Escambia County AlArchives Biographies.....Davison, James M. December 14 1844 - living in 1893
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 22, 2004, 8:14 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JAMES M. DAVISON.--Among the names conspicuous in the annals of the legal
profession in southern Alabama, but few are connected with more honorable fame
than that of James M. Davison, a leading member of the Brewton bar. Mr. Davison
is a son of William and Mary J. (McMillan) Davison, the father of Irish descent,
and a native of South Carolina, born in the city of Camden, on the 14th day
February, 1809. William Davison moved with his parents to Alabama, when nine
years of age, and settled in Monroe county, where he engaged in the pursuit of
agriculture, which he carried on all his life. The McMillan family is of Scotch
origin, and settled in Monroe county, Ala., about the year 1818. The father of
Mrs. Davison was a Presbyterian minister, as were also two of his brothers, all
three of whom became prominent in the ecclesiastical history of the Presbyterian
denomination, and one of them earned more than a state reputation as a
successful preacher, and eloquent pulpit orator. William Davison and Mary J.
McMillan were married in January, 1842, and to their union were born six
children, as follows: James M.; Mary C., wife of Robert B. Dennis, a farmer of
Monroe county; Neal Edward, merchant at Belle Landing; William H., a farmer,
residing near Kempville, Ala.; John W., newspaper correspondent at Washington,
D. C., and Sarah J., wife of W. D. Nettles, a farmer of Kempville. The mother of
these children died in April, 1861, and in 1864, Mr. Davison married a second
wife, Josephine Jackson, who bore him one child, Lillie E., wife of Samuel
Simmons, of Argyle, this state. William Davison departed this life in February,
1867, and his widow afterward married Joseph Dunn, at this time a resident of
Monroe county. James M. Davison was born December 14, 1844, in Monroe county,
Ala., and. spent his youthful years on his father's farm, with the rugged duties
of which he early became familiar. He received his elementary education in such
schools as the county afforded, and at the age of sixteen, when the war cloud
spread its somber folds over the country, he responded to the call of his state
and entered the service of the Confederacy, enlisting in company H, Seventeenth
Alabama regiment, commanded by Col. Thomas H. Watts, afterward distinguished as
President Davis' attorney general and Alabama's war governor, with which he
served until the cessation of hostilities in 1865. During his period of service
he was with his command in the bloody battle of Shiloh, and all the fighting of
the Atlanta campaign from Resaca to Franklin, and received a painful wound in
the leg while in the intrenchments before Atlanta. At Franklin he was also
wounded in the same leg, and with a number of others of his company fell into
the enemy's hands. After a brief imprisonment he succeeded in effecting his
escape, but before reaching the Confederate lines, was recaptured and held a
prisoner until the close of the war. He was released at Point Lookout, Md., June
20, 1865, and at once returned home, and after recovering from a severe spell of
sickness, contracted while in the Federal prison, embarked in the mercantile
trade in Monroe county, which he carried on for only a limited period, From his
boyhood, Mr. Davison was ambitions of acquiring knowledge, and actuated by this
laudable desire, he abandoned merchandising and entered the Stonewall institute,
Dallas, Ala., where he pursued his studies assiduously for two years, and at the
end of that time became a student in the university of Virginia, from which
famous institution he graduated, completing the full course in several of its
schools in three years. His literary education being finished, he turned his
attention to the law, which he had previously decided to adopt as a profession,
and took a year's course in the different branches of law taught in that
institution, thus equipping himself thoroughly for the practice. In 1872 Mr.
Davison opened an office in Monroeville, Ala., and after practicing there very
successfully for two years, removed to Brewton, where his eminent legal
attainments soon won him a conspicuous place among the leading lawyers of the
southern part of the state, and brought him an extensive business in Escambia
and other counties, both in Alabama and Florida. As a lawyer, Mr. Davison is
conscientious and painstaking, a close student in his profession-not a brilliant
advocate, but a forcible speaker before a jury, always distinguished for prompt
attention to every duty and absolutely honorable in practice. He is a safe
adviser, eminently fair in his treatment of opposing counsel, and occupies a
most enviable position among his professional brethren throughout the southern
part of Alabama. His course, while at the college, was distinguished by diligent
application to his studies, and while a student at Virginia university, out of a
class of a hundred mature young men, of ripe scholarship, many of whom were A.
M. s of other colleges and state universities, he won the Dr. McGuffey prize for
the best logical analysis. Politically, Mr. Davison is a democrat, and as such
was honored, in 1884, by an election as representative of the twenty-first
district in the state senate. His career as a member of that body was highly
honorable and eminently satisfactory to his constituency, as he was instrumental
in having passed a large number of bills affecting the state and his own
district. An inspection of the journals of the sessions of 1884-5 and 1886-7
speaks well for his industrious attention to duty, and his influence in the
senate, only three other senators, representing the principal cities in the
state, being accredited with a larger number of bills. In April, 1878, at
Pollard, Ala., Mr. Davison was united in marriage with Sarah C., daughter of
Malcolm and Mary McMillan, a union blessed with the birth of five children,
whose names are as follows: Mary A., William M., Catherine E., Sarah J., and
James M. Mr. Davison is a master Mason, of lodge No. 301, and also belongs to
the K. of H. and K. of P. fraternities. The Presbyterian church, of which he and
wife are consistent members and in which he holds the office of ruling elder,
embodies his religious creed.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 956-958
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 6.8 Kb