Alexander H. Davidson, son of Andrew B. and Susan B. Dorman Davidson, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1812. By 1838, Davidson had left Virginia for Indiana. He is listed as a charter member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and he served as the state's quartermaster-general from 1839 to 1844. Davidson married Catherine Noble (1823-1851), the daughter of Indiana Governor Noah Noble, in 1840, with the ceremony performed by Henry Ward Beecher in Indianapolis. The Davidsons would have five children, including Preston Alexander Davidson. The 1850 federal census describes A. H. Davidson as a 38-year-old farmer, living with wife C. M., five young Davidson children, and C. S. and U. P. Noble. Alexander H. Davidson died on March 28, 1863 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis (Marion County), Indiana.

Preston A. Davidson, son of Alexander H. and Catherine Noble Davidson, was born in Indianpolis on August 1, 1842. A student at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) for the 1860/1861 term, Davidson enlisted as a private in Company B, 5th Virginia Infantry at Lexington, Virginia on April 5, 1861. Wounded in the right shoulder at the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Davidson recovered in a Charlottesville hospital. (Soon after Bull Run, Company B was transferred to the 27th Virginia Infantry as Company H.) Davidson was discharged on April 27, 1862. He may be the P. A. Davidson described in the 1870 federal census as a 27-year-old farmer living in Lexington, Virginia. By 1880, Davidson had returned to Indiana; the census for that year lists him among residents in the Indianpolis home of his brother-in-law, G. Frank Miller. For occupation, the census simply notes "at home." The 1900 census shows Davidson rooming in the Lexington, Kentucky home of Sarah Hawkins. He seems to have been living at the Kentucky Confederate home by 1910, and he died in the infirmary there on June 27, 1914. Preston A. Davidson was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.