DAVIDSON, P.F. – HONOR IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS LONG AGO – The Countryman acknowledges a pleasant call from P.F. Davidson, one of Fayetteville’s oldest residents. Mr. Davidson can remember the time when he knew every man and woman in Fayetteville both black and white and “almost every dog.” Says Mr. Davidson, “There was a sociability, a liberality then that there isn’t now. Once I went to Madison County on business, staying about four months. A farmer would take good care of me and my horse and I couldn’t pay him. The people there would just say, ‘Oh, you’re our neighbor over there in Washington County.’” Mr. Davidson says that in those days farmers raised lots of mules. He remembers when two boys took about one hundred head of mules down South and peddled them, getting paid in gold. They came back alone, the money in their saddle bags, stayed all night at a house, leaving their saddle bags on the floor while they tended their horses, and slept that night with no lock on the door. He says there was no bank in Fayetteville then and everyone kept money around the house. It was well known that one or two farmers had several thousand dollars at home and people even then came there to borrow money, yet there was no fear of its being stolen. Mr. Davidson is 88 years old, but still very active, working each day in his large garden or the lawn of his home on Washington Avenue. [The Arkansas Countryman 6/9/1927]
OLD SETTLER RECALLS SCENES ALONG THE OLD WIRE ROAD YEARS AGO – P.F. Davidson, Resident of Washington County for 67 Years Gives Interesting Information- The “Old Wire Road” from St. Louis to Fort Smith must have occupied a place in the minds of early settlers about like the trans-continental railroads do today, and the old stage coach drawn by four spirited horses made “time” on this thoroughfare just as the through trains do today. Mr. P.F. Davidson, one of Fayetteville’s oldest and most highly respected citizens who came to Washington County 67 years ago, the 1st of last November vividly remembers when the Old Wire Road from Fayetteville to Van Buren and from Fayetteville to St. Louis was the “highway.” Mr. Davidson remembers one instance in which one woman made the trip by stage coach from San Francisco, California in 18 days and nights without having a stay over. This was very unusual as most passengers had to stop over en route and lose considerable time. The old stage coach made fast time in those days and the driver had little to do at the station as horses were awaiting the arrival of the stage and the old coach was soon ready to go forward on its trip. Mr. Davidson says that he remembers hearing the stage horn blow when it reached the top of the hill north of Fayetteville, now the Springdale road, the Old Wire Road. The station was then near where the Washington County Court House now stands. When the attendants of the station heard the horn they hurridly harnessed four horses, and had them ready and waiting. As soon as the stage drove up the four tired horses were taken out and the fresh horses put in their places. By that time the passengers were in the stage and seated and the Old Coach started on its westward journey to Van Buren by way of Strickler, which is the only village Mr. Davidson remembers between Fayetteville and Van Buren. Mr. Davidson says that in those days the woods were full of game and the streams full of fish. Settlers usually caught them in traps in those days. He has seen deer around the present home on North Washington Avenue. He said that hunters had little trouble bagging all the game they needed in the woods of Washington County. Commenting on the Good old hospitality in Washington County 67 years ago, Mr. Davidson remembers when if two persons passed on the street and one failed to speak, the other would take it as an insult. Contrast this with the busy rush of people today when too often they fail to recognize a friend in passing. It would seem that most everybody attended the country church in those days. In passing, while services were being held it would seem that church was attended by a “brigade of cavalry” as everybody rode horseback and hitched their horses around the church yard. Contrast this with the mode of travel today when the automobile has replaced the horse. Mr. Davidson said the last time he passed along the road by a country church that he had known in other days he did not see a single horse hitched on the church ground. Even country people came in automobiles. In last issue the statement was made that two boys would take one hundred mules south. It should have been: Two men with a boy to ride the lead horse, the horse having a bell on, would take one hundred mules to the cotton country and bring back payment in gold. [The Arkansas Countryman 6/16/1927]
Gen. P.F. Davidson has 85th Birthday – Perry F. Davidson, brother of Major B.R. Davidson and one of Fayetteville’s oldest and most highly respected citizens, celebrated his 85th birthday last night. Mr. Davidson continues in good health and is in possession of all his facilities except for slightly impaired hearing.
He was born October 31, 1839 at Monmouth, Illinois, and came to Fayetteville November 1, 1839. He is a veteran of the Confederate Army, having served as band leader for the First Arkansas Cavalry under Colonel William Brooks. He was slightly wounded several times and was taken prisoner by the federals and placed in prison in St. Louis for 15 months. He is a veteran of the siege of Vicksburg and also other important battles. His wife, formerly Miss Ora Haley, of Missouri, and his daughter, an only child, Mrs. Lenna Davidson Agee, who makes her home with her parents, compose the unbroken family. At the close of the Civil War Mr. Davidson was made adjutant general of the United Confederate Veterans of Arkansas. [Fayetteville Daily Democrat 10/31/1924]
P.F. Davidson attended the Missouri State Confederate Reunion at Joplin Thursday. The meeting was held at the park in that city, and the old soldiers were out in large numbers. Major Stone of Kansas City was elected Major-General, commanding the Missouri Division, in place of Judge Gant, who resigned. [Fayetteville Democrat 10/4/1906] DAVIDSON, Perry F. - Mr. P.F. Davidson has in his possession a copy of a paper which tells more eloquently the story of the desperate times in which it was published. than any words could possibly do. It is a paper that was published at Vicksburg during the Civil War. While the siege of Vicksburg was in progress the editor had on his hand a problem as serious to the life of his paper as the bread and meat question was to the inhabitants of the town. He had exhausted his supply of blank paper and there was no way to get a supply from neighboring towns. At last in sheer desperation he bought up a stock of wallpaper and published the news on the white side thereof. He had a red issue and a green issue and all kinds of issues, but he pulled through all right and in his last wallpaper issue the little sheet still sang the glory of old Dixie. The last issue has gone out to the world as a curiosity and Mr. Davidson has acquired a copy of it. The originals would be worth a vast amount of money. [Fayetteville Daily 6/10/1905]
Perry F. Davidson Answers Last Call - Fayetteville mourns the loss of another of its old and highly respected citizens, one who has done much for the town and country and whose life and character always stood for the best in life, Perry F. Davidson, who passed away last Sunday. Mr. Davidson had passed his 86th birthday. He came to Fayetteville in 1859 and served in the Confederate army in Brooks regiment and was twice captured and held in Federal prison at St. Louis, later being transferred to the one at Alton, Illinois, where he remained until the end of the war.
Mr. Davidson vividly remembered Fayetteville's early history and often related incidents at the Countryman office as to the stirring days when Fayetteville was a villaDA