USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 23
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M. C. WATSON. One of the most active public men of Indiana county, and at present a successful leading lawyer of western Pennsylvania, and now, though engrossed with the cares and business of a large law practice, having as deep an interest as any Indianian in the material development of the county, is M. C. Watson. Honored with some and refusing other offices within the gift of the people, he has been assiduously devoting himself for the past five years to his profession and indi- vidual business interests. He is a son of Jamies and Mary (Pattison) Watson, and was born on Watson's ridge, in the southern part of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1846. Matthew Watson (grandfather) was born in county Tyrone, in 1763, came to the United States about 1793 and located in what is now the northern part of Westmoreland county, Pa. In 1800 he located on the farm now owned by Dr. Thomas Murry in Conemaugh township and the ridge upon which this farm is located was called " Watson's Ridge " in honor of him. He was a fitting representative of the hardy, moral and liberty-loving race from which he was descended, and was one of the honored and worthy pioneer settlers of western Pennsylvania, who have given character for all time to come to the great region which they reclaimed from the savages and wild beasts of the forest. In 1855, when venerable with the snows of age, but remarkably active for one who had passed the ninety- second milestone on life's rugged pathway, he was unfortunate enough to have his hip dislocated, and failing to rally from the shock he passed away into the unknown world. Ere he left the green shores of his native country he married an Irish maiden, who died in this country shortly after his arrival. For his second wife he wedded Mar- garet McClelland, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, and a daughter of James McClelland, who came about 1783, with his young wife, from Scotland to Conemaugh township, where
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his children were born and where he frequently fled to a neighboring block-house on account of Indian invasions. To Matthew and Margaret Watson were born twelve children: John, Thomas, Matthew, Jr., Mary, William, Alex- ander, Robert, James, Jane, Isabella,_Ann and Margaret. Of the sons, James Watson (father) was born December 16, 1816, and died January 10, 1886, when in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was an extensive farmer and active business man. He ran a dairy, dealt in stock and operated the Ridge flouring-mill, which was one of the first steam flouring-mills in the southern part of the county. When Morgan and his bold raiders, in 1863, threatened the western part of the State, he enlisted in Co. H, 54th regiment, Pa. Militia, was promoted to commissary sergeant and was present at Mor- gan's capture. He was a member of the U. P. church, a prominent citizen of his community and a man of keen discernment and scrupulous honesty. His wife was Mary Pattison, by whom he had two sons and one daughter: Alexander P., of Callinsburg, Clarion county, Pa., who enlisted in Co. I, 67th regiment, Pa. Vols., and served three years, of which time four months was spent as a prisoner of war in southern prisons ; Belle J., wife of Rev. Hugh Boyd; and M. C. Mrs. Mary Watson was born in Armstrong township, united with the U. P. church at an early age, and died February 9, 1886, aged seventy years. She was a daughter of Gen. Alexander Pattison, who was born in this county and married Martha Scott, a native of Scotland. General Pattison was a son of John Pattison, who emigrated from the north of Ireland to this county soon after the termination of the Revolutionary war.
M. C. Watson was reared in the rural dis- tricts, where his father resided, and received his education in the famous old Elder's Ridge academy, from which institution he was grad- uated in the class of 1872. Having made choice of law as a profession, he went to the
University of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he entered the law department and spent one year. He then (1873) came back to Indiana, where he read law for one year with Judge Harry White and was admitted to the Indiana county bar on March 7, 1874. Upon his admission he became a partner of Judge White and remained as such until 1885. In 1877 he was elected district attorney ; his services were such in that office as to secure his re-nomination and re-election in 1880. During nearly three-quarters of a century Mr. Watson has been the second imcumbent who has served, and the first who has ever been elected for a second term as district attorney of Indiana county. In 1886 the Republican party of the county, unasked and unsought for on his part, gave him the nomination for Congress, which he courteously but firmly declined in order to give his time fully to his law practice. Two years later he was sent as a delegate to the National Republican Convention of Chicago, which nominated Harrison. In 1885 he formed his present law partnership with S. J. Telford, and they have a large practice in both the civil and criminal courts of this and adjoining coun- ties. He is interested in the material develop- ment of the county, in the northeastern part of which he has large interests in coal and lumber. He is also a stockholder and president of the Indiana county Telephone company, and the Indiana county Gas company. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, Indiana; Lodge No. 313, F. & A. M., and a Royal Arch Mason of Zerubbabel Chapter, No. 162.
On December 13, 1877, he married Juliet White, daughter of Colonel Richard White, grand-daughter of Judge Thomas White, and
niece to General Harry White. Their union has been blessed with three sons and three daughters: Richard W., Mark H., C. Helen, Mary G., J. Herman and Anna M. Mrs. Watson's father, Col. Richard White, served as major in a three months' regiment in 1861, and then became colonel of the 55th Pa.
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Vols., which he commanded until the close of the war. He died in fourteen days after arriv- ing home in April, 1865, from exposure during the war.
M. C. Watson is suave of manner and cour- teous in bearing. He is persuasive and eloquent in addressing a jury, and generally successful in winning his cases. His speeches made in im- portant cases are marked by great strength of argument and force of reasoning, as well as distinguished by eloquent flights and beauty of language.
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TAMES M. WATT, the capable cashier of the Indiana county Deposit Bank and the reliable treasurer of the Indiana Normal school, is a son of Judge Isaac M. and Jane. (McKin- nan) Watt and was born at Indiana, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, December 30, 1847. The Watt and McKinnan families are both of Scotch-Irish descent and were settled at an early day respectively in Allegheny and Hun- tingdon counties. Hon. Isaac M. Watt was born and reared in Allegheny county, where he learned the trade of saddler. In early life he removed to Indiana, where he was engaged in the saddlery and harness-making business until 1865, when he removed to Homer City and fol- lowed the mercantile business till his death, in 1874, when in the sixty-sixth year of his age. Judge Watt was a man of prominence and use- fulness in the county and was honored with many offices of honor and trust by his fellow- citizens of Indiana county. He was justice of the peace for many years, served as county treasurer from 1836 to 1838, was register and recorder from 1839 to 1842 and during 1847, and was elected jury commissioner in 1861. In 1851 he was elected associate judge of Indiana county, which position he ably filled for ten years. He was a stanch republican and a member of the Presbyterian church. In 1834 he married Jane Watt, who was born in Hun-
tingdon county in 1815 and is a daughter of John and Mary (McCalian) McKinnan, who both died when she was five years of age. She is now in the seventy-sixth year of her age and resides at Homer City.
James M. Watt was reared at Indiana, where he received his education in the schools of that town. In 1865, to fully qualify himself for some business pursuit in life, he entered Duff's Commercial college of Pittsburgh, from which he graduated during that year. From 1865 to 1867 he was a clerk in the drug house of Nes- bit & Lewis, of Indiana. In 1867 he went to Pittsburgh, where he served for three years as a prescription clerk in a wholesale and retail drug house. He then removed to Homer City and was engaged in the drug business for seven years. At the end of that time he came (1877) to Indiana, was a clerk for the drug firm of Hetrick Bros. for one year and then entered the Indiana County Deposit bank as teller, which position he held until 1883, when he was made assistant cashier. One year later he was elected cashier and has served efficiently as such until the present time. This bank was organized December 4, 1869, with a capital stock of $100,000, which was in- creased in 1873 to $200,000, but was afterward reduce to the original amount. Its deposits av- erage $150,000 with a surplus of $50,000, and its present officers are: W. M. Stewart, Presi- dent; Judge Harry White, Vice-President; J. M. Watt, cashier and T. E. Hildebrand, assist- ant cashier. Mr. Watt is a republican, served one year as burgess of Homer City and is a member and treasurer of the board of trade of Indiana. He is a member of Indiana Lodge, No. 313, F. & A. M., and Indiana Post, No. 28, G. A. R. He has been for seven years treasurer of the Indiana Normal school.
April 9, 1874, he married Nettie E. Jamison, a daughter of John A. Jamison, of Indiana. James M. Watt was one of the youthful soldiers of the late war. He enlisted when only four- teen years of age as a musician in Co. I, 135th
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regiment, Pa. Vols., and served nine months. He re-enlisted February 18, 1864, for three years and served in Co. F, 55th regiment, Pa. Vols., until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged at Fortress Monroe on June 8, 1865. In the many business positions of trust and responsibility which he has held Mr. Watt has always discharged his duties in such an efficient manner as to give entire satisfac- tion. He is an excellent financier and a man of good judgment and fine business ability.
TTON. THOMAS WHITE. Among the prominent public men and jurists of this State, no one has ever been more deservedly honored for intellectual power and a pure record of public and private life, than Thomas White, who was an eminent lawyer, an upright judge and a just man. He was a son of Richard and Mary White, and was born in 1799 in Sussex county, in the south of England, and within sight of the hill of Senlac, where the last king of English blood fell dead at the foot of the royal standard-the consecrated gift of Rome and Hildebrand, and where the Norman con- queror William reared Battle Abbey with its massive walls to fulfill a vow and in honor of his great victory (called in history the battle of Hastings). Sussex county, whose coast is the resort of rank, fashion and opulence and whose hills and downs present a variety of pleasing and picturesque situations, is historic ground. On its soil Cæsar first planted the imperial ban- ners of Rome when he invaded Britain ; subse- quently the Saxon invasion of England was made through its territory and there is no more classic ground in all England than Senlac hill, the last spur of the Sussex downs, once covered by the great Andrede weald, or wonderful native forests. After Norman William had won the kingdom there were several immigrations from Normandy, and in the mixed population of
Saxon and Norman, elements which came to be occupants of the Senlac district there is no clue to the ancestry of Judge White, other than is afforded by the name (White), which is undoubt- edly Saxon, and some of his ancestors may have fought under King Harold when he fell in 1066, in defense of his kingdom.
Thomas White was brought, by his mother, Mrs. Mary White, in 1804, to Philadelphia, where he obtained his education in the public schools of that city and became well versed in the French and Spanish languages. He read law with William Rawle, was admitted to the bar and in 1821 opened an office at Indiana. On December 13, 1836, he was appointed, by Gov. Joseph Ritner, as president judge of the Tenth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana and Westmorc- land. After he left the bench, in 1847, he re- sumed the practice of law and was engaged in many important cases in different county courts and the supreme court of Pennsylvania.
Judge White took great interest in agriculture, raised some very fine sheep and blooded cattle and was president of the Indiana Agricultural Association from its origin until his death, in 1866.
A NDREW W. WILSON. One of Penn- sylvania's self-made and leading business men, and an intelligent, honored and respected citizen of Indiana, is the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. For strict integrity, business ability and personal worth, Andrew W. Wilson stands as high as any man in this section of the State. He was born in Brush Valley township, Indiana county, Peni- sylvania, July 12, 1826, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Wilkins) Wilson. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Wilson, was a native of county Antrim, Ireland, where he first saw the light in 1757. He left the land of his birth in 1795 and came to this county, where he patent-
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ed and improved a tract of land in Brush Val- ley township. He was one of the first settlers of Dills Valley (now Brush Valley), a weaver by trade and a very intelligent representative Scotch-Irishman. He lived far beyond the al- lotted span of life, saw three birthdays beyond the century mark and breathed his last when in the one hundred and third year of his ripe old age. Of the four sons who were born to him in the New World, one was Samuel Wilson, (father), who was engaged in farming and school- teaching till his death, in 1865, aged sixty-five years. He was a consistent member and useful elder of the United Presbyterian church. His first wife was Elizabeth Wilkins, who was born in the initial year of the present century ; was a member of the U. P. church and passed away at the early age of thirty-five years. She was a daughter of Andrew Wilkins, one of the first white children who was born on the territory of Indiana county. He was a farmer, and during the construction of the old Portage R. R. le fed a large number of hands who were working on it, besides supplying many others with meat. He died near Portage, but his remains are in- terred at Johnstown, Cambria county, Pa.
Andrew W. Wilson was reared on a farm until he was fourteen years of age, when he en- gaged in farming during the summer months at five dollars per month and his board. He ob- tained his education by working for his board while he attended school. From fourteen to seventeen years of age he was engaged in teach- ing school at from $7.50 to $18.00 per month. He then became a clerk in the dry-goods house of Sutton & Moore, of Indiana, which position he held for three years, when his employers made him manager of a store at Mechanicsburg, (the firm-name being A. W. Wilson & Co.,). which they stocked with twenty-five hundred dollars' worth of goods. Here for five years he labored persistently against many discouragements, and by hard work, practical economy and strict honesty laid the foundations of a permanent
success that has crowned his efforts ever since in the commercial world. In the latter year the Pennsylvania R. R. located a branch road to Indiana, and Mr. Wilson was recalled to the home house, where he was admitted as an equal part- ner with John Sutton and intrusted with a large share of its management. The establish- ment of Sutton & Wilson was known for inany miles as the leading house of the county. His business ability and experience were fully equal to the requirements of the situation. For thirty- eight years he has slowly but securely built up a business of extensive proportions. In that time one of his partners died and the other retired from business, and the firm to-day is A. W. Wilson & Son (Harry W. Wilson). The orig- nal store is a two-story brick building, 28x65, and was erected in 1858, on the site of the old Peter Sutton log hotel, built in 1806. It is now used as the grocery department of their present establishment, which occupies the site of the old Carpenter mansion on Philadelphia street. It is thirty-three feet front and one hundred and thirteen feet deep. It was erected in 1880 and is three stories in height, built of Philadel- phia pressed-brick and the front tastefully trim- med with Freeport gray sandstone. The front is largely of fine plate-glass. This dry-goods house throughout is one of the finest in the State outside of a large city. It affords a large amount of floor space, plenty of light and every convenience for the accommodation and display of their immense stock that has no superior and few equals in any county-seat of the State. The entire establishment is divided into five depart- ments, which are under the charge of experi- enced and courteous managers. The first depart- ment, is used for staple and fancy dry goods and notions; the second is devoted to men's clothing and carpets; the third is filled with blankets and yarns; the fourth or basement story is stocked with oil-cloths and the different kinds of wares, and the fifth comprises the first-store building, which is filled with groceries and contains the
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packing and ware-rooms. Mr. Wilson's trade extends over a wide area of territory and he is well deserving of the liberal patronage accorded him.
July 7, 1853, he married Anna G. Dick, daughter of James Dick, of this county. The latter was a native of Belfast, Ireland. Their children are: Harry W., in business with his father; Robert D., Ph.D, who is a professor of Hebrew in the Western Theological seminary ; Rev. Samuel G., a missionary in Persia; John L., in business with his father; Prof. Andrew W., one of the proprietors of the Kiskiminetas school for boys; Ella M., a graduate of Vassar college and teacher of Greek at Kiskiminetas school ; and Annie E., James D., Jennie P. and Mary A., who are attending school. The four eldest sons are graduates of Princeton.
Politically Mr. Wilson is a prohibitionist and has held several offices of trust and responsibil- ity. He is president of the board of trade, vice-president of the board of Normal school directors and a director ofthe Western Theolog- ical seminary. He has been for over twenty years an influential member and a leading elder of the Indiana Presbyterian church, of whose Sunday-school he has been superintendent for thirteen years. He has given freely of his time and means in the promotion of the religious, benevolent and educational interests of Indiana. Andrew W. Wilson ranks high in that class of men who build their own monuments of fortune and reputation and the gratification of whose highest ambition is attained in being useful to their fellow-men.
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LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER MCCRACKEN, of the U. S. Navy, was born in Indiana, in 1850. He was a cabin boy on a gunboat commanded by Captain Wells, on the lower Mississippi, in 1863 and 1864. In 1865 he entered the naval school at Annapolis, Md .;
graduated in 1869 ; was appointed midshipman, and left Boston, August 1st, in the same year for the East, in the service of the government, visiting France, Italy, Egypt and other coun- tries. Subsequently he was in the coast survey on the Gulf of Mexico and lower Mississippi River. In 1877 he was sent to the coast of South America, and returned in November, 1879. He is now (1880) one of the instructors in mathematics in the naval school at Annapo- lis. He was promoted regularly from mid- shipman to lieutenant, in January, 1879.
T TOHN R. WILSON, a prominent, active and successful lawyer and a well-known and able Democratic leader of Indiana county, is a son of William and Letitia (McAdoo) Wilson, and was born in Centre township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1841. William Wilson was a son of John Wilson, of a well-to- do and respected Wilson family of Ireland, from which he emigrated in 1828 to Indiana county, where he settled in Centre township and was engaged in farming until 1883, when he died. He was a prosperous farmer and a well-respected citizen. From 1828 to 1854 he affiliated with the whigs, but in the latter year he joined the Democratic party and steadfastly held to its principles until his death. His wife was Leti- tia McAdoo, who was born in Ireland and came with her parents, James and Catherine McAdoo, to Washington county, this State.
John R. Wilson was reared on his father's farm in Centre township. He received his edu- cation in the academies of the county, and while pursuing his academic course he followed teach- ing during the winter seasons in the common or district schools. Having after due considera- tion made choice of law as a life vocation, he began the study of this chosen profession in 1866 with the Hon. H. W. Wier, of Indiana, and was admitted, in October 1868, to practice law in the courts of Indiana county. After being ad-
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BIOGRAPHIES OF INDIANA COUNTY.
mitted to the bar he located at Cherry Tree, this county, where he practiced up to January, 1870, when he removed to Indiana and has continued in the active practice of his profession there ever since. In 1873 he was appointed a commissioner of the Circuit Court of the United States for the western district of Pennsylvania and has held and satisfactorily discharged the duties of that office up to the present time. He enjoys a large practice in Indiana.
In 1876 he united in marriage with Mary E. Patton, a daughter of Hon. John D. Patton, of Indiana. Their union has been blessed with three children, two sons and one daughter: Max, Alice May and John D.
In July, 1863, upon the invasion of Pennsyl- vania by the Army of Northern Virginia, Mr.
Wilson enlisted for a three months' term of service in Co. C, 57th regiment, Pa. State troops; but the regiment was never called into active service. John R. Wilson is a democrat in poli- tics and takes a warm interest in the success of his party, in which he is a persistent worker and prominent leader. For the past five years he has not taken such an active part in politics as heretofore, yet when occasion requires he is al- ways found in the front rank of the political struggle, manfully battling for the principles and the cause of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy. Specially fitted and well quali- fied for political leadership, he is naturally looked to by his party in emergencies and has always served in such times with tact and ability.
INDIANA COUNTY COURT-HOUSE.
BLAIRSVILLE.
Historical and Descriptive .- Blairsville, the metropolis of Indiana county and a pleasantly located town on the east bank of the Conemaugh river, in Burrell township, is destined at no dis- tant day in the future to attain to the propor- tions of a city and far exceed the expectations of its founders. It was laid out in July and August, 1818, was incorporated as a borough March 25, 1825, and in 1890 contained a popu- lation of 3,113. It is 189 miles northwest from Washington City, 161 west from Harris- burg and 14 miles southwest of the county-seat. It was named in honor of John Blair, who was president of an important turnpike company. James Baird, Sr., laid the warrant which in- cluded the larger part of the site of Blairsville and sold it to James Campbell, of Franklin county, who, in connection with Andrew Brown, of Black Lick township, laid out the town and offered the first lots for sale on November 11, 1818. Hugh Richards and James Rankin, in competition for a free lot, erected the first two houses in March, 1819, and Richards won the prize by only two hours. Jonathan Doty opened a store in 1820, and Abner Willetts, in the succeeding year, became the first tavern- keeper. The first postmaster was George Mul- holland, Jr. The first market-house was built in 1829 and its 'successor was erected in 1857. The water-works was completed in 1873.
Blairsville is situated in the second great coal basin of Indiana county, which is named after the town.
"The Third or Blairsville basin is a simple synclinal fold extending, without structural
complication of any kind, from the centre of Chestnut Ridge anticlinal on the northwest. It is the prolongation southwestward of the Third Great basin of Clearfield and Jefferson counties, where its boundary lines on the east and west are the same as those above mentioned; but continued still further south westward across the Conemaugli into Westmorland county, these limits of the trough are maintained only as far as Sewickley creek.
"The basin stretches diagonally nearly through the centre of Indiana county. Nar- rowing somewhat towards the northeast in con- sequence of the non-parallelism of the two en- closing anticlinals, its width is reduced from seven miles on the Conemaugh to scarcely more than four miles in the latitude of the county- seat; traced thence still further north, its width is subsequently increased by the divergence of the same lines to about five miles, which is then maintained without variation from the headwaters of Two Lick and Little Mahoning to and across the Jefferson county line.
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