 FIRST
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER.
WILLIAM L. DAWLEY, 1888 - 1895
. . . .William L. Dawley, another of the original 19 became
Grand Secretary. . . .Following the first meeting on the evening of
May 5, Talbot and the others spent much of the next two weeks
getting their new "order" properly launched. They drafted
an oath or "obligation" of membership--which each of the
nineteen founding members took. They formed Lodge 1 of Atlanta and
assessed themselves $1.50 each--then almost a days wage--to help pay
for printing constitutions, rituals, membership applications, dues
cards and charters.
 SECOND
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER.
GEORGE PRESTON, 1895 - 1917
. . . .George Preston, was born in England in 1864 and reared as
a militant trade unionist in Nottingham, a breeding ground of the
early British trade union movement. When he immigrated to America in
1886, he almost immediately joined the Knights of Labor. He switched
to the IAM in 1890 and was barely in his thirties when he was
elected to the union's highest financial office. Although his
contemporaries, including his friends, describe Preston as having a
rather disagreeable and overbearing personality, no one ever
questioned his honesty, integrity or efficiency. . . .During the
twenty-two years he served as the union's top financial officer, he
developed many of the safeguards which are still followed today in
handling the accounting for IAM funds.
 THIRD
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
EMMET C. DAVISON, 1917 - 1944
Born in Virginia in 1878, Emmet Davison completed his
apprenticeship and joined the IAM before enlisting as a cavalryman
in the Spanish-American War. After mustering out he returned to the
trade but was blacklisted for his highly visible role in the 1901
strike for the nine-hour day. Changing his name, Davison finally
landed a job in a shop affiliated with the NMTA. Promoted to
foreman, he was given a list of names of "agitators" who
were not to be hired.
The first name he saw was his own. Within a few years Davison was
elected business representative of Local Lodge 10 in
Richmond--Creamer's old home lodge. In 1913 Johnston appointed him
General Organizer. Though somewhat short in stature, Davison was
robust, verging on plumpness, when he became GST at the age of 39.
In later years he grew increasingly frail, almost fragile, in
appearance but never lost a sense of merry enthusiasm for life. He
liked to chase fire engines and invariably rushed to his office
window when a police siren or ambulance was heard on the street
below.
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