Rural Hill began in 1765 when John and Violet Davidson settled there after John, a blacksmith, bought 250 acres from his father-in-law and built a simple two-room log cabin that grew over the next twenty three years as their ten children were born, eventually becoming known as Rural Retreat. John later signed the May 20th, 1775 Mecklenburg County Declaration of Independence, served as a Major in the Mecklenburg County Militia during the American Revolution, and after the war built the Rural Hill mansion house in 1788 with wealth gained from investments in the iron industry in nearby Lincoln County. In 1800 he gave land to his oldest son Robert, who with his wife Peggy lived in a plantation home called Holly Bend and became one of the county's richest farmers and planters; Peggy died during the Civil War, and Holly Bend still stands in the Cowan's Ford Nature Preserve west of Rural Hill. Also in 1800 John's second son Jacky married Sarah Brevard, and after living for about two decades at Rural Retreat, they moved into the Rural Hill mansion in 1823 when John, then widowed, moved to Beaver Dam, the home of his daughter and son-in-law. Jacky's son Adam Brevard Davidson, called Brevard, married Mary Laura Springs in 1836 and moved into Rural Hill with Jacky and Sarah, who returned a year later to Rural Retreat for the rest of their lives. Brevard's son John Springs Davidson and his family were the last inhabitants of the Rural Hill mansion before it burned in 1886, and after Rural Retreat burned in 1898 the family moved into the mansion's former kitchen house, which was expanded into the home where Major John's great-great-grandson Jo Graham Davidson raised his family. His four unmarried children, Jo Graham, Jr., John Springs, Elizabeth, and May, were the last Davidsons to live there. The family sold the property to Mecklenburg County in 1992, and though that branch died without heirs, Major John left thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of descendants through later generations. Today Rural Hill is a 265 acre nonprofit historic site that serves thousands each year as a field trip destination, working farm, and venue for festivals, weddings, private events, and programs on the early life of the Davidson family in the Carolina backcountry.