Thomas Watters 1842-1922

WATTERS, SUNTER, CAASE

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 2/10/2019 at 18:40:32

THOMAS WATTERS a well known business man of Dubuque and a member of the firm of Watters of Dennis wholesale dealers in flour and feed was born in this city on the 20th of October 1842. His family located here in an early day and its representatives have long been prominently identified with the growth and development of the community. His father, Thomas Watters, was a native of Yorkshire England and in 1836 emigrated to America locating first in Medina County, Ohio where he spent one year. He then resumed his westward journey and in 1837 became a resident of Dubuque then a small town in the territory of Iowa. For some years he was engaged in farming and milling. He bought a small corn cracker at Rockdale and thus began his career as a miller and also engaged in mining at Galena. But as the years passed, he increased his business facilities and became one of the substantial citizens of the community. In public affairs he took quite a prominent part and was a progressive citizen. He married Ann Sunter a native of Yorkshire England who is now living at Center Grove. At the age of eighty-eight, Mr. Watters died at the age of sixty two since which time his widow has looked after the farm comprising one hundred and twenty acres and although now well advanced in years still manages her business interests. Thomas Watters is the fourth in order of birth in the family of five children. He was reared under the parental roof and was early inured to the arduous labors of the farm. When he entered upon his business career he was as a farmer and miller of Rockdale. In 1878, he built a new mill at that place and conducted the same successfully until 1885 when he sold out and embarked in the wholesale flour and feed business. The firm now enjoys a large trade making extensive shipments. In 1870, Mr. Watters was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary Case daughter of Hiram Case one of the early settlers of Dubuque. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and died in the autumn of 1888 at the advanced age of ninety two years. Our subject and his wife have a pleasant home at the corner of Fifth and Broad Streets and are numbered among the highly respected people of this community. In his political views Mr. Watters is a Republican and warmly advocates the principles of that party.

The History of Dubuque County Iowa
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