Davis, John Wesley (16 April 1799–22 August 1859), physician and Indiana legislator, was born in New Holland, Pennsylvania, the son of the Reverend John Davis and Margaret Jones. The family later moved to Cumberland County, near Shippensburg, where John worked on the family farm, had brief apprenticeships with a clockmaker and a storekeeper, and then began the study of medicine in the office of George D. Fouke of Carlisle. As part of his medical study, Davis attended medical lectures at the University of Maryland in Baltimore during the winters of 1819–1820 and 1820–1821. In the fall of 1820 he married Ann Hoover of Shippensburg, with whom he had ten children. After graduating from medical school in April 1821, Davis began practicing medicine in Pennsylvania and then in Maryland, but he realized only a modest return. In 1823 he moved to Carlisle, Indiana, where he established a successful medical practice and soon entered public life....
