[p. 604] formerly superintendant of the Lawrence County schools and now one of Wilmington Township's excellent farmers, resides on his valuable property which contains eighty-five acres of fine land, situated about two miles from New Wilmington, on the Mercer and Fay highway. He was born October 30, 1844, in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and is a son of William Jamison and Martha (McBurney) Watson.
William J. Watson was a farmer on the old Watson homestead. He was a son of James and a grandson of John Watson, who was the original settler on the place and who cleared it from the native forest. James Watson, the grandfather of James M., was filling the office of sheriff of Mercer County at the time of his death.
James M. Watson enjoyed excellent educational advantages, attending Westminster College and the advanced schools of Grove City and Edinboro, graduating at the latter, in 1883, third member in a class of thirty-three. During the Civil War he served under Capt. J. R. Kemp for eleven months and eleven days, being mustered in and out at Pittsburg.
In 1864 Mr. Watson was married to Elizabeth Graham, who was a daughter of John and Margaret Graham, and they had three children: Anna Martha, who married George E. Dannels, principal of the Highland Avenue School, has three children, Eugene, Gordon and Helma; Nellie, who married M. D. McCarthy, has two children, Helen and Margaret, and Margaret, who married C. W. Wilson, resides in Wilmington Township. Mrs. Watson died in 1895. Mr. Watson was married, secondly, to Mary J. Bingham, who is a daughter of James A. and Sarah M. (Totton) Bingham, and they have three sons, James B., Ralph E. and Theodore C. Mr. Watson is one of the leading members of the Presbyterian Church at New Wilmington, and is much interested in the Sabbath-school work.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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Updated: 14 Nov 2001