Wyoming has reason to be proud of the high rank of her bench and bar. Her attorneys, well trained, have on the whole maintained high professional standards and their ability would enable them to cross swords in forensic combat with the ablest lawyers in any section of the country. Moreover, this is a profession in which advancement must depend upon individual merit, and that David Allen Reavill has steadily advanced is due to his comprehensive knowledge of the law and ability to accurately apply its principles to the points in litigation.
    He was born in Flat Rock, Illinois, May 11, 1865, a son of A. J. and Martha A. (Seaney) Reavill. The father was likewise born in Illinois and was of French descent. The grandfather was David Reavill, a descendant of a French soldier who came with Marquis de Lafayette to America to aid the colonists in their struggle for independence. Pleased with the country and its prospects, he took up his abode in Delaware and his descendants have since been loyal and patriotic citizens of the republic which their ancestor aided in establishing. A. J. Reavill became a successful stock man and farmer of Illinois, where he resided throughout his entire life, passing away at Flat Rock on the 13^th of March, 1898. at the age of sixty-four years. In politics he was a stanch democrat and figured as one of the leaders of his party in the state, and for twelve years he represented his district in the house of representatives and in the senate of the general assembly of Illinois. He was one of the active workers who placed John M. Palmer in the United States senate. He was also a prominent representative of Masonry in early life, taking a helpful part in promoting the interests of the craft. His wife was a native of Crawford, Illinois, and a daughter of John A. Seaney, who became one of the early settlers of Crawford county, where he took up his abode about 1817, the year before the admission of the state into the Union. The maternal ancestors came from North Carolina and were of Irish lineage. The death of IMrs. A. J. Reavill occurred in the old home in Illinois in 1903, when she had reached the age of sixty-five years. She had become the mother of nine children, five of whom are still living, namely: John D., a resident farmer of Crawford county, Illinois; Charles McClellan, who also follows farming in that county; David A., of this review; Palmer Seymour, who is living in St. Louis, Missouri, and is now connected with the Brown Shoe Company but was formerly engaged in the practice of law; and Dora, the wife of Professor Melville T. Cook, professor of biology in Hanover University at New Brunswick, New Jersey.
    David Allen Reavill was educated in the district schools near Flat Rock, Illinois, and spent two years in the preparatory department and four years in the collegiate department of De Pauw University at Greencastle. Indiana, from which he was graduated in 1887, winning the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Philosophy. He afterward took up the study of law in the office of Ex-Governor Palmer of Illinois, of whom his father was a warm personal friend. For a vear he continued his reading under Governor Palmer at Springfield and for a similar period was a student in the law school of the State University of Michigan, after which he was admitted to the bar in Wyoming in 1889 and entered upon active practice at Rock Springs, where he has since actively followed his profession save for a period of four years, from 1893 until 1897, when he was a resident of Logan, Utah, where he engaged in law practice. He first came to Rock Springs, January 19, 1889, and with the exception of the interval indicated has been continuously identified with the work of the courts. His clientage is extensive and of an important character and he has been connected with many of the leading cases which have been tried in this section of the state. He prepares his cases with great thoroughness, never failing to give a careful study of every question relative to the points in litigation, and his presentation of his cause is always strong, logical and convincing. His arguments never fail to impress court and jury and seldom fail to gain the verdict desired.
    On the 14th of January. 1892, Mr. Reavill was married in Robinson, Illinois, to Aliss Claudia Olwin, a native of that state and a daughter of Judge Jacob C. and Anna Olwin, both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Reavill have become parents of two children: Tobey Olwin, born in Robinson, Illinois, September 29, 1892, a graduate of Harvard College, in 1916; and Robb Afton, born in Logan, Utah, November 30, 1893. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1918.
    Politically Mr. Reavill is an earnest democrat and has taken an active part in politics, greatly desiring the success of his party because of his firm belief in its principles as factors in good government. He stands for all those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride and has cooperated in many movements which have been of great benefit to the community. He served as city attorney of Logan, Utah, for two years, has been city attorney of Rock Springs and was county attorney for Sweetwater county for three terms, covering a period of six years. In 1899 he served for a short term as state senator from Sweetwater county but was unseated on contest. He belongs to the Phi Kappa Psi and he is identified with the Wyoming State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. In his profession he has made a most creditable record, holding to high standards, careful at all times to conform his practice to the advanced ethics of law work.