Obituary of Commodore W. F. Davidson

Montreal River Miner and Iron County Republican, Hurley, WI 2 June 1887

Commodore William F. Davidson of St. Paul, died at his residence in that city Thursday evening, May 26.

Tuesday night he suffered a stroke of paralysis of his left side and lapsed into an unconscious state from which he rallied after a few hours. He retained his faculties until the last moment, conversing with his family and attendants, dictating his will, and taking his farewells to those nearest and dear to him.

He was fully aware of his condition and in reply to a question if he was afraid to die responded with his characteristic mental force, “No, not at all. Why should I be afraid to die?”  During Wednesday and Thursday, he suffered much pain, but was composed and ready for the end, speaking intelligibly ten minutes before his eyes were closed for his last, his long repose.

Born in 1825 in Lawrence County, Ohio

W. F. Davidson was born on February 4, 1825, in Lawrence County, Ohio, and his father was employed on the Ohio Canal and gave a portion of his time to duties as a local Baptist preacher.  The boy had scant opportunities for education but took to his father’s avocation, and by the time he was twenty years of age was the owner of two boats that ran on Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers.

Later his boats ran on the Ohio and Mississippi.  In 1854 he arrived at St. Paul with his steamer, the Frank Steele, and from that time his life work was identified with that city and the Northwest.

Commodore first opened a packet line on the Minnesota River. Later on the Mississippi River, he had fifteen boats. Those boats ran down the river to Dubuque and then to St. Louis from 1854 to the present time. His history and the Mississippi river traffic are identical, though the La Crosse & Minnesota Packet Company. Later he was the head of both St. Louis & St. Paul Packet companies.

Married in 1856

In the year 1856, he married the daughter of Judge Benjamin Johnson of Southern Ohio. He lived at St. Paul, with an interval of about ten years, in which he spent in St. Louis superintending his large steamboat enterprises.

St. Paul owes its commercial prominence and prosperity, to Commodore Davidson, more than to any other one man known to its history.  Through his grasp, enterprise, courage, and untiring industry, before the railroad era, he laid the foundation, through his transportation lines for the great city that now laments his loss.

Nor were his steamboat enterprises the sole object of his work and ambitions.  He early became a considerable owner of real estate, constantly adding to his holdings, until now his estate in the branch is estimated at $3,000,000. His ownership included the Grand Opera House, Union Block, Davidson Block, and other prominent and valuable business property, together with residential property and unimproved lots and tracts.

His personal life was one of the most unassuming and genital of men, always approachable, but always busy. He was a tireless worker and found no time for real rest or recreation, but early and late was devoted to his extensive, engrossing, and exacting affairs, and to this constant and mighty strain is due the fact of his early death, the sudden and almost unnoticed sundering of his forces.

A generous man to a fault and public-spirited in ways and avenues that will long be remembered and sadly missed. At an early age, he became a member of the Baptist church and was ever a promoter of morality and the good of society, with a religious faith that was a part of his nature.

The immediate family now bereaved are his wife, a son, aged 26, and a daughter aged 14, several children having been taken from him by death. The City and the State may well lament the loss of such a man, one who had the opportunity, the ability, and the inclination to stand and labor for the permanent progress and prosperity of all his fellow men.

Ironton Register 22 Apr 1886

Commodore William F. Davidson – Ironton Register, April 22, 1886 – From a copy of the Northwest, we take the following sketch of an old Lawrence county boy. Commodore William F. Davidson, whose familiar face is presented in this issue of The Northwest, was born on a farm in Lawrence County, Ohio, near what is now the village of South Point, 4 Feb. 1825. His father, William W. Davidson, was one of the pioneers in that section. He carried on farming to some extent and did more or less boating on Ohio, Big Sandy, Kanawha, and Scioto Rivers.

When but ten years old the Commodore commenced his experience upon the water by accompanying his father on various boating trips. That sort of experience has been almost continuous throughout life. The first steamboat that he owned an interest in was the “Gondola,” about 1845. She was employed in the Portsmouth, Big Sandy, and Guyandotte trade.

Subsequently, he built and owned the steamer “Relief,” “United States Aid” and “The Jacob Traber.” He built the “Frank Steele” in 1857, and the “Favorite” in 1859, ran them on the Minnesota River and made their names historic.

In the Winter of 1858-9, he was married to Sarah A. Johnston, a daughter of Judge Benjamin Johnston, well known in Southern Ohio. They had six children, but two of whom survive, a son and a daughter, the son being in business with his father at the present time.

Visits St. Paul, Minn. in the Winter of 1855

Mr. Davidson’s first visit to St. Paul was in the winter of 1855 when he became favorably impressed, and the next year he brought the “Jacob Traber” to the Upper Mississippi and began his acting career in the Northwest. The old La Crosse and St. Paul Packet Company was organized by him and did a flourishing business preceding the advent of railroads into Minnesota.

After the La Crosse Packet Company, he came to the Northwestern Union Packet Company, Keokuk Northern Line Packet Company, and St. Louis and St. Paul Packet Company. Which is in active operation, and the headquarters of which will hereafter be in St. Paul instead of St. Louis as heretofore. With all the above-named and several other steamboat corporations he has been actively identified, and usually the controlling spirit.

Real estate was his next adventure and in 1864 he began to purchase property in Minnesota, particularly in St. Paul. He owns large and valuable tracts of land in Southwestern Minnesota. He was also one of the early stockholders and directors in the Sioux City Railroad, and still owns large interests in the lands of that company.

During the same year, he purchased the real estate that had been owned by John Randall and William Randall and their heirs. This real estate was greatly involved by the reason of litigation with creditors, tax titles, etc. For many years this property was tied up by foreclosures and lawsuits, but when it became disentangled he began to build and improve his large buildings.

Moving to St. Louis in 1870, he remained there in active charge of his steamboat interest until 1882 when he returned to St. Paul to make this his permanent home. He has built some of the largest structures in this city and owns a very large list of a real estate bringing in handsome revenues, which are constantly used in new buildings or improvements.

Owned Many Business Blocks in Ironton, Ohio

Among the business blocks owned by him are the following:

• Davidson Block, northeast corner Fourth, and Jackson;
• Davidson Block No. 2, northeast corner Sixth and Jackson;
• Lambert Block, northeast corner of Third and Cedar;
• Union Block, northeast corner of Fourth and Cedar;
• Court Block opposite new Court House on Fourth Street;
• Grand Opera House; the new seven-story block on Wabasha;
• Grand Opera House Block;
• Exposition Building on Fourth, near Wabasha.

He also owns a large number of the most valuable vacant corners in the city and hopes yet to cover them with business blocks. He is in good health, works early and late, year in and year out, and has unbounded faith in the future of St. Paul.

Mr. Davidson is now reaping the fruit of his long years of toil and is ranked as one of the wealthiest citizens of this Northwestern metropolis. He is said to have the largest real estate rent and tax roll of any one man in Ramsey county. He has held his property through all the “panics” and “depressions,” and with the great growth of the city and its immense increase in values must be several times a millionaire.

During his sojourn in St. Louis, he became an active Christian and an earnest worker in the temperance cause. He has done much to reform the drinking customs of the river, practicing and advocating temperance very earnestly and very effectually. He also became identified with and was president of, the Seamen’s Bethel at St. Louis. He will be pleasantly remembered by multitudes of laboring men whom he assisted, morally and financially.