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Old Time
Judge
Thomas Whitfield Davidson
by Archie
P. McDonald |
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Thomas
Whitfield Davidson served in many political and judicial offices,
but he never wandered from the religious inculcations of his mother,
Sara Josephine Daniels Whitfield, and near the end of his life the
judge memorialized her with a shrine. More about that later.
The story begins in September 1876, when Whitfield was born in the
pineywoods of northwest Harrison County. His father, John Ransom Whitfield,
had moved the family to East
Texas from Georgia in 1867; they were refugees from Radical Reconstruction
there.
Davidson attended country schools before enrolling in East Texas State
Normal College in Commerce,
Texas, then in the University of Chicago and Columbia University.
Davidson returned to Marshall
and a teaching job, which left time to “read for the law,” and he
passed the bar exam in 1903.
Davidson opened a legal practice in Marshall
and served as city attorney. He won election as a state senator, 1907
to 1914, and was twice elected lieutenant governor before losing in
the race for governor in 1924 in the Democratic primary to Miriam
Amanda Ferguson. Earlier, Davidson’s party credentials had been cinched
at the Democratic National Convention in 1912 when he had been one
of the “Immortal Forty” who followed Edward M. House in stalwart support
of Woodrow Wilson through that many ballots before Wilson became the
party’s nominee for president.
Davidson was appointed United States district judge, Northern District
of Texas, in 1936, and served until 1965. Davidson married Asenath
Burkhart in 1902, Constance Key Wandel in 1936, and Beulah Rose in
1949, but had no children, so he left a large estate in northwest
Harrison County for public use.
Davidson erected a chapel on the estate, and endowed its maintenance
and two annual public forums with a featured speaker. The May gathering
features “The Faith of our Fathers” and one in September emphasis
the United States Constitution and the “American Way of Life.” Both
are concluded with “dinner on the grounds.”
Davidson is remembered by friends and neighbors in Harrison County
as a devoted preserver of county, state, and American history—and
“old time religion.” |
© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
January 29, 2006 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical
Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and
author of more than 20 books on Texas. |
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