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         MARK DAVISON, banker and farmer, of Wapello, and one of the largest real-estate owners of Louisa County, was born near Hull, Yorkshire, England, on the 7th of May, 1815. He is the son of George and Susanna (Gillings) Davison, who were also natives of England. The family emigrated to America in the year 1818, and settled in Washington County, Pa., where our subject was reared on his father’s farm, and received a common-school education. He was united in marriage, in Washington County, Pa., in June, 1838, with Miss Eliza Linton, a native of that county. The marriage ceremony was performed by Justice Ephriam Blaine, father of the Hon. James G. Blaine. Seven children were born of their union, and those living are: Hiram B., who was a soldier of the late war, and who wedded Miss Mary Worsham, is a merchant of Wapello, Iowa; Mary is the wife of J. B. McCullough, a lumber merchant of Wapello, Iowa; John Austin married Miss Blanche Myers, and resides in Wichita, Kan. Mr. Davison lost his first wife in 1855, and was subsequently married to Nancy Brown. His present wife was Elizabeth A. Montgomery, who is a native of Ohio.

Mr. Davison removed from Pennsylvania to Iowa in 1840, and settled in Wapello Township, Louisa County, where he bought a farm and engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1848 he removed to the city of Wapello and engaged in merchandising, which he carried on until 1869, when he sold out to his son, H. B., and opened a private banking-house in that city, and has ever since done the exclusive banking business of Wapello. The house is now known as the Commercial Bank, of Wapello, Iowa, and is conducted under the management of his youngest son, Joyner, the present cashier of the bank.

Mr. Davison has constantly increased his acreage in Iowa until he now has a number of farms, aggregating over 1,600 acres, and with the exception of about 150 acres his land is all improved. A large portion of this land lies in Louisa County, while some of it is distributed in Muscatine and Winnebago Counties. He has a large amount of live stock, and devotes the greater part of his time to the care of his farms and other property. In politics he is a Republican, but is not of the office-seeking class. Business pursuits are more to his taste, and his extensive property interests demand his whole attention. Energetic and unremitting application to details and an indefatigable industry may be said to be among his marked peculiarities. Plain and unassuming in manner, he possesses superior executive ability and business sagacity, his large property has been accumulated by his individual efforts, and is the result of persevering industry and shrewd foresight. While he is said to be exacting as to his just dues, he is equally as particular in fully meeting all the legitimate demands against him. For over forty-eight years he has been actively identified with the agricultural interests of Louisa County, and during all but eight years of that time has been a prominent business man of Wapello, both . . .

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. . . as merchant and banker. While now in his seventy-fourth year, he is still active and enterprising, and displays more energy in business pursuits than many middle-aged men. One object of this biography is to teach the succeeding generations useful lessons by the experience of those who have gone before, and the history of a self-made man like Mark Davison shows how much may be accomplished by untiring industry, strict integrity and well-directed energy.