WHARTON COUNTY HISTORICAL

Dr. Green L. Davidson


G.L. Davidson was born on March 4, 1867 in Alabama, to William C. and Ann Pruitt Davidson. The family moved to Texas in 1881.

Green did odd jobs in the drugstore of his uncle, Dr. J.K. Davidson of Alleyton. At the age of 16, he and John J. Mansfield bought the drugstore and ran it as a partnership. The pair studied medical and law books in the back room when they could. Mansfield later became a lawyer, judge and congressman.

Green left the drugstore in the hands of his younger brother, Will L. Davidson, born March 19, 1869. He then attended the medical College of Alabama, where he graduated in 1889. He then attended the Poly-Clinic Postgraduate School of New Orleans.

As soon as Green received his M.D. degree, Will set off for medical college. Hence, the brothers helped finance each other through medical school. Will returned and practiced medicine in Glen Flora doe many years.

In 1891, Green married Miss Lula Wright of Alleyton, and they had five children: Toxy Lee born December 5, 1891, who became a physician, Green L. Jr., Willie Jay, Raymond Wright and Gladys Mary who became Mrs. Charles Davis. Toxy practiced medicine in Wharton for many years.

In 1937, Drs. Green and Toxy Davidson, and Dr. L.B. Outlar formed a corporation to manage the Caney Valley Hospital. Dr. Toxy died on December 19, 1976.

Green moved to Wharton to begin practice in 1895. He struggled with malaria, which in its more virulent form was called black jaundice, typhoid fever and dysentery. The streams were polluted, the cisterns drained from dirty roofs and were often built underground, livestock wandered the streets, and there were no screens on the windows or doors. He did much to improve these conditions. He visited his patients by walking, riding horseback, or horse and buggy. he bought the first automobile in the county in 1907.

The x-ray machine became available in 1896, and Dr. Green owned one shortly thereafter, it being the first one between Houston and Victoria. He used it in his office which was over Outlar Drug, and moved it to Caney Valley Hospital when it opened.

Dr. Davidson purchased the fine old home of the late H.E. Moore on Resident St. in 1912, and remodeled it to include a hospital of 8 or 10 beds, a working unit, and nurses quarters. This was the beginning of Caney Valley Hospital which opened it;s doors in 1913, doors that have not been closed since.

Dr. Green lived to be 85 years of age and practiced medicine until shortly before his death on October 31, 1952.

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Biography of Dr. Davidson's

By his Great granddaughter

Lisa Malina Davidson

My Great grandfather was Dr. Green l. Davidson, a descendant of Revolutionary soldier Col. George Davidson. Dr. Green, as he was affectionately called, was born March 4, 1867, in Clark County, Alabama, and moved to Eagle Lake, Texas in 1881. He received his M.D. in 1889 from Medical College of Alabama in Mobile. Later he attended Poly-clinic Post-Graduate school in New Orleans. He moved to Wharton in 1895 and became the thirteenth practicing physician here.

In 1891, he married Miss Lula Wright of Alleyton. Her maternal grandfather, Abram Alley, came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin, and was one of the original three hundred who settled first near Columbus and Alleyton.

Dr. Green Davidson was largely responsible for getting cess pools drained and the town cleaned up. He established the first hospital, the Caney Valley, and owned the first x-ray machine and the first automobile in Wharton. He was one of the first elected alderman when the town was incorporated in 1902.

Dr. Green practiced medicine until shortly before his death at the age of 85 on October 31, 1952.

Children: Dr. Toxy Davidson, Mrs. Gladys Davis (Charles A.), Green Davidson Jr, W.J. Davidson and Raymond W. Davidson.

Grandchildren: Sara Louise Gilbert (Mrs. K.O.), Gladys Marie Stutts (Mrs. N.J.), W.J. Davidson, Jr., Jacqueline Davidson, Emily D. Callier, Raymond Davidson, Jr., Linda K. Davidson, Charles A. Davis, Jr.

14 great-grandchildren

3 great-great grandchildren

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The Houston Post, March 9, 1941

Magazine Section Page Seven

MEET DR. DAVIDSON

Wharton Doctor has Served Countryside 54 Years

By Hildred Evans

Post Correspondent

More than fifty years of country doctoring had left Dr. Green L. Davidson, 74 year old Wharton physician, neither bent by age nor broken by hardship. Rather, his slim, erect carriage, twinkling blue eyes and courtly manners give him the appearance of the typical gentleman of the old South, leisurely and distinguished.

Four years ago, Dr. "Green", as he is known to townsfolk, celebrated his fiftieth anniversary of medical practice by opening a brand new hospital equipped with the finest surgical and laboratory facilities, and with private rooms all dressed up in steel furniture of pastel colors.

Two years later the country editor going early to his office met Mr. Davidson in the cafe having his breakfast at 5 a.m.. He had been out most of the night on a baby case, and when the editor suggested that now the doctor could go home to make up his rest, the elder man smiled, "Oh, no, I'm going to work now."

Born of farm parents March 4, 1867 in Clark County, Alabama, Green L. Davidson moved to Texas with his family in 1881 and worked for a time as clerk in a general store, and as odd job boy for his uncle, Dr. J.K. Davidson of Alleyton.

At 16 he and another young fellow not many years older, John Joseph Mansfield, bought out the uncle's drug store and ran it together. But these two lads had greater ambitions than running a small town drug store. In the back of the shop was a table piled high with books on medicine and law, and there the two boys studied every available moment. A little later young Mansfield took his examinations and was admitted to the bar. He removed to Columbus where he began at once his political career by getting himself elected county judge of Colorado county, a career which brought him at length to the United States house of representatives, where he is today the grand old man of the congress. Doctor Davidson, too, though serving in a more restricted area, has nevertheless contributed his generous stint toward the service of his fellow man.

He took up his study in the medical school of the University of Alabama at Mobile. This was before the days of Lister and the work of Pasteur was not generally recognized or understood. Doctor Davidson paints a vivid picture of those early classes in surgery when the surgeon entered the operating room no sterilized gown, threaded his sutures in several needles at once and stuck them along his coat lapel for future reference.

In the cabinet were his instruments neatly washed at the tap after the last operation and now ready for the next. Surgical knives and chisels had nice ebony and ivory handles that would never have stood being boiled in water.

At that time sterilization of the surgeons hands, the use of gloves and the possibility of making sterile the field of operation were unheard of. Pus following an operation was an accepted fact and was classified as healthy or diseased. The first antiseptic dressings were wet ones treated with bi chloride acid, and were applied to the would after the operation. This decreased the trouble with pus and sometimes resulted in clean wounds. Wet dressings were followed by dry ones with antiseptic powders over the wounds.

Green L. Davidson received his M.D. in 1889 but not before he had stayed out a year to practice medicine in order to earn enough money to go back to school. In those days a medical student could practice before he was graduated if he could pass an examination given by a district board of physicians appointed by the judge for that purpose. The drug store during Green's absence at school was left in the hands of his younger brother, the late, Dr. Will Davidson of Houston, who himself set off for medical college as soon as Green received his degree. The brothers helped to finance each other in turn.

When Will was graduated, Dr. Green went to Polyclinic Post-Graduate school at New Orleans and there saw his first sterilizer, a small, low pressure Arnold sterilizer brought back from Paris by a New Orleans physician. At charity hospital in New Orleans, Dr. Green witnessed his first operation with the use of sterile dressings. Asepsis and the increasing knowledge of the bacteria which caused the pathological condition of wounds were already revolutionizing surgery.

No one appreciated more keenly than Dr. Davidson the blessing of normal healing of the incision through the cells of the body where all the surgical field had been kept clean. Needless to assert that a microscope and sterilizer were immediately added to the young doctors equipment

? In 1895, with several years practice behind him, Dr. Davidson decided to move to Wharton, because what he saw there made know the people needed help and plenty of it. He became the thirteenth physician actively engaged in the practice of medicine in Wharton at the time. Sprawled along the east bank of the Colorado river, the town hardly more more than a village and through it wriggled the Caney Creek.

During the rainy season the water in Caney creek often ran five feet deep, bankfull, but in summer the water was low and sluggish and covered by a thick scum under which the fish died by thousands so that the men gathered them up in wagons and carted them away.

On the creek banks the buzzards sat and devoured the fish.

Water for the community was caught in cisterns, sometimes built underground. They were fed by rainwater caught by rook drains and apparently nobody minded then that the rainwater was mixed with dust from the streets where stock wandered at will. In the house where Dr. Davidson first lived in Wharton the cistern was under the kitchen floor and when the lid was removed the mosquitoes swarmed the room. Screens on windows and doors were an unknown protection.

As was to be expected people in Wharton and the surrounding territory suffered much from malaria; often whole families were ill at once. They thought it was caused by the foul air from the marshes where poison from the water rose in drier weather from cracks in the ground. They called it mal air and thought that when folk breathed it they got malaria. Laveran�s discovery in 1880 of the Anopheles mosquito which carried the parasitic malaria germ was a boon indeed to Wharton physicians and their patients. In Wharton, also, was rife at times a particularly virulent form known as black jaundice as well as typhoid, called slow fever, and dysentery.

The doctors worked unceasingly, frequently three and four days without sleep; worked until they were so tired that they could not keep up, and they would seek out the home of some patient far out in the country where no one could get to them and there curl up in bed and sleep off their exhaustion.

Patients living far from town were never too easily nor quickly reached in those days when the horse and buggy were the doctor�s fastest means of travel, and Dr. Davidson has literally had to travel all night long to reach a patient 36 miles away.

In the rainy season when disease was most prevalent the going was doubly hard. Upon one occasion the doctor was sent for by a family living some miles from town, asked to bring along some ice, he started out with fifty pounds of it and took along a little negro boy in case of need, his buggy was drawn by a smart span of horses. They moved pretty fast for awhile, but then the buggy was caught fast in a deep bog of mud and the heaving horses broke the traces. Fetching back the horses, the boy brought one to the side of the buggy, from whence the doctor, carefully holding his bag climbed onto it. The boy holding the ice before him, rode the other.

The doctor grins, remembering how the ice on the horses bare back melted and dripped down his withers, making him most uncomfortable. A saddle borrowed from a nearby farmer helped out a bit and after a time the boy and the man, with pills and the ice, only a very little ice by this time, arrived at the patients house to find every member of the family down. For three days and nights the doctor was both physician and nurse; but even so two of the family died of the black jaundice.

Speaking of pills, the doctor says that the first use of capsules caused no little consternation among some of his patients, especially among the women. One woman inquired if the doctor thought her a fool to suppose that she would swallow those little pieces of glass. Another carefully dumped the medicine the medicine from them onto her tongue each time and sent �those little bottles� back for a refill.

In 1907 Dr. Davidson purchased the first automobile in Wharton County. People were afraid of him in the car, and approached only within 10 or 15 feet of him, but the doctor thought the automobile a great improvement over the horse and buggy. He is proud of the fact that he owned also the first x-ray in Wharton, the only x-ray, in fact, between Victoria and Houston. His first x-ray was a static machine with 16 glass plates, half of which revolved while half were still. Someone always had to turn the machine to get the friction up between the plates. The negatives were glass instead of celluloid, but the pictures were remarkably clear and good.

To the busy country doctor the need of a hospital was ever present and constantly increasing, so in 1907 he purchased nine lots on the river bank, persuaded L. B. Outlar, a druggist; Frank May, then undertaker and a contractor named Williams to form with himself a $10,000 corporation for the purpose of erecting a hospital. The corporation dissolved, however, after more deliberate thought, the parties to it being afraid the public would never patronize an institution sponsored by a doctor, druggist and the undertaker.

A few more years passed and in 1912 Dr. Green was able to purchase the present location of the Caney Valley Hospital with the fine old home of the late H.E. Moore on it. The residence was remodeled to include not only the hospital of 8 to 10 beds, but also the working unit and the nurse�s quarters. Miss Mamie Walker was the first superintendent and the doctor�s staff included his son, Dr. Toxy Davidson, the late Will Davidson of Houston, Dr Thurman Neal and Dr. J.M. Andrews.

But before that hospital was dedicated publicly, Dr. Green, good Baptist Deacon that he had always been, called the board of deacons together at the home of their pastor, Rev. J.W. Mayfield, and there they reverently dedicated Caney Valley Hospital to the Lord and the service of mankind, praying the Lord�s blessing on that institution and it�s work always. Never, since the day the doors were first opened, have they been closed and the hospital has prospered modestly. In 1937 the new building was erected, increasing the number of beds to 25 and the nursing staff to 12. Dr. Bolton Outlar, son of the druggist, came in as stockholder with Dr. Green Davidson and Dr. Toxy Davidson.

It was a great day on March 1, 1937, a beautiful sunny Sabbath, that the new hospital was dedicated, the crowning achievement for this community of a country doctor who for half a century had practiced medicine, 45 of those years in Wharton. He had seen Wharton grow from a ragged little village to a prosperous and beautiful community with pavements throughout the city and a system of highways and hard surfaced lateral roads stretching away in every direction.

Flowers stood that day on every dresser and table in the hospital, linen shelves were stacked with gifts from appreciative townsfolk, eminent physicians and surgeons from all over this section of the state were present to do him honor when Dr. Green Davidson rose to speak.

He stood a moment remembering other days, other years of work, of hardships and sorrows perhaps, but every moment of which he had loved with all his heart. He thought for a moment of the beautiful table and the shining instruments of that spotless operating room so near to where he stood, of those wonderful modern sterilizers, of the laboratory and its cabinets and equipment. Once again he smiled, this time through his tears. �This,� he said, gesturing with his hands, �is what I�ve been wanting for 50 years.�

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Wharton Physician

Recalls Hardships

of Early Doctoring

Dr.Green L. Davidson looked back on 54 years as a Texas physician here last week as he celebrated his seventy-fourth birthday.

He has forded swollen creeks on swimming horses and in buggies. He has driven many hundreds of miles in all sorts of weather.

"I've never failed to respond to a call", he said proudly.

And his hardships seem to have woven themselves into the texture of the doctor. He's tall, straight and dapper and as sturdy as an oak. His energy still drives him forward just as it did when he was a young man.

Several years ago, Doctor Davidson (he is betters known locally as Dr.Green) was slugged and robbed at his garage door.His stamina, built up through long years as a country doctor, came to his rescue.He dragged himself to the back door of his home, but failed to get a response from his knock.He rose and walked tot he front door,where he was met by his wife. He remained gravely ill in a hospital for several weeks and his recovery,which was complete, was regarded as almost miraculous.

Doctor Davidson was born in Alabama but came to Texas with his parents in 1880, when they settled on a farm near Alleyton. He attended an Alabama medical college and began practicing when he was 21.He spent eight years at Alleyton and then moved to Wharton, where he has served for the past 47 years.--Houston Chronicle.(no date on the article)

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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF

South-East Texas and The Founders,Leaders and Representative Men of ITS COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND CIVIC AFFAIRS

Associate Editors

Hon. Dermot H. Hardy, B.A.,

Ex-Secretary of State

Illustrated

Vol.II

The Lewis Publishing Company

Chicago

1910

Page 655

Green LaFayette Davidson, M.D., physician and surgeon of Wharton, has besides conducting a successful practice in that city since 1895, identified himself in a cert positive manner with the business and civic life of that community.

In his profession he stands in the front rank. He graduated in the class of 1889 from Medical College of Alabama at Mobile, and has since taken three post graduate courses in the post graduate school connected with Tulane University (in 1892, 1903 and 1905). He was engaged in practice at Alleyton, Texas, from 1889 to 1894,and then after a year at Eagle Lake came to Wharton, where he is in the general practice of medicine and surgery.

Dr. Davidson is a man of diverse interests.One of them is rice and potatoe farming, which he carries on successfully on some three hundred acres in Southeast Texas. He is also a public=spirited factor in municipal politics, having served as a member of council seven years, and for three years was a member of the board of health.he is a Democrat in party allegiance.

He is local surgeon for the Southern pacific Railroad; examiner for life insurance companies, including all the Texas companies; was president for six years and is now vice-president of the Wharton-Jackson County Medical Association;was president and councilor of the Eighth District Medical Association in 1906-07; and member of the Texas State Medical Association and the American Medical Association.

Dr.Davidson was born in Clarke county, Alabama, March 4, 1867. His father William C. Davidson, a native Alabama, following farming.....[do not have the next page]

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Dr. DAVIDSON SEES

FIFTIETH MILESTONE

IN MEDICAL CAREER

BELOVED WHARTON PHYSICIAN

IS HONORED BY MEDICAL SO-

CIETY ON COMPLETION OF

FIFTY YEARS OF GENERAL

PRACTICE

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October 31, 1952

Dr. G. L. Davidson

Pioneer Physician

Buried Sunday

A tired old heart ran down last Friday after its owner had given more than 60 years of loving and skillful medical service to countless men and women of Wharton County. Tall, erect Dr. Green L. Davidson, 85 years young, died Friday morning at the home of his son, Dr. Toxy Davidson. He had been in frail health for the last several years.

Funeral services for Dr.Davidson were held from the First Baptist Church of which he was a senior deacon. The pastor, Rev. Tom Brandon conducted the services at three o'clock. Music was given by Mrs. J.R. Cox at the organ.

Burial was in the Wharton Cemetery under the direction of the Broughton-Hinze Mortuary.Pallbearers were B.C. Roberts, Walter Dodson, R.D. Wright, F.L. Kral, L.D. Clements and T.J. Hudgins.

Born of farm parents March 4, 1867 in Clark County, Alabama, Dr. Davidson got his first contact with the medical profession when he worked as odd job boy in his uncle's, Dr. J.K. Davidson's drug store in Alleyton. At 16 he and a slightly older boy ,later known throughout the land, the Hon. J.J. Mansfield, purchased the uncle's store and ran it together for awhile. Dr."Green" liked to tell how he and Mansfield studied in the back shop, one the medical books, the other law.

Eventually Dr. Green took his medical degree in 1889 at the University of Alabama at Mobile. In contrast to todays rigid requirements for the practice of medicine is the fact that in his student days Dr. Green had to stay out one year to practice medicine to get enough money to go back to school and earn his M.D. He came to Wharton in 1895 and set up practice in competition with 12 other practicing physicians. Here he struggled with malaria which in its more virulent form was called black jaundice, typhoid and dysentery.And no wonder. The streams were polluted, the cisterns drained from dusty roofs, often were built underground.Stock wandered the streets and screens on windows and doors hadn't been heard of.

Office practice didn't mean much in those days and Dr.Green knew all about the horse and buggy days when patients were scattered throughout the farm areas. Just as now people got sick or had babies in the middle of the night and off Dr.Green would go in freezing rain in the dead of night over roads bottomless with mud.In 1907 he bought the first automobile in Wharton County. In more recent years Dr. Green was known for the opposite extreme as he and his little 1915 Chevrolet coupe continued to haunt their posts at Outlar's corner.

Dr.Green owned the first x-ray in Wharton County. And in 1912 he purchased the beautiful old frame home of the late H.F. Moore and opened his Caney Valley Hospital with 8 to 10 beds, nurses quarters and working units. Miss Mamie Walker was the unit superintendent and the staff included Dr. Green's son, Dr. Toxy Davidson, his brother, the late Dr.Will Davidson of Houston, Dr. J.M. Andrews and Dr.Thurman Neal of Wharton.

It was not until March 1937, just before his 70th birthday that Dr. Green Davidson saw his dream of 50 years come true. On March 1 of that year the present fireproof structure which is Caney Valley Hospital was opened. Shining equipment of the latest scientific value, hospital rooms glowing with color, instead of the traditional white, room to work and equipment to do it with that the old country doctor had only dreamed of brought tears of joy to his proud eyes.His cup was brimful and he felt that his personal life had achieved a satisfaction climax.

Dr.Green worked on and at a very advanced age could still deliver a baby at night and work all the next day. As he slowed down at last he would tell friends, still with that twinkle in his eye,"I keep this office and I help cut some of the work I keep right on going.I'm just like that Colorado river down there. If the water ever stops flowing the river will be no more.It is the same with me, if I ever stop work I won't last six months."

It was so and on Sunday was laid to rest Dr.Green L. Davidson, Country Doctor.

Dr.Davidson is survived by his four sons, Dr. T.L. Davidson, W.J. Davidson, R.W. Davidson, all of Wharton and G.L. Davidson of San Antonio. His only daughter Mrs. Charles A. Davis of Wharton. He also leaves three brothers, Stanley C. Davidson of Baytown, Richard Davidson of Ganado and Lee Davidson of Bay City; also four sisters, Mrs. W.W. Lowrey and Mrs. O.E. Bryan of Houston, Mrs. Herbert Bryan of Cleveland and Mrs. Bowers Tolliver of Eagle Lake.

He also leaves eight grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

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Wharton Spectator October 31, 1952

Services Held For

Dr. Davidson Sun.

Dr. Green L. Davidson, beloved Wharton physician, died after a long illness on Friday, October 31st, at the home of his son, Dr. Toxie Davidson. The body lay in state in the sanctuary of the First Baptist church from 2 until 3 o�clock Sunday afternoon, and religious services were held at 3 o�clock with the Rev. Tom S. Brandon, pastor of the church, in charge of the rites. Interment was in the family plot at City Cemetery. The funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Broughton-Hinze Mortuary.

Dr. Davidson was born in Alabama on March 4th, 1867. he came to Wharton as a young man and practiced as a physician for nearly 60 years, giving his life to the service of the people of Wharton County. During his early career he was a horse and buggy doctor going out in all weathers and at all hours on is errands of mercy. When the automobiles came into general use he was one of the first to adopt the new method of transportation, jolting over the country roads in his little car to the sick, never considering whether or not he would be paid for his sacrificial service. Affectionately known to all, both black and white, as �Dr. Green�, he gave freely of his time and talent for the healing to those in need.

During the terrible scourge of influenza that struck the country during World War I he worked day and night to help the suffering. He said once in speaking of that time of terror and sorrow that he did not take off his clothes for more than a week. Stricken with the disease himself he refused to give up and working through sheer will power he stayed on his feet throughout the worst of the epidemic, almost staggering with exhaustion and fever, to aid those who called him.

It was through the guiding hand and inspiration of Dr. Green Davidson that the Caney Valley Hospital was founded, an institution that has been a blessing to the sufferers in this area ad that has contributed in untold measures to the health and well being of the people in this community.

A devout Christian, Dr. Davidson was the senior deacon of the First Baptist Church. A profound Bible student, for many years he taught the scripture at the weekly Wednesday night prayer meeting at the church. He was a member of the Board of Deacons that planned and sacrificed in order that the handsome building that is the Baptist Church might become a reality.

He was a member of the Wharton Lodge, No. 621 A.F. & A.M. and wore the coveted 50 year pin of the order of the Masonic Lodge.

His staunch courage and stamina were demonstrated a number of years ago when he was the victim of a mad man that fractured his skull almost the entire circumference of his head. Blows that would have killed a lesser man slowly healed and he eventually resumed his practice, although thereafter he traveled at a slower gait.

Kind, gentle, courageous he had a fund of wisdom from which his friends could draw at need. His deeds of charity will never be named for they are not known, but they are stars today in his heavenly crown. He exemplified those qualities of Christian manhood for which all men strive and which excite the admiration of all mankind. He had a long, full life and he spent it in the service of his fellow man.

Survivors include [see other obituary] Pall Bearers were B.C. Roberts Sr., Walter Dotson, R.D. Wright, F.L. Kral, L.D. Clements and T.J. Hudgins.

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One who was closely associated with Dr. Green Davidson and who learned to love and admire him was inspired to write of the dearly beloved physician in this manner :

There is no frenzied grief at his passing, only a deep lingering sadness that at last he must go. But mixed with this great sadness is a feeling of gladness that we can say �You have done enough. Now you must rest.�

�Dr. Green� will stay with us as long as there are memories to treasure those things that are good and kind and true. His tender touch for those in pain, his love for the beauties of the rose and the sunset, his response to any call of need; his complete honesty and simplicity that mark a truly great man.

Humbly we say our farewell, grateful that our lives were touched by this great one, sorrowing that he is here no more, but glad that we can say, �Now you must rest.�

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Mrs. Green Davidson Buried By Side of Husband

October 22, 1954

Mrs.Lula Wright Davidson, 87, widow of the late Dr.Green l. Davidson, passed away Monday evening at the home of her daughter, Mrs.C.A. Davis, after an illness of nearly five years.

Funeral services for Mrs. Davidson were held Wednesday morning at ten in the drawing room of Broughton-Hinze Mortuary and burial was by the side of her husband who passed away October 31, 1952. Pallbearers were Charles Ingram, Irving Moore Sr., E.G. Brooks,Lanier Forgason, E. Hawes, Jr., and Frank Kral.

Thus passes one more of the old-fashioned gentlewomen whose quiet, resourceful and Christian patterned lives strove to establish like characteristics in the lives of her family.

Lula Wright Davis was born in Colorado County in 1866, the daughter of Timothy and Mary Elizabeth Alley Wright.After primary schools she was sent to Weimer Institute where she was graduated Valedictorian of her class. her valedictory was published in the local paper, the source, also much information as to her academic attainments. At Weimer, the paper records, Lula wright received the silver cup for scholarship. She was a member of the Philomathean Literary Society. Later she received an appointment from her legislator to attend college at Huntsville. In those days girls didn't select their schools and attend but often had to wait for permission from their senators or representatives.

At Huntsville she earned a first grade certificate which she used two years as a teacher in the Alta schools. In Alta then were the Southern Pacific shops which made it a booming little city. In 1891Miss Wright married a young man who was a sort of combination doctor and drug clerk, Dr. Green Davidson, practicing medicine to pay for his medical education. They were married by his father then Justice of the Peace.From Alleyton the young couple moved to Eagle Lake and eventually to Wharton where Dr. Green practiced medicine for nearly 60 years.

Mrs. Davidson was a member of the Baptist church from Weimer Institute days and throughout her life enjoyed working in the Missionary Society circles. In Wharton she joined the New Century Literary Club and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. A quiet person she devoted herself to her doctor husband and to their children.In 1941 she and "Dr.Green" enjoyed the big reception which their children held for them in honor of their golden wedding anniversary. She would stand quietly with her husband while he beamed at hospital openings and other public occasions.

His was the outward going temperament, hers more withdrawn and quiet.

She fell and fractured her hip in 1950, spent a year and a half in the hospital and then was taken to her daughters home where loving care helped her to live an extra three years.

Mrs.Davidson is survived by her one daughter, and by three sons, W.J., Dr. Toxy L. and Raymond Davidson, all of Wharton.

She also leaves eight grandchildren:Mrs. Joel Stutts, Mrs. Kenneth Gilbert of Newgulf, Charles Davis, Billy, Jacqueline, Betty, Raymond Jr., and L inda Davidson all of Wharton.Five great grandchildren also survive.

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PHOTO ALBUM

Dr. Davidson in his automobile, the first in Wharton County

Dr. Davidson in a meeting

Dr. Davidson in the operating room at Caney Valley Hospital

Nurses at the First Hospital

Nurses at the second building of Caney Valley Hospital

Nurses at the third building of Caney Valley Hospital

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