Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3202 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS1914, He has reached an influential place in several of the house committees,is chairman of the enrolling committee and the judiciary committee, has donesome important work in the penitentiary committee, and is also a member ofthe public highways committee.Throughout his career as a lawyer Mr. Davidson has steadfastly declinedto serve as an attorney for corporations in which public utilities are concerned,but is attorney for several local mercantile companies. He has always been anactive democrat, and is a charter member of Lodge No. 367, IndependentOrder of Odd Fellows. His family are members of the Methodist EpiscopalChurch.On October 17, 1897, in Putnam County Mr. Davidson married MissWillie A. Johnson, who was born in Putnarn County, February 8, 1871, adaughter of Rev. William G. and Frances L. (Pitts) Johnson. Her motherwas born in Russel County, Alabama. Rev. W. G. Johnson, died at his homein Putnam County, April 20, 1905. His father, Dr. Green Johnson, was aprominent physician of Putnam County. Rev. W. G. Johnson was a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and besides his work inPutnam County was also identified with the Alabama Conference. To themarriage of Mr. and Mrs. Davidson were born six children, all in Eatonton:William Francis, born April 20,1899, and died May 30, 1900; Benjamin Hunt,born October 27, 1900; Kathleen, born May 31, 1903; Nodley Maddox, bornApril 2, 1905; Oneida, born October 24, 1909; and Thomas Pitts, bornNovember 29, 1912.HON. HOKE SMITH. The distinguished public services of Hon. HokeSmith, ex-governor of the great State of Georgia, formerly a member of thecabinet of President Cleveland, and now a member of the United States Senate, have brought credit upon the section to which he belongs primarily bybirth, education and personal ties, and, additionally, have added to the prestigeof the country as a whole because of his wisdom as a statesman, his sagacityas a politician and his innate loyalty as a true American. Senator Smith is ofNew England ancestry and of Revolutionary stock. He was born at Newton,North Carolina, September 2, 1855, and is a son of H. H. and Mary Brent(Hoke) Smith, and a grandson of William True Smith and of Michael Hoke,both grandfathers being men of intellectual strength, the latter an able lawyerand political leader, and the former a graduate of Dartmouth College, in NewHampshire. The Smiths were among the early settlers in the colony of Massachusetts, and the great-grandfather of Senator Smith served under GeneralWashington during the Revolutionary war with the rank of colonel. On thematernal side the Brents and Hokes belonged to Virginia and North Carolina,the first chief justice of the latter state bearing the name of Hoke and servingas a member of the Continental Congress,H. H. Smith, father of Senator Smith, was born in New Hampshire andearly displaying scholastic tastes entered Bowdoin College, Maine, from whichinstitution he was graduated, with the degree of LL. D. He devoted his entirelife to educational work. In 1850 he became a resident of Newton, NorthCarolina, and for several years was president of Catawba College at thatplace, subsequently becoming a member of the faculty of the State Universityof North Carolina. He married Miss Mary Brent Hoke, a lady of charm andgreat mental endowment, and the fortunate inheritance of their son, who wasgiven the honored maternal family name, was great intellectual strengthtogether with a superb physique.Until his thirteenth year Hoke Smith pursued his studies at Chapel Hill,but when changes came about in the administration of affairs at the university, his father took over the task of educating his son and the result was satisfactory in the extreme. Developing a taste for the law, in 1872 Mr. Smith,began to read law in an office at Atlanta, so assiduously applying himself that