6th: B.F. Davidson
| Benjamin F. Davidson | 6th Minnesota Infantry |
| by Tim Sisson |
Benjamin F. Davidson was born in Delaware County, Ohio in 1835 to his father, Benjamin Davidson, and his mother Nancy. His father was born in Connecticut, while his mother was born in Pennsylvania. Pvt. Davidson’s father was a farmer in Harlem Township, Ohio in Delaware County, which is just north of the Ohio capital of Columbus, and according to the 1850 United States Census owned a large portion of land and was worth $1,500. Benjamin F. Davidson was the youngest of five children. Benjamin F. had two brothers, John and Daniel, and two sisters, Amy and Sarah. Benjamin was fifteen years old as the nation was just eleven years from the devastation of the Civil War.
In 1860 in Westerville, Ohio a twenty-five year old Benjamin F. Davidson was a student at Otterbein College. Davidson listed his residence as a Boarding House in Westerville, and his occupation as a “Student”. His neighbors had professions such as teachers, doctors, carpenters, and there were other students living near him. At the same time, his parents had moved to Fayette Township, in Vigo County, Indiana. In 1860 Benjamin and Nancy Davidson are 70 and 65 years old, respectively, and continue to own land and have a nice amount of money to their name. Their neighbors in Indiana are Joseph and Amy Terocher, who is the same age as Pvt. Benjamin Davidson’s older sister and has a birthplace of Ohio. This might be a coincidence, but we will see later that Pvt. Davidson resides in Clark County, Illinois which is adjacent to Vigo County, Indiana.
The 6th Regiment of the Minnesota Infantry was organized at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the fall of 1862. Pvt. Benjamin F. Davidson was in “C” Company, and he mustered into the 6th Regiment on August 4, 1862. Fort Snelling was situated at the conjunction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, and among Minnesotans the Fort represented the “rallying point” for its soldiers to protect the area from the Sioux, and other Indians, who were in Dakota Territory.
It is not known what Benjamin F. Davidson did immediately following his discharge from the Union army in August, 1865. What is known is that Davidson appears in Clark County, Illinois in 1870. The Westfield Township census of 1870 lists a Benjamin Davidson who is thirty-six years old and is a full-time laborer. Davidson lists his worth as $500 , which could be from his Civil War pension , or possibly inheriting some from his parents. The 1880 Census of Rapid Valley Township, in Pennington County, Dakota Territory, lists a Benjamin Davidson as a farmer. The Rapid Valley census of 1880 lists a large number of bachelor farmers who were in their mid-twenty’s to their late-forty’s. Similar to the travels of the Minnesota 6th Regiment, Davidson went south down the Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana. Pvt. Benjamin Davidson is listed in the 1890 Veterans Schedule Census from Police Ward 7, Tangipahoa, Louisiana. Of the veterans on the same roll of the Census as Davidson, his three-plus years of service are the longest of those around him.
Ten years after appearing in the census records of New Orleans, Louisiana, Benjamin Davidson went back to the north to Martin County, Minnesota. Davidson owns a mortgage on his land and home in Manyaska Township. At the age of sixty-five, Davidson listed his occupation as a “pensioner”, while having an eighteen year old lodger from Norway who worked as a day laborer. Davidson settled in Sherburn Village, Minnesota for at least another ten years. Davidson still appears on the Census of Sherburn Village in 1910. As of 1910, Davidson is seventy-four years old, and is listed as “head of household.” Without being able to locate any obituary or death certificate in Martin County, Minnesota , some genealogical databases list a Benjamin Davidson dying in 1912 in Sherburn Village, Minnesota. If Davidson died in 1912, he would have lived seventy-six years and survived over three years as a Union soldier in the Union army.
Bibliography
“1890 Veterans Schedule: Police Ward 7, Tangipahoa, Louisiana” 1890 Special Census of Civil War Union Veterans. http://www.ancestry.com. (accessed February 9, 2005)
Clark County, Illinois Message Board. http://www.ancestry.com. (accessed February 16, 2005)
Civil War Pension Index. “Pvt. Benjamin F. Davidson, Minnesota 6th Regiment.” http://www.ancestry.com. (accessed February 19, 2005).
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