WATSON, H. F.
WATSON, WILBER, LIVINGSTON, SMITH, COLE, POMERENE, PUGH
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/7/2003 at 21:10:10
Biography reproduced from page 448 of Volume Ii of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
H. F. Watson is one of Algona’s venerable citizens, having reached the age of eighty-three years. He has made his home in Iowa since 1855 and in Algona since the summer of 1856. More than five decades have since come and gone, during which an active business career and a well spent life have won him the honor and respect of his fellow townsmen. He was born near Syracuse, New York, in 1829, a son of Simeon and Sally Ann (Wilber) Watson. The father was a Baptist minister, who removed from Washington county to Onondaga county, New York, but was descended from an old Connecticut family, his father having been a soldier of the Revolutionary war. A brother of H. F. Watson was James Madison Watson, of the firm of Parker & Watson, who published the Parker & Watson System of Readers and later the National Readers and the Independent Readers, all of which were extensively used by schools throughout the United States.
H. F. Watson was a pupil in the public schools of his native county and afterward in the Mexico Academy of Mexico, New York, and the Fulton Seminary of Fulton, New York. Liberally educated for his day, he took up the profession of teaching in 1852 at Marcellus, New York, remaining as principal of the school of that town for nearly two years. He then went to Syracuse, where he worked in a store for a short period, and at the end of that time started westward, arriving at Chicago in April, 1853. He next went to Bloomington, Illinois, where for nearly a year he was employed as bookkeeper for a firm of railroad contractors. In 1854 he went to Newark, Ohio, where he taught school for about a year, after which he entered the employ of A. S. Barnes & Company, proprietors of a wholesale book house in New York city. He represented that house upon the road for a period of about nine months but again the call of the west became to him an insistent one and in the summer of 1855 he arrived in Fort Dodge, Iowa, accompanied by his bride. The following summer he came to Algona, where he became connected with mercantile interests, acting as manager for William Williams for two years, or until 1858. During this period, in the fall of 1856, he was elected county treasurer and county recorder of Kossuth county, serving for two years in those positions. In 1858 he began merchandising on his own account under the firm name of H. F. Watson and so continued until 1870, when he sold out and purchased a farm, to the supervision of which he devoted his attention for a number of years, when he disposed of that property and retired from all active business. The success which he won through persistent, earnest labor and straightforward dealing in former years has supplied him with all of the comforts and some of the luxuries of life, giving him an ample competence for old age.
In March, 1855, in Syracuse, New York, Mr. Watson was united in marriage to Miss Mary Livingston, a daughter of James Livingston, of that city, who was a descendant of the celebrated Livingston family of the Empire state. He brought his bride to Iowa and erected the first frame house in Algona. This is still standing, constituting a part of the residence of Captain W. H. Ingham. Mrs. Watson passed away March 9, 1900. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Watson were born three children: E. L., a practicing physician of Humboldt county, Iowa, who married Jane Smith; Lida Wilber, who became the wife of George Cole and has two children, Edna Watson and Renon Hazel Cole; and Lura H., who became the wife of Joel Pomerene, who died in 1896. The three children of that marriage were: Helen, now deceased; Mary; and Joel, who is a student of the Armour Institute in Chicago. Since the death of her first husband, Mrs. Pomerene has become the wife of Pearl Pugh and is living in Chicago. Mrs. Cole makes her home with her father in Algona.
Mr. Watson is a member of Prudence Lodge, No. 205, F. & A. M., and Prudence Chapter, No. 70, R. A. M., of which he was king for two years. He served as postmaster of Algona under President Buchanan part of a term and two full terms under Lincoln. He is today one of the oldest residents of Algona, not only in point of age but also in point of continued residence here, having for fifty-six years made his home in this city, which was a tiny village at the time of his arrival. He has watched with interest its progress and development and has aided in its upbuilding and material improvement in many ways. A well spent life has firmly established him in public regard and there is today in Algona no citizen who receives in larger measure the veneration of his fellow townsmen.
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