Transcribed by Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Page 453

James Watson

James WATSON, whose farm of eight acres on section 30, Berlin township, has been his home since 1892, while his residence in the sate covers the period from 1862 to the present time, was born in Lincolnshire, England, December 5, 1836. He is a son of Thomas and Sarah (NEWTON) WATSON, who were also natives of Lincolnshire, the former born in 1785 and the latter in 1795. James WATSON acquired his education in the schools of his native country, and came to America when twenty-two years of age. He has been a resident of Illinois since 1862, and in that year was married in Amboy, Lee county, to Miss Eliza Ann Northway, whose birth occurred in Canandaigua, New York, July 6, 1843. Her parents were both natives of the Empire state, and in their family were three children. Mrs. WATSON by her marriage has become the mother of three sons. George WATSON, the eldest, born in 1864, and now living on the home farm in Berlin township, married Miss Mary OGELSBY, of Ohio, who died, leaving one child, Etrue, and he afterward wedded Elsie DONLEY, of Illinois, and they have two children, James and Geneva. William Sherman WATSON, born in this state in 1868, iks now living in Galesburg, Illinois. James Lee Sherman, the youngest, died at the age of six years.

Throughout the period of his residence in Illinois Mr. WATSON has carried on general agricultural pursuits, and for fourteen years has resided on his present farm, comprising eighty acres of land on section 30, Berlin Township. He has good improvements here and his time and energies are devoted to the further develpment and cultivation of the place. He is now in the seventieth year of his age, but still gives personal supervision to his farm, and as a result of his care and labor the fields yield to him golden harvests.

In politcs he has always been a stalward republican since he gained the right of franchise. He belongs to Bureau lodge, No. 112, A. F. and A. M.; to the Royal Arch chapter and to Princeton commandery, No. 20, K. T., and has thus attained high rank in York Masonry, while in his life he has been an exemplary representative of the craft. In religion he holds to orthodox views, but is not a church member. His wife, however, is a member of the Congregational church, and his life has been filled with good deeds and charitable acts, showing him to a man of generous spirit, of kindly disposition and of appreciation for the highter ethics of life. He has never had occation to regret his determination to seek a home in America, for here he has found good business opportunities, and as the years have gone by has prospered in his undertakings until he is now a substantial farmer of his adopted country.