OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

HON. TOOMBS H. DAVIDSON
Vol. 5, p 1900-1901

A prominent Muskogee lawyer, and now a member of the state senate
from the twenty-seventh senatorial district, Toombs. H. Davidson,
having lost his father at the age of seven, made his own way in the
world, doing farm and railroad work in vacations to earn money
sufficient to complete his education. He was elected to the senate at
the age of thirty, and was to an extent the political product of a
strong organization of young democrats in Oklahoma. For the
nomination he defeated two of the strongest and most popular men of
Muskogee County. His residence in Oklahoma is coextensive with
statehood, and he has gained a gratifying success both in law and
politics.

Senator Davidson was born June 4, 1884, at Chepultapec, Blount
County, Alabama, a son of William H. and Martha (HARTLEY) Davidson.
His paternal grandfather, a native of South Carolina, served under
General Wheeler in the Confederate army, while in private life he was
a newspaper editor. Senator Davidson's maternal grandparents were
prominent citizens of Alabama, and the Hartley's came to America
about the time of the Oglethorpe colony.

Senator Davidson attended public school in Alabama graduating in
1902 from the high school at Haleyville. His law studies were pursued
in the office of an attorney at Haleyville until admission to the bar
in 1906. His first experience as a lawyer was in Haleyville, and from
there he removed to Stigler, Oklahoma, in 1907. Mr. Davidson was
admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Oklahoma shortly
after statehood. In July 1913, he located in Muskogee, where he now
has a promising private practice.

His political record begins in Haskell County, in which he was a
delegate to every democratic state convention while living at
Stigler, and in 1912 was treasurer of the Haskell County Democratic
Campaign Committee. He also filled the offices of city attorney and
justice of the peace in Stigler. When Senator Davidson was elected to
the senate in 1914 he carried Haskell County by more than 1,000
majority, without making a campaign in that county. While in Haskell
County he was a leader in the organization of the Young Men's
Democratic Club and president of the local club at Stigler.

His legislative record is highly creditable. He was a chairman of
the Committee on Private Corporations and a member of committees on
Judiciary No. 2, Commerce and Labor, Banks and Banking, Insurance,
Public Buildings, Oil and Gas, and Legislative and Judicial
Apportionment. He was one of the authors of the popular home
ownership bill and assisted in the passage of the rural credits bill.
Coming from a city that has made repeated efforts to be officially
designated as the seat of a state fair, he was interested in the
passage of a state fair bill. Having made his own way in the world by
hard manual labor, Senator Davidson has shown sympathy with important
measures bearing the approval of the State Federation of Labor, and
assisted in the passing of a bill requiring railroad companies to
build hospitals for employees in the state, and also a bill
establishing working hours for women.

Senator Davidson is unmarried. He is affiliated with the Odd Fellows
Lodge at Muskogee and with Lodge No. 179, Knights of Pythias, at
Stigler, being a past-chancellor. He is the past master of the
Masonic Lodge No. 121 at Stigler, and while master was the youngest
man in the state in years and Masonic experience to fill that
position.

His lodge re-elected him master after his removal to Muskogee. In a
higher degree with the Scottish Rite he belongs to McAlester
Consistory No. 2 at McAlester, and also to Bedouin Temple of the
Mystic Shrine of Muskogee. He also belongs to the D.O.K.K. at
Muskogee, an order affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. Senator
Davidson is a member of the Haskell County Bar Association. He is a
lieutenant in the Pickett-Wheeler camp of Confederate Veterans at
Stigler. He and County Judge Crittenden organized the camp and
compromised a lively though friendly contest over the name,
Crittenden holding out for the name Pickett and Davidson for Wheeler.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).

Typed for OKGenWeb by Peggy Luce, April 2001.