Cabell County, West Virginia Biography of Harry A. DAVIDSON This file was submitted by Joyce Vickers, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 270 Harry A. Davidson is one of the vital and progressive business men of the City of Huntington, where he is president of the Superior Lumber Company. There may have been a measure of ancestral predilection in his choice of vocation, for his grandfather, Isaac Davidson, who was born in Ohio, in 1826, and who died at Wellston, that state, in 1894, was a carpenter by trade and was long and actively engaged in business as a contractor and builder. The greater part of his life was passed in Jackson County, Ohio, and the family was founded in that state in the pioneer days. Harry A. Davidson, was born at Wellston, Jackson County, Ohio, December 11, 1887, and is the son of Thomas M. and Effie Alice (Hutchhinson) Davidson, both natives of Lawrence County, Ohio, where the former was born in 1863 and the latter in 1866. Thomas M. Davidson was reared and educated in the old Buckeye State, and as a youth he learned the carpenter's trade under the direction of his father. He became a successful contractor in Ohio, and among the large factory buildings which he there erected were those of the Lehigh Cement Company and the Alma Cement Company at Wellston, and the plant of the Ironton Cement company at Ironton. He has to his credit also the construction of more than 200 coal tipples. From 1909 to 1911 he was a resident of Paintsville, Kentucky, and in the latter year he came to Huntington, West Virginia, where he is now engaged in the wholesale and retail limber business, which he conducts under the title of the Davidson Lumber company, with offices at 862 1/2 Fifth Avenue. He is a republican in politics, has completed the circle of York and Scottish Rite Masonry, in the latter of which he has received the thirty-second degree, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of the seven children the subject of this review is the eldest; Louis C. is engaged in the insurance business at Portsmouth, Ohio; Catherine died at the age of seven years; George E. is associated with the Davidson Lumber company at Huntington, in the capacity of yard manager; Loren I. is associated with the Davidson Lumber Company; N. Ruth is the wife of German Larabure, secretary and treasurer of the Superior Lumber company at Huntington; and Pauline remains at the parental home. In the high school of Wellston, Ohio, Harry A. Davidson graduated in 1906, and thereafter he attended the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, until he had partially completed the work of the junior year and in connection with which he became a ember of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. in 1908 Mr. Davidson became first assistant chief engineer of the Dayton, Lebanon & Cincinnati Railroad, and after one year of service in this capacity he became associated with his father's contracting business and was superintendent of construction on the high school building at Jackson, Ohio. This work took his attention several months, and for two years thereafter he was in charge of his father's contract work in the erection of about 400 houses in the Big Sandy District of Kentucky. In October, 1912, he became yard foreman in the yards of the Superior Lumber Company at Huntington; a corporation that had been organized by his father in that year. Later he was a salesman for the company, then assistant manager, and finally vice president. The organization was permitted to lapse in 1918, and Mr. Davidson then organized a new company under the same title, this company being incorporated under the laws of the state and he being its president. With well equipped yards and warehouse and with the best of facilities the company has developed a substantial wholesale and retail business in the handling of lumber and other kinds of building supplies. The retail trade of the concern is one of the largest in Huntington, and the yards and offices of the company are established at 730 First Street. Harry S. Irons is vice president of the company, Henry O. Dunfee is its treasurer and B. C. Emerson its secretary. Mr. Davidson is a staunch republican, and he and his wife hold membership in the First congregational Church of Huntington. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Davidson is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M.; Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M.; West Virginia Consistory No. 1, A. A. S. R., at Wheeling, in which he has received the thirty-second degree; and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is a member of Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E., and of the Guyan Country Club. At 200 South Boulevard he owns one of the fine modern residence properties of Huntington, and of this attractive home his wife is a most gracious and popular chatelaine. On the 14th of August 1918, Mr. Davidson married Miss Corinne Kitchen, daughter of the late William B. and Elizabeth (Trago) Kitchen, the father having been a successful farmer near Jackson, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Davidson have three children: Barbara Alice, born March 18, 1912; Florence, born April 27, 1913; and Mary, born January 28, 1915.