| The Highland
Township Historical Society THE DAVISON & ARMSTRONG FAMILIES |
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Benjamin Franklin Davison, the son of Norman and Huldah (Brown) Davison, was born April 12, 1821, in Avon, Livingston County, New York. The family came to Michigan in 1831, settling in in Davisonville (now Atlas), Genesee County, Michigan. Norman Davison became a prominent man in the community, building its first sawmill in 1833 and first grist mill in 1835. He also served as a judge and delegate to the first Michigan Constitutional Convention. The nearby city of Davison, Michigan, is named in his honor. His son, Benjamin Franklin Davison, came to Highland in 1842 and settled on a farm which straddled M-59 (then Livingston Road), just east of Hickory Ridge Road. This engraving, published in Durant's History of Oakland County, Michigan (1877), shows the farmstead looking east along future M-59. The Davison residence was on the north side of the road, while the barns, tenant house and fields were on the south side.
