John DAVENPORT was the second lawyer in Barnesville. He was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, and moved to Barnesville in 1838. While in Virginia he represented Berkeley county in the house of delegates. In 1860 he was one of the senatorial electors on the Bell and Everett presidential ticket for Ohio. As a lawyer his erudition was broad and deep; as advocate, he was polished and classical; and in the trial of the petty suits of an Ohio practice, his pleas to the court and jury were often elegant, as eloquent, as profound and as resistless as the very best efforts of those masters of the forum -- Erskine and Burke. As a conversationalist, he never had a superior.

He died in 1862 and was buried in North Cemetery, and there now lies this great unknown, without even a slab to mark his burial place.

- From History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, by J A Caldwell, pub. 1880