My Genealogy Hound

Rev. William E. Watson, a Methodist minister and farmer of Fulton Township, was born in Ballard County, Ky., in 1846, and received very meager educational advantages. He remained with his widowed mother until sixteen years of age and then, in June, 1863, he enlisted in Company B, Wood’s Battalion of Missouri Cavalry, Confederate troops, and served until the close of the war, most of his operations being in Arkansas. He was in the engagement at Pine Bluff, and all through Price’s raid in Missouri. At one time while a soldier there was some talk of promoting him for bravery to the position of fourth corporal. He was captured during that raid in Kansas, in October, 1864, and was a prisoner about four months at St. Louis and Alton, Ill. He was paroled just before the general surrender, rejoined his command and surrendered in May, 1865, at Shreveport, La. He then came to Izard County, and was married in June, 1866, to Miss Martha J. Williams, a native of Kentucky, and the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Williams, also of Kentucky nativity. Her parents died in Izard County, whither they had moved when Mrs. Watson was a little girl. The fruits of Mr. Watson’s union were seven children, four sons and one daughter now living. He remained in Izard County until 1875, and then came to his present farm, which was then in the woods, but now he has 160 acres, with fifty under cultivation. He has a pleasant home, one and a half miles east of Viola, and aside from his farming interest he has been local minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for about ten years, administering to the spiritual wants of his fellow men in a very satisfactory manner. He has been a member of that church for a period of about twenty-two years. He is a Democrat in his political preferences and has held the office of justice of the peace since September, 1888. He has one brother, James M., and a sister, the widow of William Ferguson, who are living in Fulton County. His parents Miles and Mary S. (Gillespie) Watson, were born in Kentucky, where the father died when William E. was an infant. In about 1853 the family moved to Lawrence County, Ark., where Mrs. Watson married William Hawkins. She afterward moved to Fulton County, and died about 1862, in what is now Baxter County. She had been a member of the Methodist Church for many years.