Sedgwick County KS Archives Biographies.....Davidson, J. Oak 1850 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 21, 2007, 11:37 pm Author: O. H. Bentley (1910) J. Oak Davidson, one of the most prominent citizens, of Wichita, Kan., was born in Cuba, N. Y., on March 4, 1850. His parents were S. L. and Susan (Roda) Davidson. The father of J. Oak Davidson was a man of some wealth and was able to give his son the advantage of a good education. In 1872 the parents moved from New York to Wichita, Kan., where the father embarked in the real estate and loan business. In 1880 the firm of S. L. Davidson & Co. was organized, the son, J. Oak Davidson, being the company. In 1883 J. Oak Davidson organized the Davidson Loan Company, with a paid up capital stock of $100,000. About this time Mr. Davidson bought the northwest corner of Main street and Douglas avenue and organized the Citizens State Bank, of which he was elected president. The bank erected the building now occupied by the Kansas National Bank. The Citizens bank occupied the building until 1896, when the institution was liquidated and Mr. Davidson bought a controlling interest in the Kansas National Bank, moving it into its present quarters. At the same time Mr. Davidson became president an£ a director of the latter-named bank. In 1902 Mr. Davidson sold his holdings in the bank and retired from its directorate. While in the Citizens bank, in 1886, Mr. Davidson conceived the idea of opening an addition on the west side of the river, and bought about 500 acres. To reach this property he built a bridge across the river at Oak street. Mr. Davidson has always been a lover of horses, and on this property he built a half-mile track. The balance he subdivided into lots and many of the best residences in the city have been built on this property. In 1887 Mr. Davidson built the residence now occupied by Tipton Cox. In 1885 Mr. Davidson and others organized the Riverside & Suburban Street Railway Company, building the first standard guage in Wichita. This road ran from Douglas avenue north on Market street to Pine, and west to the race track and Riverside. It was later extended two and a half miles north to the Alamo addition. During this same year (1886) Mr. Davidson negotiated with an electrical company in St. Louis to electrify the road, but the work was so crude that it resulted in failure. In January, 1887, Mr. Davidson went to New York and engaged the Thompson-Houston Company to equip two and a half miles of the road. This was the first successfully operated electric street railway in the United States. In 1887 Mr. Davidson added to his street railway holdings by purchasing the road running to Fairmount and also to the Burton Car Works, making fifteen miles of electric street railroad he owned. In 1890 he effected the consolidation of the three systems in operation in Wichita, rebuilding the narrow guage, making it standard, and operating the entire system by electricity. These holdings were taken over by the Wichita Electric Railway Company, of which Mr. Davidson was president. He held this position until 1893, when he retired from the company. The same year he went to Coffeyville, Kan., and purchased oil and gas leases, accumulating 33,000 acres. The next iiYe years of Mr. Davidson's life were spent in Chicago, where he organized a company to handle his gas leases in Kansas and induced the Wichita Natural Gas Company to lay its pipes to the field at a cost of $4,000,000, in this way supplying Wichita with plenty of cheap gas. The company also piped to Newton and Hutchison. Mr. Davidson bought the holdings of the Artificial Gas and Electric Company of Wichita and relaid all the mains and rebuilt the electric plant, Mr. Davidson being the president of this company. In 1909 the company sold its gas and electric holdings in Wichita to an eastern syndicate. When the Burton Stock Car Company was looking for a location to build its shops Mr. Davidson induced it to locate on land about four miles north of Wichita by giving the company seventy acres of land and agreeing to be responsible for a bonus of $200,000. The Board of Trade and people of Wichita assumed $50,000 of this and substantially paid that amount. The balance was paid by Mr. Davidson. At one time the car company employed between 500 and 600 workmen, and had a little city of 250 homes. On account of the inconvenience of returning cars for repair, the company moved its shops to Chicago. Mr. Davidson was a stockholder and director in the car company. He is also president of the Hutchinson Gas and Fuel Company, which supplies Newton and Hutchinson with gas. Mr. Davidson was married in 1876 to Miss Ida F. Fitch, a daughter of Joseph P. Fitch and Frances E. (Guyer) Fitch, of Eldora, Kan. Of this union one son, Frank O. Davidson, was born in 1877. The latter was married to Miss Elsie Bell, of Chicago, and lives in Wichita, where he is engaged in the insurance business. Mr. Davidson's wife died in 1883, and in 1887 he was married to Miss Bessie Carver, of Jacksonville, 111., by whom he has had two children-Oakley, attending a young ladies' school in the East, and a son, James Ogden, attending the public schools in Wichita. Fraternally, Mr. Davidson is a member of the Masonic order, being a member of the Wichita lodge and the Wichita consistory. He lives in a beautiful home at No. 935 North Lawrence street. Additional Comments: Extracted from History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/sedgwick/bios/davidson270gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb