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| Notes for Asa Lee Davison MD | ||||||||||||||||
| Asa Lee Davison was born September 8, 1841 in Groveland or Minonk, Illinois to Squire Rowland Davison and Amanda West. He was the fifth of the couple's nine children. Prior to Asa Lee's birth, the family had moved, via a pair of horses and a wagon, from the old Davison homestead in Grafton, New York to Illinois in about 1838. Squire was a mason by trade, and once settled in Groveland, "he took up land and made brick on his own farm and built a good brick house...He also built several brick buildings in Pekin, Illinois" (Davison 17). Despite the large amount of timber and undergrowth that needed to be cleared from the land, Squire started an orchard with seeds from the old orchard on the Grafton headstead (A. A. Davison 17). A. A. Davison, family historian and author of The Davison Family, says that he remembers as a child on Grafton homestead saving apple seeds for his Uncle Rowland to take to Illinois (17). It is in Groveland, Illinois, then a small community of x people located on the xxx, that Asa Lee most likely was born. include map of Grafton, NY and Groveland, Illinois. For some degree of historical context, in the year Asa Lee was born...the following events occurred: x,x,x,x. 1841 Birth 1861 Asa's first marriage 1862 - 1865 Civil War (Served in the Illinois 77 Infantry)/ birth of Ellsworth 1868 birth of Mary Emily 1870 birth of Benjamin Lewis 1870s Marriage to Laura Weir 1875ish Moved to Montana 1878 Marriage to Mary Olive Raymond 1884-6 Building and floating of the Fern 1888ish post-grad Medical School in Cincinatti, Ohio 1890-1897 President of Utah State Medical Assoc. / Train accident / Continues to practice medicine worked as doctor in Mount Pleasant, Utah 1895ish move to Weiser 1897 death / birth of Edwin From around 1884 to 1886, Asa became rather smitten with the idea of running a steamboat on the upper Missouri River. (See Appendix A for an excellent article by his grandson, Dr. Stanley Davison, which details how Asa followed his dream.) | ||||||||||||||||
| Notes for Mary Olive (Spouse 3) | ||||||||||||||||
| Mary Olive Raymond was born in Spanish Fork, Utah on October 17, 1862. As an infant, "she was brought to the [Montana] territory...and as a small girl she was one of the few white children in the old capital of Virginia City, where many of her playmates were Indian children, who taught her, among other frontier accomplishments, the use of the bow and arrow." When she was three, her parents established their home at Virginia City. Her mother taught the first school in Madison County, Montana, and the daughter was a pupil of this school and also attended a school at Luray. In 1878 she became the wife of Dr. A. L. Davison. They were married at Glendale, Montana. After Asa Lee's death in 1895, Mary Olive "returned to Montana and lived at Helena until 1904, when she opened a hotel at Jardine, the Montana Hotel," where she was a proprietor for at least 25 years. Mary Olive was also a nurse, and she did first aid work for the compensation board at the Jardine Mines, and also owned a hospital there. She was a member of the Pioneers Association of Montana, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Rebekahs and the Auxiliary of the Patriarchs Militant. There is a family rumor, as yet unsubstantiated, that Mary Olive remarried after Asa Lee's death. The marriage, to a "Frank Rhody," was short-lived (perhaps as short as three weeks) and would have occurred between 1900 and 1905. Mary Olive passed away on July 17, 1936 in Jardine, Montana at the age of 73. Very warm and loving person. Very courageous person. Very compassionate. First aid nurse for Jardine Mining Company. Ran the Mountain Hotel. 4 bedrooms upstairs + bath. Rented out rooms to miners and others. One big room downstairs used as hospital. Made and gave away free meals to folks. Medical training from Asa Lee; no formal training.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Research | ||||||||||||||||
| Raymer, Robert George. "Montana: The Land and the People." Vol. II., The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York: 1930. Pages 467-68. | ||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 17 Jul 2003 | Created 22 Mar 2004 by Reunion for Macintosh |