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Cliff Davis

American politician (1908–1990)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ124313504
Source-derived summary

Cliff Davis (January 31, 1908 – September 13, 1990) was an American politician who served as Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives and as mayor of Gillette, Wyoming, as a member of the Republican Party.

Davis was born in Thomas, Oklahoma, and his family homesteaded in Campbell County, Wyoming, in 1916. Their ranch grew to 4,485 acres and he operated multiple businesses. He served on the school board and county commission.

Davis served in the state house from 1957 to 1959, and 1961 to 1975. He served in multiple legislative leadership roles and defeated the incumbent mayor of Gillette in the 1970 election. He lost reelection to both the state house and mayoralty in 1974.

Early life

Cliff Davis was born in Thomas, Oklahoma, on January 31, 1908, to J. Fred Davis and Josepene Stokes. Davis' family came to Campbell County, Wyoming as homesteader ranchers north of Gillette in 1916. J. Fred initially planned on buying land, but learned, while 40 miles north of Gillette, that the banker he received the loan from died.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Cliff Davis” as american politician (1908–1990). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cliff, Davis and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1908, 1990, 1916, 1957—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cliff, Davis and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cliff Davis”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1908–1990)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q124313504. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1990, 1916 and 1957.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cliff Davis”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cliff Davis primary sources, Cliff Davis archive and Cliff research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cliff Davis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.