The Story of James Davidson

From time to time, we have mentioned the name of James Davidson (Davison) who had a store at Old Mill Creek. Now would be a good time to discuss his life and times in the Indian Territory and the Chickasaw Nation. The following is excerpter from the book Leaders of the Chickasaw Nation by O'Beirne (1891) so keep this date in mind. Editor's notes are in parenthesis.

"James was born in 1837 in Upper Canada; emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1856, after which he came to Ft. Washita, Indian Territory, with a Mr. Humes entering the mercantile establishment of Humes & Hamilton at Ft. Washita in 1860.

On the outbreak of the (Civil) War, he enlisted in the 11th Texas regiment in Grayson County, TX under Col. Young. (Col. Young would later take command of Forts Washita, Arbuckle and Cobb in May of 1861 when the Federal troops were withdrawn to Ft. Leavenworth, KS. Col. Young was also the commander of troops who committed the atrocities of the Great North Texas Hanging in Gainesville, TX in 1863 in which forty-two innocent men were lynched, this writers great grandfather was among the victims.)

James served with raiders for twelve months in the Cherokee country and Neutral strip, depriving the Kansas troops of their most valuable sources of supply.

Shortly afterward he marched under Col. McIntosh to the assistance of General Cooper, who was leading a campaign against the Pin Indians, or Northern Cherokee. Upon meeting the main army of the Pins, McIntosh attacked and routed them with great loss. Cooper is said to have never forgiven his brother officer for that premature attack and signal victory. His jealously was short lived however, as McIntosh was killed sometime after at the battle of Pea Ridge.

James served with gallantry at the latter engagement, as well as those of Richmond, KY, Murphysborough, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and the Georgia campaign.

After the War, Mr. Davidson settled close to Blue where he remained until 1872 when he moved to (Old) Mill Creek and there opened a large general mercantile business, which he is operating at the present time.

On his arrival at that point (Old Mill Creek) the country was very sparsely settled. There was no post office closer than Burneyville to the south or Pauls Valley to the west. (James Davidson established the first post office at Old Mill Creek on June 31, 1879 serving as the first postmaster.) The country was in a lawless condition with death being the only method of solving a social or political problem. Mr. Davidson never married (as of 1891) but has been so long in the country as to be looked upon almost as a native."

C. L. Moss relates in his WPA interview, his work as a teamster for Jimmy Davidson:

I had a good pony team, as did my brother and we freighted for Jimmy Davidson, who had the store in Mill Creek. In those days one store made a town. We hitched both teams to one wagon and hauled cotton in the fall to Denison. We hauled five bales each trip. This cotton belonged to Mr. Davidson, who had taken it in payment of accounts at the store. On our return trip we were loaded with merchandise for the store. We often went to Caddo, also. It was fifty-two miles to Caddo and seventy-five miles to Denison, and it took from five to six days to make the round trip.

In the Indian Pioneer Paper of Tom Gibson who lived at Mill Creek and Sulphur, he discusses working for Jim Davidson and an encounter with the outlaw Al Jennings.

""James Davidson had a store at Mill Creek with the post office in connection. He had his goods hauled from Caddo and Dennison. He handled everything from hairpins to threshing machines. When he had to go away, he left me and another boy in charge. He had been gone three days and we had been caring for the store. When he came in I went home for supper.

After I had eaten, I decided to return to the store for a while. When I entered the door a stranger met me with a gun. I paid no attention to him, thinking it was only a joke. I walked around a stack of boxes and another stranger met me with two guns. By this time, I decided I was in the midst of a holdup.

They had Mr. Davidson at the safe trying to work the combination, which I had turned off the night before. He always left it on and had forgotten what it was. He couldn't open the safe door at all. I said, "You'll never get in that safe, I threw the combination off last night and we've tried all day to get it unlocked".

Mr. Davidson said to the robbers, who were Al Jennings and the Daltons, "Do what you're going to do, kill me if you're going to. I can't open that safe." They had about twenty of us line up. I saw a chair and decided on a way to escape if they would only let me sit in the chair. So I said "I've been plowing all day and I'm tired. I wish you'd let me sit in that chair. I want to rest." He said "Bring the chair over here and sit down. I don't want to have to shoot you". So I stayed in line.

Mr. Davidson offered them the money from the post office, but they refused that. One of them said before leaving. "We were here last night to get the money from that safe, but we wouldn't bother the boys." We had sold them feed for their horses and food for themselves for two days, but we were not aware of their identity.

They had to depart without the money in the safe, which amounted to about fourteen hundred dollars. That was a lot of money in those days. There were three of them in the store and they were not masked. We supposed there was a fourth one with the horses.""

Contributed by Dennis Muncrief, September, 2003.