UPDATING "TEXAS" DAVISON HILLGROVE STORY
Some time ago I wrote
about a young man from the New South Wales town of Hillgrove. His name was William Davison and around the
late 1800’s he was one of Australia’s crack cyclists.
Back then cycling and
in particular cycling races were every bit as popular as the horse racing and
football matches of today. Cyclists vied
for cash prizes and the glory of winning.
America, Italy and New Zealand sent their top riders to compete in
Australian matches and crowds thronged the racetracks to cheer their favourite riders
on to victory.
Hillgrove today is a
blink on the road linking Dorrigo to Armidale but in its heyday it was a
booming mining town with recreation grounds and racing track attracting regular
crowds of 3000 and more. In fact it was
the perfect place for young William ‘Texas’ Davison to learn the cycling craft
that catapulted him to national glory.
The story I wrote
compared Davison’s career with that of modern Aussie champions like Cadel
Evans, and the Tour de France with the League of NSW Wheelmen winter race
meeting back in 1896.
To fill you in on
today’s update you can read that particular blog now by clicking on this link:
William Davison was 70 years old in 1946 when a
reporter from the Armidale Express published this photo of him reminiscing
about his cycling days; in particular the bulkier and heavier racing
bicycles of yesteryear compared with the trim lightweight machines of today.
William Davison’s
name was synonymous with the cycling champions of the day. At the Sydney
Cricket ground he teamed up with the famous Wheelmen Ossie Prouse, Don
Harvison, Fred Prouse and Don Mutton in a five man multicycle race to win with
a world record time of 1.27 for the mile.
The multicycle was a
novelty machine seating five riders all manning their own set of pedals… as ‘Texas’ recalled, "We rode the big machine
in Sydney streets and got hooked up in traffic."
‘Texas’ wasn’t only a champion wheelsman he was without a doubt a
favourite of the viewing public. A
grandson recalls one ‘thrilling’ contest around the track at the Armidale
racecourse when Davison was handicapped at 480 yards in a mile and a half
event. The two cyclists rode a fast race
with an exciting close finish with ‘Texas’ losing by a nose for the £15 prize; but
within a few minutes a whip around amongst the crowd had collected £27 for the
loser.
In 1898 William
married his sweetheart Mary Jane Edwards, a daughter of the Armidale Edwards
family Bus Company. In the four years of
their marriage they had three children before Mary died in 1902.
Four years later he
married Esther Day.
When I wrote those
stories about Hillgrove they followed on from the story about my paternal
grandfather, Charles Brown who married grandmother Bella Marshall in Hillgrove
on his return from the Boer War. William
‘Texas’ Davison’s story evolved from a chance archive sighting of a young man
on a bicycle circa 1890.
The young cyclist
wasn’t part of my family but I reckoned he had an amazing story to telI. With
no Davison family to refer to I relied entirely on newspaper clippings and
archived letters. I always hoped a member
of the family would contact me, perhaps with additional pictures and further
insights into ‘Texas’ Davison’s
extraordinary life.
And a grandson did.
Bob Davison, who fondly remembered his
Grandfather and was proud to tell the story that when he was a young snort
locals used to call his grandfather by his racing name ‘Texas’, while small grandson Bob was given the nickname ‘Young Texas’.
These photos are from
Bob’s own albums. He is currently
working on his family history and I for one can’t wait to read it. In the meantime enjoy these rare photographs
of an Australian icon from the past and the youngsters from his immediate
family.
William’s first wife,
Mary Jane Edwards who died so tragically after only 4 years of marriage.
Their three children,
Roy, Clyde and Aubrey.
William ‘Texas’
Davison as a young man: don’t you love the fob watch and the carefully knotted
tie.
The first born five sons and daughters of his second
family:
Doris, Lorna, Eric, Percy and Merle.
Four more children would be born to William and Esther… Beryl, Mavis,
Bethel and Gwenyth.
***
William Davison is
just one of Australia’s many young sporting hero’s from an era that only our
grandparents can remember. It was a time
when the words modesty, decency and family were all important and really meant
something.
I guess the very last
paragraph of that newspaper interview back in 1946 reveals so succinctly the
man, father and husband that William ‘Texas’ Davison was:
“I did a lot of riding on the roads, we had no cars or motor bikes and
went everywhere by bicycle. I came in
from Hillgrove 19 miles in 15 minutes, and once when my wife was very sick and
the coaches were late, I rode to Armidale and out again with a 25 pound block
of ice in 80 minutes.”
Sadly for William
Davison and the three small children from his first marriage, Mary Jane didn’t
survive that illness.
***
These photos of the Davison family were made available by 'Texas" William's descendent Robert Davison, a justifiably proud grandson.
Robyn Mortimer. 2013.
