Frederick William Davis, brother of the foregoing James Davis, Jr., was the third son and youngest child of James and Hannah (Ingols) Davis, and was born while the family resided at No. 19 (afterward 23) Union Street, Boston, April 10, 1824.

He attended for some time the public schools of Boston, completing his education in Mr. Greene's school at Jamaica Plain.

Entering the office of Messrs. Philo S. Shelton & Co., on India Wharf, some time in the early part of 1840, where he remained for about two years.

He withdrew from his position there to obtain a knowledge of mineralogy and chemistry under the careful and thorough teaching of the late Dr. Charles T. Jackson, accompanying him in his exploration of 1844 on Lake Superior.

He came into the Company after the establishment of the smelting-works at Point Shirley, having some shares transferred to him December 31, 1850; was the resident agent there, continuing such until his death, from typhoid fever, December 11, 1854.

He took very high rank as an analytical chemist; was devoted, industrious, and able in the department assigned to him. He is spoken of in a published description of the Point Shirley works as of "great ability, and in his day having few equals and certainly no superior."[13]

Unselfish and generous, he was a warm and steadfast friend. On any occasion for it his helpfulness was ungrudging and unstinted, regardless alike of cost or exertion.

His early death prematurely closed a career which under circumstances wisely improved might have been an extremely brilliant one.

Those who knew him most familiarly still remember his cheery, cordial greeting, and his hearty response to their sincere regard for him.

The following obituary notice of him was written by Dr. Jackson.[14]

"We have to record the death of one of our excellent practical chemists and metallurgists, Frederick W. Davis, of Boston, who died at his father's house, of typhoid fever, on the 12th of December last, at the age of thirty-one years. Mr. Davis received a good education at the school of Mr. Greene, of Jamaica Plains, in Roxbury, and was then placed under the scientific instruction of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, in whose laboratory he pursued his studies with great diligence and success, for three years.

"In 1844 he accompanied Dr. Jackson in his early explorations of the copper regions of Lake Superior, and distinguished himself as an active and faithful explorer of the mineral district on Keweenaw Point. In 1847 he was appointed by the Revere Copper Company as Superintendent of their copper-smelting furnaces at Point Shirley, which he conducted with signal ability from that time until he was seized with the fever of which he died. While attending to the active and complicated business of the copper-works, making all the assays of ores, fluxes, furnace slags, and of the crude copper produced, he found time to make many interesting and important metallurgical researches, and many scientific observations and experiments on the formation of artificial minerals, both in the furnace and in the roasting heaps of copper ores. He produced a new mineral, composed of the sulphurets of zinc and copper, which was found in brilliant black crystals in the roasted ores. He pointed out several new forms of crystals in the slags from his blast furnaces, and he also beautifully illustrated the theory of the formation of native copper from the vaporized chloride of copper, while working the Atacamite of Peru.

"The most important of his labors were of an eminently practical nature, such as discovering the best and most economical methods of mixing the various copper ores of commerce, so as to make one ore flux another, and thus to obtain the largest yield of metal at the least expense.

"Science and the arts have met with a great loss in the death of this young metallurgist, whose labors were calculated to render efficient services to mankind and to raise the business of the working furnace to the rank of a truly chemical art and science.

"His numerous friends and acquaintances well knew his worth as a man and a friend; always generous, considerate, and kind, and never wanting in public spirit when occasion called him out, he was both respected and beloved by all who knew him."