Lew Beach, Sullivan County

John Davidson (1815-1875) was a Scottish immigrant, farmer, lumberman, sawmill owner and famous Catskills covered bridge builder. He constructed the Bendo Covered Bridge (1860), the Livingston Manor Covered Bridge (1860) and the Beaverkill Covered Bridge (1865).

John was born in 1815 in the Highlands of Scotland to shepherd William Davidson (1786-1876) and Rebecca Black (1786-1870). Along with his family, John Davidson immigrated to the United States in 1819. The family first moved to Andes where they spent 1 ½ years, before settling down at Campbell Mountain near Downsville in Delaware County, New York. The family owned 140 acres of forest that was improved in to a working family farm.

At some time in the 1840s John Davidson moved to a farm near the hamlet of Shin Creek (now known as Lew Beach) in the Beaverkill Valley in the Town of Rockland, Sullivan County. On February 27, 1845, John Davidson married Amanda Joscelyn (~1823-1902), daughter of Hon. G. S. Joscelyn. John and Amanda had 14 children together. John died in 1875 during an accident involving “falling logs” at the Voorhees mill. Both John and Amanda are buried at the Davidson Cemetery near Lew Beach.