Manvel Humphrey Davis (April 7, 1891 – February 10, 1959) was a member of the

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

and

Missouri State Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 174,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two yea ...

. Davis, a Republican, challenged

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

in the 1940 election for re-election after the collapse of the big city machine of Truman's patron

Tom Pendergast Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1872 – January 26, 1945), also known as T. J. Pendergast, was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939. Pendergast only briefly held elected ...

. Truman had squeaked through the Democratic primary when his opponents Lloyd Stark and Maurice Milligan who had campaigned against Pendergast both entered the race splitting the anti-Pendergast vote (the two combined had more votes than Truman). During the General Election Truman was named

Grand Master (Masonic) A Grand Master is a title of honour as well as an office in Freemasonry, given to a freemason elected to oversee a Masonic jurisdiction, derived from the office of Grand Masters in chivalric orders. He presides over a Grand Lodge and has certa ...

of the

Grand Lodge A Grand Lodge (or Grand Orient or other similar title) is the overarching governing body of a fraternal or other similarly organized group in a given area, usually a city, state, or country. In Freemasonry A Grand Lodge or Grand Orient is the us ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

in Missouri in September 1940. Truman was to say later that the election to become Grand Master was to be the deciding factor in the election over Davis: :I had a Catholic friend in St. Louis by the name of James E. Wade. He attended a meeting

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Technologies, Here Television * Here TV (form ...

Davis made his usual charges. Forrest Donnell, who afterwards became epublicanGovernor and Senator, was speaking from the same platform. Donnell was just behind me in the Grand Lodge line and would be Grand Master in a year or two. :So Jim Wade went up to him . . . and asked him if I could be the low sort of fellow that Davis charged and still be Grand Master of Masons of Missouri. Mr. Donnell said: 'No, Jim, he could not.' That ruined Mr. Davis—I won by 276,000 votes (or just 51.2% of the vote to Manvel's 48.7%) The Wonderful Wastebasket – Time Magazine – March 24, 1952
/ref> Davis was born in

Greensburg, Kansas Greensburg is a city in, and the county seat of, Kiowa County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of the city was 740. It is home to the world's largest hand-dug well. On the evening of May 4, 2007, Greens ...

. He died in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

and is buried in Mount Washington Cemetery in Kansas City.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Manvel 1891 births 1959 deaths People from Greensburg, Kansas Republican Party Missouri state senators Republican Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives Pendergast era 20th-century American politicians