My Genealogy Hound

E. L. Watson. In any worthy history of Jackson County, Ark., the name that heads this sketch will always be given an enviable place among the leading citizens of the county, and its self-made wealthy business men. His experience in life has been quite a varied one, but at the same time reflects only credit upon him as a man. He was born in Pulaski County, Ga., November 25, 1819, and is a son of Orin and Lydia (Smith) Watson, who were of English descent, early settlers of Georgia, and removed to Tennessee, locating in Henry County, in 1822, where his mother died, in 1828, and his father died on his second trip from his home in Georgia, in camp on Chattanooga Mountains, Tennessee, in 1822. The father was a farmer by occupation, and he and wife became the parents of thirteen children, three of whom are living: LeRoy, Martha A. and Elbert L. The most important years of the latter’s life were spent in Tennessee, after he had reached his fifteenth year, and although he was reared in town, most of the education he received was obtained through self-application. In 1836 he left home and kindred to fight his own way in the world, and soon found himself in Hickman County, Ky., where he remained until 1851, being engaged in the occupation of merchandising and farming. He also served for quite a number of years as sheriff of that county. On the 25th of December, 1853, he arrived in Jackson County, Ark., and immediately located in Jacksonport, where he opened a mercantile establishment, conducting the same with the best of success for a great many years, but in 1861 gave up this work to enlist in Patterson’s Eighth Arkansas Regiment, serving until the month of June, 1862, when, on account of rheumatism, he was compelled to resign, and returned to his home and fireside. In 1883 he removed to Newport, where he carried on merchandising until February, 1886, when he sold out and engaged in the broker’s business, which he is still successfully conducting. He has now in process of erection, a substantial bank, and is putting in a fine iron and steel cased burglar and fireproof vault, at a great expense, and the bank, when finished, will be known as the Newport Safe Deposit Bank. Mr. Watson owns about 20,000 acres of land in Jackson and adjoining counties, a part of which is occupied by tenants and several of his farms are very finely improved and are very valuable. To his second marriage, with Miss Lizzie J. Caldwell, in 1858, a family of five children have been born: Oren D., Mattie, Ellen, Birdie and Bessie. Mrs. Watson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Mason, and is one of the leading and prominent men of Jackson County, having been a resident of this county for thirty-six years.