Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/75

 \IK(i.\lA lUOCRAIMIY

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was not actively connected with any until he engaged in the wholesale leaf tobacco trade as senior partner of the Hagan-Dart Tobacco Company, doing largely an export business. While in this business he became interested in Richmond banking enterprises, later being elected president of the Capital Savings l]ank He continued at the head of that institution until it passed out of exist- ence by merger with the Bank of Commerce and Trusts. Shortly after the merger the Main Street Hank of Richmond was organ- ized and its presidency offered Mr. Hagan. He at first refused, but upon further solici- tation from the board of directors he ac- cepted the position of chief executive. A worker all his active years, Mr. Hagan has risen to high position, not by favor, but by merit. He holds an excellent position in public regard and justifies the confidence of his many friends. He was sergeant in Com- pany B, Captain Dr. Henry C. Jones. First Virginia Regiment (Walker Light Guards), and is a member of the Old First Regiment Association. He is past state deputy Knights of Columbus ; member of the Westmoreland, Commonwealth and Country clubs of Rich- mond. He is a member of the Roman Cath- olic church, and the socities St. Vincent De Paul and McGill's Catholic Union. His children are also communicants, his wife being a member of the Protestant Episcopal church.

Mr. Hagan married, in Richmond, Sep- tember 14, 1887, Alice May Nipe, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in October, 1861, daughter of James W. and Emma (Bennett) Nipe, the former a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Arrington & Nipe. Children : John Morton, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in the class of 191 1, now connected with the A^irginia-Carolina Chem- ical Compan}', residing at Ensley, Alabama ; Catherine Downey ; William Campbell, a student at the Virginia Military Academy ; Joseph Addison, a student at the Virginia Military Academy; John Campbell (2), a student at ]\IcGuire's School. Richmond.

George Janes Davison, D. D. S. Through- out the connection of this line of Davison, Scotch in origin and originally of New York residence in the United States, with the city of Richmond, Virginia, the profession of dentistry has claimed its members in a direct line through three generations, two

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01 the i)resent rej)resentatives of the family ir, this calling in Richmond being Dr. (ieorge Janes Davison and his son, Dorset Allen Da\ison, father and son associated in prac- tice.

The histor)' of the family in the United .States dates from the arri\al in tliis country of vSamuel Davison, a native of Scotland, u ho first located in Rochester, New York, where he owned and cultivated land, serving in the American army in the second war with Great Ijritain. .Samuel Davison w^as an inventor of no mean genius, and in an elaborately equipped machine and workshop wrought out several mechanical appliances of value.

Dr. Ferdinand Davison, son of Samuel Davison, was born in Monroe county, New Y'ork, in 1822, and died in Richmond in 1897. For forty years he w^as a dental practitioner ii' this city, a professional man of standing and reputation. He inherited a large share of his father's inventive talent, and during the war between the states perfected a bullet manufacturing machine that was of value to the Confederate government. Ferdinand Davison married Mary Jeanette Janes, born in Monroe county. New York, in 1822, and died in Richmond in 1896, a descendant through her mother of the Whitney family of New Y'ork. Three of their ten children survive to this time : Dr. George Janes, of whom further ; William Ferdinand, born in 1857, a dentist of Richmond; and Mary Jeanette, born in Richmond, unmarried, practices chiropathy in Boston, Massachu- setts.

Dr. George Janes Davison, son of Dr. Ferdinand and Alary Jeanette (Janes) Davi- son, was born in Rochester, New York, Sep- tember 19. 1847, and_was taken to Bedford county. A'irginia. by his parents when but an infant. When he was ten years of age the family residence was changed to Rich- mond and in this city he attended the pub- lic schools. He was little more than a boy when he went to the front as a private in the Confederate army, but in the service he bravely performed a man's work and played a man's part, his brigade known as the Cus- ter Lee. Third Virginia, at the close of the war. The rigors of hard campaigns and the unusual exposure demanded their toll when the conflict was over and the spur of neces- sity was removed, and Dr. Davison suffered from a severe attack of typhoid fever. He