JOHN S. WATSON is a Texan of more than half a century of experience as a farmer and stockman in Hood and adjoining counties, and is now living retired at Thorp Springs [sic], one of the oldest centers of education and culture in North Texas.

Mr. Watson was born in Southern Arkansas, July 13, 1859, and his family on both sides came from Tennessee. His father, Charles Watson, was also a native of Southern Arkansas, and followed farming in that section of the state until his death. He married Elizabeth Reese, who was born in Tennessee and afterwards came to Texas and died in Erath County in 1905. Of her three sons and two daughters four are living; W.J. Watson, who married Cresie Treadeway, and of their seven children three sons and three daughters are living; Eliza, now seventy-seven years of age, a resident of Weatherford, Texas, is the wife of James Hale, a retired farmer; and Tessie Jane is the wife of Henry Hale, a retired farmer and land owner at Colorado City, Texas, and they have four sons and three daughters.

John S. Watson attended a log cabin school in Arkansas and came to Texas at the age of fourteen, after which his education came from work and experience. For some years he lived in Bell County, where he worked for wages, then rented land and farmed ten or twelve years. In 1885 he removed to Erath County, rented land, but during the same year bought a place, settling ten miles north of Stephensville [sic]. In that locality he engaged in farming and stock raising until 1925, when he sold his live stock and rented his land. He and his children own five hundred acres in that county, and he is also a stockholder in a bank. He has experienced the vicissitudes of farming and stock raising in Texas during the past half century, but on the whole has prospered and has been able to provide well for his children, most of whom have shown a strong inclination for educational work. In November, 1925, Mr. Watson bought his home at Thorp Spring in Hood County. He is a member of the Church of Christ.

Mr. Watson married at Huckabay, Erath County, September 27, 1887, Miss Sallie Copeland, who was born October 3, 1869, second in a family of eight children, seven of whom are living, born to John and Margaret Copeland, natives of Tennessee. Her father died at Huckabay May 26, 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Watson had five children. Jewell, born September 27, 1888, took her A.B. degree at Simmons University, Abilene, received the Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has been active in educational work for fifteen years, being now dean of the Christian College at Thorp Spring. John Leeroy Watson, born March 28, 1892, is a graduate of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, from which he received the degrees A.B. and A.M., and is now a teacher in that institution at College Station. He married Lida Pittman and they have two sons. Verbena, born July 21, 1894, is the mother of three children by her marriage to A.R. Holton, who was president of Christian College at Thorp Spring from 1920 until February 1, 1928. Joseph L. Watson, born February 21, 1900, is attending the Texas Technological College at Lubbock. Marine, the youngest of the family was born August 13, 1908, graduated from the Junior College at Thorp Spring and is now a teacher in the high school at Granbury, Texas.

John Sloman Watson was born July 13, 1859 and died November 4, 1944. He was buried in Thorp Spring Cemetery in Hood County, Texas.