Hinsdale County CO Archives Biographies.....Watson, James 1850 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 22, 2006, 2:44 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     When the high and often extravagant hopes inspired by the general
discoveries of gold in the Rocky Mountain regions of this country brought
thousands of eager seekers for the precious metals to Colorado, and thus led to
populating and developing the territory, men of all classes and conditions in
life, and from every section of this and other countries, became its citizens
and put in motion here their various kinds and degrees of enterprise and skill.
 Although led in the first instance by the promise of great gains from the
mining industry, they soon found other lines of activity full of fruitfulness
and gain, and remained to cultivate the soil and build up substantial and
enduring business interests where they had come to levy a quick and bounteous
tribute for use in enterprises of magnitude elsewhere. Among the eager seekers
for fortune in the glittering store which lay hidden in the mountains waiting
for the voice of masterful energy to call it forth and make it serviceable to
mankind, was James Watson, the scion of old Virginia and Pennsylvania families,
who although young in years, was a fully developed man in determined spirit,
unyielding enterprise and resourcefulness in emergencies, ready to dare any fate
and make the most of any circumstances.  The faith which brought him through
hardships over the plains into the wilderness, and which sustained him in the
arduous toils and trials of his early years in this country has been amply
justified by his success in his undertakings and the position of respectability
and general esteem to which his merit has raised him. Mr. Watson was born in the
picturesque and historic valley of the Shenandoah, near the town of Woodstock in
Virginia, in 1850, and is the son of Joseph and Jemima Watson, the former a
native of Virginia and the latter of Pennsylvania.  They were prosperous
planters in the Old Dominion, and the father was a man of local prominence and
influence, holding many county offices in the gift of his people, serving in one
continuously from 1842 to 1858.  He was a pronounced Democrat in political
faith, and was ever active in the service of his party.  In religious belief
both parents were ardent members of the Baptist church, and the father was one
of the pillars of the congregation to which they belonged.  He died in his
native state in 1859 and his widow at the same place in 1864.  Six of their
children have died, leaving their son James the only surviving member of the
family. He received a meager scholastic training in the common schools of his
day and locality, which were rendered less serviceable than usual because of the
disturbed conditions preceding and during the Civil war.  At the age of
fourteen, after the death of his parents, he had the wide world and its battle
of life before him, and was armed for the contest with nothing but his native
powers of mind and body, and the limited education he had acquired.  In 1878 he
journeyed to Kansas City, Missouri, by rail, and from there with mule teams up
the Arkansas river to Silverton, this state, then a young but promising mining
camp.  He was six weeks making the trip and arrived with two teams and a few
dollars as his only capital. But he found a ready demand for the use of his
teams and his own energies in teaming, and made good profits at the business, at
the same time prospecting, as everybody else did, and acquiring by his efforts a
number of valuable mining claims.  In the fall of 1879 he moved to Lake City and
continued his freighting operations, running between Lake City and Alamosa,
until 1884, meanwhile becoming possessed of additional mining properties.  Since
the year last named he has been engaged in handling local freight and mining in
San Juan and Hinsdale counties.  He holds interests of value in the Index, the
Mountain, the King and the Excelsior mines in San Juan county, and in others
elsewhere. Since 1889 he has also been occupied vigorously and extensively in
the feed and coal trade, handling all kinds of feed and standard varieties of
coal, such as the Baldwin, the Crested Butte, the Anthracite and the Somerset
outputs.  In the public affairs of his county and section he has taken an active
and prominent part, serving as county commissioner of Hinsdale county in 1903
and 1904, and on the town board of Lake City for a number of years.  Politically
he is a firm and loyal Democrat, and fraternally belongs to the order of Odd
Fellows.  He was married on January 17, 1870, to Miss Mary E. Mowry, of the same
nativity as himself, who still abides with him.  He has been a bold and
far-seeing operator in many lines, and while often taking great risks, has
generally been successful; and his usefulness in the development of his section
and intelligence and force in caring for its best interests, have made him a
leading and universally esteemed citizen, while his genial and generous
disposition has gained him great popularity, and his readiness to assist in the
promotion of every valuable enterprise has won him commanding influence in
commercial and industrial circles throughout his portion of the state.  His is
the kind of citizenship that has made Colorado great and her name respected
throughout the world as a land of wonderful possibilities and gigantic
undertakings, and he is correspondingly respected by all classes of her people. 

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

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