The brother of my great-grandfather was named Eli Banton Davidson (born 
1847; son of Joseph Cornelius Davidson and his wife Vitula Monroe 
Sandridge), and Eli made a significant amount of money (for those days) 
growing and selling tobacco on his farm in Buckingham Co., VA.  As I 
understand it, his tobacco would be taken by wagon the few miles north to 
the James River (to what is Colombia, VA, I believe) and put on barges 
there.  The barges would then transport the tobacco down-river towards 
Richmond.  Eli started with about 300 acres of land on his farm/plantation 
named "Cherry Hill," so I guess that was enough land to "do well" in the 
tobacco business at that time.  The Davidsons learned that the land in that 
area was also good for growing apples and peaches, and they eventually 
opened the Davidson Orchard on Rt. 15 in Buckingham (which remained in 
business into the 1980s or so).  At one time, the Davidson family owned over 
5,000 acres in the area, so that original tobacco business must have been 
quite lucrative.

Bill Davidson 

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