BRACKET DAVISON ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** File transcribed and contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Posted by William Davison USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non- commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ****************************************************************** Posted by William Davison on Fri, 01 Jan 1999 Surnames: DAVIDSON, DAVISON, HARDISON, OWEN, MCDEARMON, BARCLAY, GLOVER, STUART, WOLLARD, EDMISSION, POLK, ROBERSON, BRIDGES, DAVIS, BENNET, ATTEBERRY, RAGSDALE, TURNER, MCMAHON, DYER, MCMEEN, BROOKE, DUNLAP, BLACKELE BRACKETT DAVISON was born in Prince Edward Co., VA on November 17, 1796. He was the second son of George Davidson and Lucretia McDearmon, both of whom were born in Prince Edward County. His parents moved to Maury Co., TN sometime after his grandmother, Sarah Owen Davidson, died in 1809. (In the final settlement of Sarah's will in 1825, it was noted that she spelled the family name Davison). George Davidson bought one hundred acres on Flat Creek for $200 on May 20, 1816 from Samuel Polk, father of President James Knox Polk. Polk, who had received 5,000 acres in a North Carolina land grant in Maury County, was a friend and neighbor of the Davidsons in Iredale Co., NC. Brackett bought several parcels of land adjoining and from Polk's grant and near the land of his father-in-law, James Hardison. Brackett married Delilah Hardison, daughter of James Hardison and Mary Roberson on August 3, 1817. In 1838, Brackett sold his land on Flat Creek and moved his family to Missouri. Brackett and Delilah Hardison Davidson had fourteen children, the first twelve born in Maury Co., TN, the last two in Polk Co., MO. They were: *Thomas McDearmon, b. May 16, 1818, m. Elizabeth Barclay in Polk Co., MO on March 22, 1841. He was killed during the Civil War. *George (M.D.), b. Feb 22, 1820, m. (1) Rebecca Wollard (1819-1865) and (2) Elizabeth Wollard Edmisson in 1866, d. Jan 4, 1887, buried in Dallas Co., MO. *Fanny Minerva, b. Oct 22, 1821, d. Oct 28, 1840, never married. *Lucretia, b. July 28, 1823, m. Durrett Barclay on Sept 15, 1841, d. Feb 25, 1904. *James Hardison, b. July 28, 1825, m. Lucy Barclay on Mar 24, 1844, killed during Civil War, in Dallas Co., MO. *Milton McMacklin, b. Sept 9, 1826, m. Rosa Glover on July 24, 1845, d. June 12, 1912. *Margaret Catherine, b. July 13, 1828, m. Joe Stuart on May 7, 1845, d. Mar 29, 1910. *Calvin Brackett, b. Mar 1, 1830, m.(1) Matilda Jane Glover on May 10, 1849, (2) Mrs. Rachel Steinbaugh Bridges on Sept 6, 1864, d. Dec 6, 1903 in Rockwall Co., TX. *William Hardison, b. Jan 5, 1832, m. Sarah Jane Davis on Feb 3, 1853, d. Aug 21, 1855. *Sarah Elizabeth, b. Feb 6, 1834, m. John R. Glover Feb 3, 1853, d. Dec 6, 1887. *Joshua, b. Oct 13, 1835, m.(1) Henrietta Bennet c. 1855, (2) Mary Bennett c. 1856/57, d. Apr 10, 1908. *Mary Jane, b. July 30, 1837, m. William Kennedy Atteberry, d. May 20, 1911, buried at Charity, Dallas Co., M *John Humphrey, b. Oct 30, 1843, m.(1) Susan Virgiria Ragsdale on Dec 19, 1861, (2) Susan E. Turner, d. Mar 10, 1922 *Charles Isum Joel, b. Nov 1846, d. Sept 9, 1848. Brackett and his older brother Joshua (1793-1850) served in the War of 1812. Pension records on file in the National Archives show that Brackett volunteered on September 27, 1814 in Maury County for a term of six months. He was assigned to Capt. James McMahon's Company (also referred to as Capt. Samuel Crawford's Co.) of Mounted Gunmen. His company was part of the First Regiment, commanded by Col. Dyer. Brackett was wounded at New Orleans on December 23, 1814 and was honorably discharged at Nashville, TN on April 27, 1815, being declared "three- fourths disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor." He received his small pension for the rest of his life. Just what kind of man was Brackett Davison? He apparently was a respected, law-abiding, honest business man of the times in Tennessee. He was a staunch member of the Christian Church throughout his life in both Tennessee and Missouri. "All his family were deeply religious Christians," his grandson, Dolan Brackett Davison, said. Brackett's business was farming, begun after his discharge from the War of 1812 in 1815. He assembled about three hundred acres, adjoining his father's land in the Flat Creek area, north of Duck River, in eastern Maury County, Tennessee. The deed records now in Columbia show the purchases he made from 1821 and the land he sold in 1838 before he moved his family to Polk County, Missouri, that year. All of Brackett's wealth and business activities, however, were not in real estate. He owned, bought, and sold slaves--men, women, and children. He took thirty or more slaves with him to Missouri in 1838. The chattel records in the Columbia Courthouse Maury County, Tennessee, included some interesting transactions in human ownership. He paid Samuel Blackeley $450 for one Negro girl named "Fanny" January 27, 1823. In another transaction, October 11, 1828, Samuel Dunlap sold Brackett "a Negro girl slave named Rachael, of dark complexion, about eleven or twelve years old, said Negro to be sound and healthy." The price was $250. Brackett sold a Negro woman, Amy, seventeen or eighteen years old, with her three months old boy "Edmund" to John C. Brooke for $600 December 5, 1825. In more exacting legal language the Bill of Sale for one Negro man read: "Know all men by these present, that I, John McMeen of the County of Maury, State of Tennessee, have this day bargained and sold unto Brackett Davison of the County and State aforesaid, one Negro man named Balaam or Bulum, about twenty-nine years of age for the sum of six hundred and twenty-five dollars in hand, for which Negro I warrant to be sound in body and mind and slave for life for which I defend from all persons forever. December 29, 1834, my hand and seal." (signed John McMeen.) Bracket gave all of his slaves their freedom in January 1863.