William H. Davidson

IN MEMORY
William Davidson

William Davidson died in late August and our area lost a great historian. William was one of the first people in the West Georgia and East Alabama area to document our heritage through text, historical files, and photographs. He realized that much of our heritage was being lost in the 1950s and 1960s as houses were being torn down and old communities were being forgotten. He wrote Pine Log and Greek Revival using census records, family interviews, deeds, and other documents. Kathryn Hyde’s photographs of historic family homes added greatly to his book. Pine Log was published in 1964 and sold for $12.95. The book was the first significant work on local history published in the area in forty years. Family members have valued their copy of Pine Log ever since. Today if someone is lucky enough to find a copy for sale, the price may be several hundred dollars.

Ken Thomas, historian at the Historic Preservation Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and native of Columbus, remembers Mr. Davidson as “one of the last 20th century historians who truly knew how to ferret out information from the public records and started early enough that many of our now-lost historic houses were still standing when he began and thus got recorded. The books he did stand as a testimony of not only his subject matter but also as teaching tools for those learning how to use local records. The West Georgia and East Alabama counties he wrote about truly have some great source books for all time.”

Davidson also published Brooks of Honey & Butter: Plantations and People of Meriwether County, GA and Gentlefolk, 1888 (both 2 volumes) about Troup County and the four volume set, A Rockaway in Talbot. He wrote several pamphlets and contributed to several publications by the Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society. He was the last living charter member of the Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society. He was always charming and gracious. Until recent years, he came to the Troup County Archives or the deed room at the Courthouse often to do research. Historians in the area will be using his books and his research for many, many years to come.

Well known for his chronicles of the architectural and general history of the Chattahoochee Valley, William Davidsion is perhaps best known for his Pine Log and Greek Revival, an architectural and historical study of homes in Chambers County, Alabama and Troup and Harris Counties in Georgia.

The writer's love of history was born at West Point High School where he felt Mrs. Eunice Winston "taught the subject well." Mrs Winston taught history and Latin to several generations of West Point students, according to Davidson.

"She could explain the Confederate battle so that you could see them going up one valley and down another, the historian recalls, ""She just knew it and made it so you could see it"