Watts, Thomas

WATTS, HIGHLAND, BAILEY, SAMSON, BAILEY, HUNTER, JONES, WELLS, HOWATT, HULL, GILMORE

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Date: 4/15/2003 at 18:15:42

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

HON. THOMAS WATTS.

Only those lives are worthy of record that have been potential factors in the public progress in promoting the general welfare or advancing the educational or moral interests of the community. Mr. Watts was ever faithful to his duties of citizenship and took a very active and influential part in public affairs. He was also prominently identified with the growth and development of the county, have located here in 1838.

A native of Vermont, Mr. Watts was born in Peacham, Caledonia county, November 7, 1816, and is a son of Thomas Watts, who was born in New Hampshire, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Moses Watts, was a native of Scotland, and during the religious wars of that country went to Ireland, and later came to America, locating in Londonderry, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, at the same time the famous Greely and Casey families settled there. There he married Ruth Highland, also a native of Scotland, and they made their home on a farm near Londonderry until the father of our subject was a lad of ten years, when they removed to Caledonia county, Vermont. The grandparents both died there at an advanced age.

On reaching man’s estate, Thomas Watts, the father of our subject, was united in marriage with Miss Jane Bailey, who was a native of the Green Mountain state, and a representative of a good old Puritan family. Of the ten children born of this union, our subject was the fourth in order of birth. The mother died in her native county in 1832, when about forty-five years of age, and the father subsequently married Mrs. Samson, nee Bailey, a sister of his first wife. Unto them were born four children. Coming west in 1861, the father located near Princeton, Bureau county, Illinois, where he continued to make his home until called to his final rest in 1876, at the age of eighty years.

Being naturally a bright boy and possessing a mathematical turn of mind, our subject early acquired a good education, and by constant reading and close application in later years, he became a well-informed man. When quite young he studied surveying, and at the age of nineteen years started out in life for himself. Believing that the west offered more advantages to an ambitious young man than the older states of the east, he came to Iowa at that time, by way of Detroit and Chicago. He first located, however, near Peoria, Illinois, where he took up a government claim and afterward entered the land, which he at once began to improve and cultivate, first erecting thereon a house.

Having no family and hoping still further to benefit his financial condition, Mr. Watts came to Clinton county, Iowa, April 15, 1838, and took up his residence in Deep Creek township. Several years later he disposed of his real estate in Illinois, and invested in this county. On his arrival here there were only six men residing in Deep Creek township. He squatted upon one hundred and sixty acres of government land which he entered when it came into market and which continued to be his home throughout life. He surveyed the principal roads which now cross the county, and the road running from Bloomfield to Lyons was laid out by him, it being changed but little from the original survey. He was familiar with all the boundary lines throughout the county, and was very closely identified with its early development. In his farming operations Mr. Watts was eminently successful, and besides his fine farm in Deep Creek township, he and his son owned four hundred acres of land in Clay county, Iowa, which they improved and converted into good stock farms, which since his death have been disposed of. He also carried on stock-raising quite extensively in this county for many years, but during the latter part of his life lived retired, enjoying the fruits of former toil.

On the 8th of January, 1844, in Deep Creek township, Mr. Watts was united in marriage with Miss Emeline Hunter, who was born in Cortland county, New York, June 9, 1817. Her parents, Robert and Eliza (Jones) Hunter, were natives of the same state, and of New England ancestry. Her grandfather was an officer in the Revolutionary war. When about twenty-six years of age she accompanied the family on their removal to this county. Her parents made their home in Deep Creek township throughout the remainder of their lives, the father being engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died about 1860, and his wife a few years previous.

Mrs. Watts, who was an active and consistent member of the Congregational church, died December 15, 1869, and her death was deeply mourned, not only by her immediate family, but by many friends. She was a loving wife, a kind mother, a generous neighbor, and a true and earnest Christian woman. She was the mother of ten children, six of whom are still living, namely: Isaac, a farmer of Marshall county, Iowa, now deceased; Thomas, who married Martha Wells, and is also engaged in farming in that county; Jennie, wife of Andrew Howatt, a practicing attorney of Salt Lake; May, wife of Edward Hull, of Clay county, Iowa; Emma, wife of William Gilmore, of Clay county; and Fremont, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. Those of the family now deceased are Eliza, Lambert, Robert, Isaac, and one who died in infancy unnamed.

Mr. Watts departed this life on the 4th of December, 1894, and was laid to rest in the Deep Creek Valley cemetery. He, too, was a member of the Congregational church, and was a supporter of the Republican party. As one of the most popular and influential citizens of his community, he was elected to several public positions of honor and trust, being a member of the general assembly during the session of 1859-9, which was the first Republican legislature of the state. He was elected to that office by a large majority, and was a member of the committee on constitutional amendment and on elections. He was one of the first to serve as county supervisor in this county, which office he filled for four years, and also acted as local surveyor for over thirty years. For two terms he was township supervisor, and held all the other local offices in the township where he made his home. As a citizen of the community in which he so long lived and was so active, Mr. Watts was highly respected, enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors, and was regarded as a man of excellent business judgment.