Major John Davidson

A Patriot of the American Revolution for NORTH CAROLINA with the rank of MAJOR. DAR Ancestor # A030096

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8584073&ref=wvr

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John Davidson arrived in the Carolina back country around 1752. He was about 16 and was a trained blacksmith. Over the next 80 years he was to make his mark on history and leave a legacy in north Mecklenburg County that would endure for ages. He arrived with his widowed mother and younger sister, along with a number of Davidson relatives, from Lancaster County Pennsylvania and settled near the Catawba River in what was then Anson County. Later this area would be Northern Mecklenburg and Southern Iredell Counties. As young John Davidson reached his maturity he began to acquire land, first on Coddle Creek, then later on the Catawba River. Eventually his land holdings would exceed 1,000 acres. He established himself as a blacksmith and planter, married Violet Wilson, who lived nearby, and raised a family of 10 children, all of whom lived to maturity and many of whom rose in prominence and prosperity. John, along with two of his sons-in-law pioneered the manufacturing of iron across the river in Lincoln County and later on he was an early adopter of cotton cultivation which, if it did not make his fortune, did ensure its continuation. As a young man he took part in public life, serving two terms in the Colonial Assembly, and being one of the patriots who met in the courthouse in Charlotte on May 19, 1775 and adopted the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. During the Revolution he served as a Major in the Mecklenburg Militia on campaigns in the Carolinas and in opposing the invasion of North Carolina by the British army under Major General Charles, Lord Cornwallis in 1780 and 1781. Davidson continued as an active farmer until 1823 when at the age of 89, having been widowed for 5 years, he “broke up house keeping,” distributed most of his property to his children and retired to a life of ease, living with his daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law William Lee Davidson at their plantation Beaver Dam near present day Davidson College. He died at the age of 96 in 1832. The Early Days The only verifiable fact we have about the origins of John Davidson is that he was born in Chestnut Level, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1735. The following paragraphs are based on family stories, the customs of the times and the experiences of other families as they migrated to the Carolina piedmont. John Davidson arrived in the Carolina back country in 1752 at the age of 16 with his widowed mother and younger sister. He had been trained as a blacksmith and, while he 24 had not yet reached his majority (age 21) and could not inherit property or enter into contracts, he was able to practice his trade and help support his family. His sister was a few years younger and perhaps helped out in some way as well. They came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania along with other families from that area and settled with or near the George Davidson family in Anson County (later Rowan County, today Iredell County). They were on Davidsons Creek near the Catawba River, near the present-day town of Davidson, NC. John’s deceased father, Robert is thought to be either a brother or a cousin of George and John Davidson who came to the back country about that time. Just 10 or 12 miles from the Davidsons lived a well-to-do farmer named Henry Hendry. Hendry had arrived in the area just a year or two before the Davidsons and had settled on Coddle Creek in what is today northwestern Cabarrus County. Hendry apparently had been married before and had a number of young children from that marriage. Isabella and Mr. Hendry were married probably shortly after she arrived in the back country. Getting Started in Life The early histories tell the story that John’s father-in-law, Samuel Wilson, gave them a piece of land neighboring his on McDowell Creek as a wedding gift in 1761 and that they settled there and built Rural Retreat. However, the county records of the time tell a very different tale. As a matter of fact, John Davidson bought his first piece of land in 1759, two and one-half years before he was married, not on McDowell Creek, but on Coddle Creek. This is where he started farming, where he and Violet lived for three and one-half years and where two of their 10 children were born. In 1765 John bought 250 acres of land on McDowell Creek from his father-in-law for £45, where he built Rural Retreat and moved his family. These real estate transactions are documented in the county records and detailed in Appendix A. The Country Records show that John Davidson bought 300 acres on Coddle Creek in 1759 when he was 23 years old. This was land that had originally been granted to Henry Hendry and had been auctioned off to settle a law suit. Another party to the suit was Samuel Wilson, John’s future father-in-law. John paid £50..0..0 for the land and the deed was witnessed by Henry Hendry. John Davidson and Violet Wilson were married on June 2, 1761 when she was 19 and he was 25, and they set up housekeeping on his land on Coddle Creek. Their first child, Rebecca was born 9½ months later, on March 20, 1762. For the next 25 years Violet had a child about every 2½ years until her 10th child, Benjamin Wilson, was born on May 20, 1787 when she was 44 years old. In January 1765 John bought 250 acres of land from his father-in-law, Samuel Wilson. John, Violet and their two daughters moved onto this land where John had built a log cabin which he christened “Rural Retreat.” A year later they sold the land on Coddle Creek for a very tidy profit. For the detail of these deeds and other related transactions, 25 see appendix A. For an explanation of the various forms of money used in colonial times, see appendix F. The Children of Major John and Violet Wilson Davidson Major John and Violet had ten children.

Other information about the Davidson Family of Chestnut Level and Lancaster PA.

Wills Book and Page: A-26 Date Made: 19 Oct 1754 Date Proved: 6 Nov 1754 Abstract: Patrick Davidson. 19 Oct 1754. Wife, Ann, sons, Samuel William, Patrick and George. Grandchild, John Davidson. Daus. Susannah and Catherine. Exs., sons William Davidson and George Davidson. Name Title Description Property Residence Calhoon, Jon. Witness Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Ann Wife Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Catherine Daughter Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, George Son Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, George Executor Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, John Grandson Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Patrick Testator Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Patrick Son Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Samuel Son Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, Susannah Daughter Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, William Son Cumberland Co., PA Davidson, William Executor Cumberland Co., PA Graham, Will. Witness Cumberland Co., PA Willson, Thomas Witness Cumberland Co., PA

Joseph Graham married Isabella Davidson 1787 in Mecklenburg Co., N.C. Isabella was the daughter of John Davidson [1735-1832] and Violet Winslow Wilson.

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genea/Dparecords2.html

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Source: http://ncpedia.org/biography/davidson-john

y Chalmers G. Davidson, 1986 15 Dec. 1735–10 Jan. 1832

John Davidson, patriot and ironmaster, was the son of Robert and Isabel Ramsay Davidson who are believed to have come from Scotland on the "Diligance of Glasgow" in January 1729. There is a tradition that they brought two servants with them when they landed in America. John was born in Middle Octoraro Settlement, Chestnut Level, Pa. His father died young and the widow migrated to the North Carolina Piedmont in the 1750s. Her second husband was Henry Hendry, a schoolmaster said to have been educated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). John and his sister Mary received exceptional educational advantages from their stepfather, but John chose the trade of blacksmith for a livelihood on the frontier. There is a land grant, dated 17 Apr. 1759, for land on Coddle Creek, Anson County, N.C., to John Davidson, blacksmith; Henry Hendry is mentioned in the deed.

Davidson chose as his permanent residence a commanding hilltop about a mile east of the Catawba River near Toole's Ford in what is now Mecklenburg County. Nearby lived Samuel Wilson, a wealthy Englishman who had migrated from Virginia and settled in this area in 1750. On 2 June 1761, Davidson married Samuel Wilson's eldest daughter Violet (13 Aug. 1742–3 Dec. 1818). He built a substantial log house that lasted a hundred and twenty-odd years, and by the time of the Revolutionary War he and Violet were the parents of six children. They later had four more; the last, Benjamin, was born in 1787.

During the colonial period, Davidson served as a justice of the peace and as a member of the House of Commons for Mecklenburg County, attending the meetings of the North Carolina Assembly in New Bern in 1773. He and Representative Thomas Polk were instrumental in having a bill passed making Charlotte the permanent county seat of Mecklenburg (19 Mar. 1774). Apparently Representative Davidson saw nothing in New Bern (including the recently completed palace for Governor Tryon) to enlist his loyalty to the king. When the Whigs and their local committees took over the government in 1775, he was elected a member of the Committee of Safety for Mecklenburg County.

Mecklenburg's independence movement has been and will continue for many years to be a subject of controversy among historians. As the last surviving member of the Mecklenburg convention, Davidson's testimony is of special significance. It was given when he was ninety-five years old and living at Beaver Dam with his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Major William Lee Davidson. According to his family, his mind was still clear. He testified as follows:

"There were two men chosen from each Captain's company to meet in Charlotte to take the subject into consideration. John McKnitt Alexander and myself were chosen from one company. . . . When the members met, and were perfectly organized for business, a motion was made to declare ourselves Independent of the Crown of Great Britain, which was carried by a large majority. Then Dr. Ephraim Brevard was appointed to give us a sketch of the Declaration of Independence which he did. Then James Jack was appointed to take it on to the American Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia. . . . When Jack returned he stated that the Declaration was presented to Congress, and the reply was that they highly esteemed the patriotism of the citizens of Mecklenburg but they thought the measure to [be] premature.

"I am confident that the Declaration of Independence by the people of Mecklenburg was made publick at least twelve months before that of the Congress of the United States." The affidavit mentions neither the exact date nor a "signing," but neither of these were matters of controversy in 1830 and it is said that Davidson called his son Benjamin, who was born 20 May 1787 (d. 25 Sept. 1829), "my Independence Boy."

At the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and Great Britain, the North Carolina Provincial Congress organized its state militia on 9 Sept. 1775. Thomas Polk was appointed colonel for the Mecklenburg troops and Davidson was second major. These troops participated in the "Snow Campaign" against the South Carolina Tories in 1775 and in General Griffith Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokees in 1776. Major Davidson is believed to have participated in both campaigns. He then accepted a transfer from field service to the position of brigade major for the Salisbury militia, commanded first by Rutherford and after his capture at Camden, by General William Lee Davidson. He rendered service to militia and Continental troops alike. There is a "Field Return of the Southern Army under command of Major General Gates, Camp New Providence, on November 25, 1780," by Brigade Major Davidson listing over a thousand men each for state and national forces. Tradition relates that General William Lee Davidson stayed at the home of Major John Davidson while organizing his volunteer army to delay Cornwallis's crossing of the Catawba, and that he was riding a horse from the major's stables when shot on the banks of the river at Cowan's Ford on 1 Feb. 1781.

The major prospered after the war. In 1788 he built what the Charlotte Observer described ninety-eight years later when it burned as "the finest country residence in all this section of the State." It was undoubtedly the first notable house on the Catawba River. Davidson named his new home Rural Hill and the older log house was known as Rural Retreat. The latter, inhabited by sons and grandsons, outlasted the mansion that replaced it until it, too, went up in flames in 1898. In the census of 1790, Major John Davidson owned twenty-six slaves, an estate exceeded in Mecklenburg only by those of Colonel Thomas Polk and John Springs.

An important contribution to the economic development of North Carolina was made by Davidson in developing the iron industry in Lincoln County. In 1789 the Big Ore Bank had been granted to General Peter Forney, who sold interests to Davidson and his sons-in-law Captain Alexander Brevard and Major Joseph Graham. By 1795 the latter three had bought out Forney and were conducting a flourishing business. Davidson furnished the capital and the practical experience in working iron; Graham operated Vesuvius Furnace and Brevard Mt. Tirzah Forge. Iron became practically a medium of exchange in a region where hard money was scarce. Munitions were manufactured for the government in the War of 1812.

In the fall of 1823, in his eighty-ninth year, Davidson decided to retire from business; his wife had died five years previously. He appointed his son-in-law Major William Lee Davidson to be his trustee in selling off his property in order to give his children their inheritance. He reserved a room for himself in his mansion house at Rural Hill but apparently spent the remainder of his days at the Beaver Dam plantation of his son-in-law and daughter Elizabeth ("Betsy Lee"). This homestead, still standing, was about two miles east of the future Davidson College, which was located on land belonging to Major William Lee Davidson. Here Major John Davidson died at ninety-seven. He was taken back to Rural Hill for burial beside his wife in the place selected by himself.

John and Violet Davidson were the parents of ten children who grew to maturity: daughters Rebecca (Mrs. Alexander Brevard), Isabella (Mrs. Joseph Graham), Mary (Mrs. William McLean), Violet (Mrs. William Bain Alexander), Sarah (Mrs. Alexander Caldwell, son of Dr. David Caldwell), Margaret (Mrs. James Harris), and Elizabeth (Mrs. William Lee Davidson, II); and sons Robert, John (inherited Rural Hill), and Benjamin Wilson. All except Robert and Elizabeth left families. The most distinguished of Davidson's more than sixty grandchildren was Governor William Alexander Graham, who was said to resemble most in appearance and bearing the almost legendary grandfather of this numerous progeny.

References:

Samuel A. Ashe, ed., Biographical History of North Carolina, vol. 7 (1917).

Chalmers G. Davidson, Major John Davidson of "Rural Hill" Mecklenburg County, N.C. . . . (1943).

J. G. deRoulhac Hamilton, ed., The Papers of William Alexander Graham (1957–61).

Additional Resources:

"Rural Hill Davidsons:A Brief History." Rural Hill, Huntersville, N. C. http://www.ruralhill.net/History.asp (accessed February 17, 2014).

Sommerville, Charles William. The history of Hopewell Presbyterian Church for 175 years from the assigned date of its organization, 1762. [Charlotte? N.C.]: Hopewell Presbyterian Church. 1939. 124-125. http://archive.org/stream/historyofhopewel01somm#page/124/mode/2up (accessed February 17, 2014).

Hunter, C. L. Sketches of western North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrating principally the Revolutionary period of Mecklenburg, Rowan, Lincoln, and adjoining counties, accompanied with miscellaneous information, much of it never before published. Raleigh, N.C. : The Raleigh News Steam Job Print. 1877. 84-87. http://archive.org/stream/sketchesofwester00hunt#page/86/mode/2up (accessed February 17, 2014).

Davidson, John, "Return of Horatio Gates' brigades of the Continental Army." November 25, 1780. State Records of North Carolina vol.15, 162. Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr15-0118 (accessed February 17, 2014).

Alexander, John Brevard, b. 1834. Biographical sketches of the early settlers of the Hopewell section and reminiscences of the pioneers and their descendants by families .. Charlotte, N.C.: Observer Printing and Publishing House. 1897. http://archive.org/details/sketchesofearlys00alex (accessed February 17, 2014).

Subjects: Biography Judges Military personnel Planters Public officials UNC Press Authors: Davidson, Chalmers G. Origin - location: Mecklenburg County From: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.