Edwin Davis

Who is Edwin Davis?

Edwin F. Davis, of Corning, Steuben County, New York was the first "state electrician" (executioner) for the State of New York. In 1890, Davis finalized many features of the first electric chair used. Davis performed 240 executions between 1890 and 1914, including the first person to be executed by electric chair, William Kemmler, and the first woman Martha M. Place, as well as the assassin of William McKinley, Leon Frank Czolgosz.

Davis held a patent on certain features of the electric chair. He received U.S. Patent No. 587,649, for his "Electrocution-Chair", on August 3, 1897.

He died in May 1923, and is buried in Barnard Cemetery in Corning, New York.