Husband Lewis Findlay Watson 1 2 3
Born: 14 Apr 1819 - Crawford Co, PA 1
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Father: John Watson ( - ) 1
Mother: Rebecca Bradley ( - ) 1
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Other Spouse: Elvira W. McDowell ( -1849) 4 - 1842 4
• Additional Image: Lewis F. Watson.
Wife Caroline E. Eldred 4
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Father: Hon. Nathaniel Bailey Eldred (1795-1867) 5
Mother: [Unk] Dimmick ( -1824)
Children
1 F Annie Bartlett Watson 4
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General Notes: Husband - Lewis Findlay Watson
His early education was such as the educational advantages of Crawford and surrounding counties afforded during his boyhood. At the age of thirteen he entered a store at Titusville in the capacity of clerk, and remained in that occupation there and at Franklin and Warren until 1837, his residence in the latter place having commenced in 1835. At the close of his last engagement, in 1837, he entered the pro-thonotary's and register and recorder's office in Warren, where he remained until 1838, shortly after which he commenced a course of study at the Warren Academy, then under charge of Mr. Rasselas Brown, who subsequently became president judge of the judicial district.
Upon leaving the academy, Mr. Watson entered upon mercantile pursuits in the borough of Warren, in partnership with Archibald Tanner and S. T. Nelson, under the style of Nelson, Watson & Co. At the termination of this co-partnership, in 1841, he continued his mercantile pursuits, sometimes on his own account, and sometimes with others, until 1860, when, closing this busi-ness, he turned his attention more directly to the manufacture and marketing of lumber. In the autumn of 1850, in company with his brother John and Archibald Tanner, he engaged in the development of the petroleum business by drilling wells on his brother's farm at Titusville. In the spring of 1860 this firm opened what was known as the Fountain Oil Well, the first flowing well in that district, and probably the first in the country.
He engaged in the production of petroleum, and was continuously engaged also in extensive operations in pine timber lands, and in the manufacture and sale of lumber. While increasing his lumber interests, he gradually became, probably, the largest land owner in the county of Warren, and later he acquired extensive timber tracts on the Pacific slope.
Enterprises of more public importance at various times occupied his attention. In 1864 he was one of the original stockholders of the First National Bank of Warren, and for several years acted as its vice-president. In 1870 he organized the Warren Savings Bank, of which he was the first president.
In 1861 he organized the Conewango Valley Railroad Company, later known as the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh, and was elected its first president. It was mainly through his efforts that the Conewango Valley road was constructed. In 1877 he purchased a large tract of land in Cass county, Dakota, and at once commenced the cultivation of wheat and other agri-cultural products. Eventually he had over two thousand acres under cultivation.
After the organization of the Republican party Mr. Watson at all times supported the political principles which distinguished that body. Although not a politician by profession or practice, his unswerving loyalty to his party, his known patriotism, his energy, perspicacity, and success in the various enterprises which he had undertaken, led, in 1874, to the unanimous recommendation of Mr. Watson, by the Republicans of Warren county to the district convention, as a candidate for representative to Congress. At the meeting of the district convention Mr. Watson's name as a candidate was withdrawn at his own request, to effect an unanimous nomination of Hon. C. B. Curtis, the sitting member of the House from the Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania Congressional District, for a second term. Mr. Curtis was defeated at the polls by his Democratic competitor, by a small majority.
Two years thereafter, in 1876, Mr. Watson was nominated by the Republican convention, held at Franklin, as a candidate for representative to the Forty-fifth Congress from the above district, and he was elected by the over-whelming majority of 3,547, against Wm. L. Scott, the Democratic nominee. notwithstanding the election of a Democrat for the preceding term of 1874-76. In 1880 he was again elected to Congress. His congressional duties were performed with the same assiduity and zeal that he displayed in private affairs.
In the Forty-fifth Congress he introduced a bill to regulate inter-state commerce and to prohibit unjust discrimination by common carriers. This bill aimed to correct one of the crying evils of the times. In the House it elicited discussion which its importance merited, and it was widely commented upon by the leading newspapers of the country in a manner which indicated the deep interest felt in the proposed reformatory legislation by the people at large. The bill passed the House, with some unimportant amendments, by a large majority, but reached the Senate too late for action during that session of Congress. That its passage through the House, by a large majority, should be ascribed to the energetic and skillful efforts of Mr. Watson, is apparent from the fact that a similar bill, introduced in the Forty-sixth Congress, did not reach a vote in either the House or the Senate.