The HORSE DRAWN Papers #2

W A T   A N D   J U D

Henry Judson "Jud" Carter with his saxophone in his front yard on West Main Street.

Wat and Jud were boyhood friends.  Their respective family's farms were less than a couple of miles apart along the old Dublin-Granville Road.  At the time, this was the route for teamsters driving from the Ohio Canal in the ports and warehouses of Newark to delivery in Columbus.  Wat's parents ran a tavern -- The Edge of the Woods -- as a rest for teamsters.  The Davisons were well known for their selfless hospitality throughout the area.  One winter day, as the story was told by Sophronia Carter, Jud's daughter, Wat and Jud went turkey hunting and managed to bag a huge bird.  It was so large that the only way the boys could get it home to Wat's house was for each to grab a leg and drag it out of the woods.  Sophronia mentions the odd tacks they left in the snow.  Martha Watson Davison, Wat's mother, immediately scalded and plucked the bird and then roasted it.  Sophronia tells us it fed the Davisons and their neighbors for several days.

In the 1800s, the tavern in Alexandria -- Buxton's "Old Red" Tavern -- was owned by David Buxton.  David was, by 1870, ready to rid himself of his tavern.  Wat purchased it sometime around 1880.  Wat's real dream was in the wagon industry.

In the March, 1881, edition of Alexandria's local magazine, Church and Home, Wat placed this advertisement,

WATSON DAVISON

MANUFACTURER OF

CARRIAGES, BUGGIES & WAGONS

AND DEALER IN

WHEELS, SHAFTS, POLES, FELLOES

Carriage and Wagon Parts, Iron, Bolts, Screws, Springs, Axles, Thimble-skeins, Tire, Hub Bands, Patent

Anti-Ratlers, and All Other Car-

raige Hardware.

Painting and Repairing Promptly Done.

Office and Shop, formerly Buxton Hotel,

ALEXANDRIA, OHIO

David Buxton died on July 12, 1879.  Harry Buxton, David's son, went to the Buxton for lunch on New Year's Eve in 1880 and paid 50 cents for a meal of Oysters and Crackers.  Three months later, in March 1881, we see the first advertisement for Watson Davison's new business in "The Church and Home," a locally produced magazine.  But Wat never built carriages as far as we know.  Wat played a different game.

Buxton's "Old Red "Tavern in about 1900.  Undoubtedly, Wat is in this photo along with Jud.

Anyone who has dug a hole around here knows that the soil is sticky.  Oliver Plows had developed a special quenching method that allowed their plows to handily cut through sticky soil.  Oliver Plows became quite popular among local farmers.  Wat sold them.  But there were strings attached.  A major stockholder of Oliver Plows was English immigrant George Milburn and Clement Studebaker.  Milburn purchased one-third interest in Oliver's business and also started the Mishawaka Wagon Works.

Milburn farm wagon with the new hollow axles.  Wat probably sold some of these.

Milburn had a daughter Ann who married Clement Studebaker.  Together, Milburn and Studebaker opened a smithing business creating the wagon hardware that Studebaker would use to complete 100 wagons.  At some point, the Dodge brothers, of Dodge automobiles became involved in the Milburn-Studebaker venture.  Milburn and the City of Mishawaka, Indiana, had a falling-out resulting in Milburn moving to Toledo, Ohio.  Milburn had a dealership in Mansfield from which Wat could place orders.

The gaslight helps us date the photograph to about 1900, shortly before Wat had the building disassembled and stored on the Church Street side of his lot.   The lumber was lost during the Great Fire of 1905, during which time, Wat was the Fire Chief.

Wat was trying to do the right thing at the wrong time.  Major industrialized wagon-makers were pushing the small cottage producers into the repair business at best.  Had Wat kept the tavern as a tavern, he would have had to compete with S.S. Anderson.  Wat knew that the writing was on the wall, the Temperance League was gaining ground and Wat's liquor license would soon become worthless.

Oolos Brooks with some children in downtown Alexandria with his farm wagon.