned to North Dakota to operate the family ranch and resume his presidency of First National Bank in McClusky. In 1978, he received the Great North Dakota Award from the Greater North Dakota Association.
Davis’s interest in veterans’ affairs remained strong. In 1988, he served as chairman of the Veterans Memorial Association, which spearheaded the construction of the All Veterans Centennial Memorial Monument on the state Capitol groups in Bismarck.

John Davis was married to his first wife, Pauline from 1938-1978.  They had two sons, John and Richard, and a daughter, Kathleen.  He married Marilyn R. Westlie in 1980.

Source: The Forum, May 13, 1990.

INVENTORY

Scrapbook: Campaign for governor, 1955-1956
Scrapbook: National Commander of the American Legion, January 1966 – May 1966
Scrapbook: National Commander of the American Legion, June 1966 – September 1966
Scrapbook: National Commander of the American Legion, August 1966 – January 1967
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, May 1969 – June 1970
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, June 1971 – June 1972
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, August 1972 – October 1973
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, May 1974 – August 1975
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, 1976
Scrapbook: Director of Civil Defense, 1976

MOVING IMAGE INVENTORY

10274-00001        American Governors in the Soviet Union, 1959
10274-00002        John Davis, Commander of American Legion, visits South Vietnam, ca. 1966-1967
10274-00003        Lawrence Welk Show.  John and Pauline Davis in audience, Mrs. Davis sung to. NDSU segment; Legion award; Welk homestead/song of ND, January 7, 1967

Address:
612 East Boulevard Ave.
Bismarck, North Dakota 58505
Get Directions

Hours:
State Museum and Store: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
We are closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.
State Archives: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F, except state holidays; 2nd Sat. of each month, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Appointments are recommended. To schedule an appointment, please contact us at 701.328.2091 or archives@nd.gov.
State Historical Society offices: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F, except state holidays.

Contact Us:
phone: 701.328.2666
email: history@nd.gov

Social Media:
See all social media accounts