Mary Louisa Long Davidson Green
Madison Calvin Davidson was born 18 November 1851. He was the son of George W. Davidson and Mary H. Daniel who came to Texas about 1845. In the 1850 census, they are listed in Cass County, Texas, with children Amanda, Wincy Adeline, Susan, James, and Martha.
Madison Davidson was known by the nickname "Matt". About 1882, Matt Davidson bought 648 acres in Atascosa County off the "most northern part of the four league grant to J.A. Navarro", at the Agua Negro Springs. It was on the old Poteet to Rossville road. Matt and Mary Davidson gave the county the acre on the northwest corner of that land for a school for the Ditto community. It was across the county road from the Hurley store. The south 320 acres of the purchase were sold later to Monroe Long, Mary's twin brother.
Mary Long and Matt Davidson's children were:
1) Julia Florence, 1876-1894
2) James Madison "Jim", 1879-1941, m May Elizabeth Beakley
3) Mary Effie, 1881-? married Ben Beakley
Mary Louisa Long and Madison Calvin Davidson, Effie, Florence and Matt
Madison Calvin Davidson had been a "robust, thick-set man with boundless energy" who grew weaker and weaker from what was called lung sickness. Shortly before he died, his sister Susan Davidson Crawford came from Linden in Cass County, Texas, to see him. She recalled stories of their childhood. They had lost their parents when they were young.
Matt and Susan's father died about 1856. In 1858, their mother, Mary, married C. Greenup Titsworth. Mary Daniel Davidson Titsworth died in 1860. The causes of their early deaths are unknown.
Susan's visit helped prepare Jim and his family for what was coming.
Matt and Susan recalled that when he was 5 and she was 10, they went with their father on his big freighter wagon to the port at Jefferson. They stayed at "The Wagon Yard",
a structure of thirty or more one-room apartments. Each with a fireplace and a small quantity of firewood, a small table and two benches. One little two-by-two foot window at the back, and a narrow door at the front shed light on the bare plank walls....The travellers had to furnish their own bedding, cooking utensils and dishes and carry in the water in their own buckets, make their beds, etc. ... After breakfast they went to see the big river boats being loaded at the wharves, and then visited several stores where their father bought the things they wanted to take home. ... [That] was their father's last trip as a freighter before he died that winter.Madison Calvin "Matt" Davidson died from tuberculosis 31 October 1888. In December 1888 Louis C. Green came to Ditto from Tennessee to visit his friend, Charles Hurley. They had been neighbors in Tennessee. He began to visit the Davidson home, and married the widowed Mary Long Davidson on 10 November 1889. The children had understandable difficulties adjusting to a step father so soon. Green was quite different from their father. When Mary had two more little girls, the Davidson children had still more adjustments to make. Mable Ankie was born 14 November 1890 and Ruby Anna was born 17 May 1893.
Five years after Matt Davidson's death, his daughter Julia Florence became ill with the same disease and died at age 17 on 23 April 1894. The family was living at Ditto, but Florence was buried at Old Shiloh Cemetery near her father.
After Florence's death, Jim Davidson was sent to Sweetwater to work for his uncle, Andy Long. Jim was sixteen. He had been living with J. L. McCaleb at Benton City, helping him in his general store while attending school. Jim's son wrote that Jim
argued that the school out there could not be better, and probably not as good as Benton City Institute, where he wanted to return for his last year. He argued further that Sweetwater was too far away, and that he knew no one out there. ... His protests did no good however, because his mother had made up her mind. She was an unyielding woman. When she set her mind on a thing, there was no dissuading her.Something of Mary Long Davidson's personality shows through these memories. Many of us recognize some familiar family traits.She [Mary Long Davidson] had long since decided that her son was to become a School Teacher, a profession she held in high esteem. ... She had a low regard for the average business man. She was as suspicious of the merchant as she was of horse traders, politicians, insurance salesmen and way-faring snake oil and medicine peddlers. All of whom she lumped together as unscrupulous. Only farmer, ranchers, teachers, preachers and doctors (though not necessarily in that order) she considered reputable professions. So she persuaded Jim that it was for his own good, and that she was making the sacrifice on his behalf, and he would be ungrateful if he refused to go to Sweetwater school.
After Matt Davidson's death in 1888, Mary Long Davidson married Louis Clay Green. Their children were:
1) Mabel Ankie, 1890-1980
2) Ruby Anna, 1893-1981, married Howard Ralph Swift
Mary Louisa Long Davidson Green died 3 May 1898. She is believed to have been buried at Bandera Cemetery. Her grave has not been located.