Watson, Robert, 1825-1913

Robert Watson was born on September 8, 1925 in Dundee, Scotland, the son of William and Jessie McLeish Watson. He attended the public seminary (district school) in Dundee until 1837 when, following the failure of his father's linen business, the family immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1838 they moved to a farm near Parma, Ohio and he attended the Parma and Brooklyn Center academies. In April 1850 he and his younger brother William traveled to Minnesota, where they each claimed land in Cottage Grove, Washington County. That September he returned to Ohio for their mother and younger brother John, then traveled to Missouri to take a teaching position at the Rural Academy in Carlinville. He returned to Cottage Grove in April 1851. In 1855 he purchased a nearby farm, named it "Evergreen Hills," and moved his family there in the spring of 1857. He also taught school at nearby Stillwater during the winter of 1852-1853 and served in both the Minnesota territorial (1853-1854) and state (1865-1866) legislatures. In 1878 he moved his family to Northfield, Minnesota.

He married Mehitable W. Furber, the daughter of Pierce Powers and Mehitable Winkley Furber, on May 16, 1854. They had five children: Minnie Helen (1855-1931), Olive Alice (1859-1864), Isabella (1862-1952), Florence (1865-ca. 1900), and William Richard (1867-1926). Watson died on April 16, 1913.

Biographical data was taken from the collection; the History of Rice County (Minneapolis, 1882), p. 435; and Watson's The Early Settlement of Cottage Grove (Northfield, Minn., 1924).

From the guide to the Robert Watson papers., 1850, 1872, 1909, [ca. 1942]., (Minnesota Historical Society)