Livingston-East Baton Rouge County Louisiana Archives Biographies.....Watson, Joseph December 24, 1874 - 


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Mike Miller http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000912 October 7, 2006, 4:02 pm

Author: Henry E Chambers

Joseph William Watson, M. D.  The scope and importance of the practice 
controlled by Doctor Watson in the City of Baton Rouge indicate alike his 
professional ability and personal popularity in the capital city of his native 
state, his well appointed offices being in tire Masonic Temple Building, on 
Third Street.

Doctor Watson was born at Port Vincent, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, December 
24. 1874.  His grandfather, Lewis Watson, was one of the substantial exponents 
of plantation industry in that parish, which represented his home during the 
greater part of his life, though he was born at Milledgeville, Georgia, in 
1806.  The Watson family, from Scotland, was founded in Georgia in the Colonial 
period of American history.  On his plantation near Port Vincent the death of 
Lewis Watson occurred in 1876, his wife having passed away in 1874.  Mrs. 
Watson, whose maiden name was Ann West, was born in the State of Mississippi, 
in 1810. Lewis Watson was a son of Maj. William Watson, who was born and reared 
in Georgia and who commanded military forces in the campaign to wrest eastern 
Florida from Spanish control in the Colonial days.  He became one of the early 
settlers in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, where he and his wife passed the 
remainder of their lives.

Lewis T. Watson, father of Dr. Joseph W., was born on the old home plantation 
near Port Vincent in 1843, and passed his entire life in that section of 
Livingston Parish, where his death occurred, at Walker, in 1913.  His active 
career was one of close and successful association with agricultural industry 
in his native parish, where he was an honored and influential citizen and where 
he was called upon to serve as justice of the peace and as police juror, 
besides which he there served as deputy sheriff under his brother William.  He 
was a stalwart democrat, and he represented Louisiana as a gallant soldier of 
the Confederacy during the course of the Civil war, in which he took part in 
many engagements, including the historic battle of Shiloh.  He first married 
Sarah Summers, who left no children at her death.  For his second wife he 
wedded Miss Mary Ferguson, who was horn in the State of Arkansas, in 1834, and 
whose death occurred in 1876.  Of the children of this union the eldest is 
Lewis B., who resides at Walker and who is a fur-buyer by vocation ;  Susan, 
who died at the age of twenty-eight years, is survived by her husband,  John B. 
Thompson, a resident of Walker and employed in railroad service.  Mr. Joseph 
W., of this review, was the next in order of birth ; and Benjamin Lee is a 
farmer near Walker.  After the death of his second wife Lewis T. Watson married 
Miss Ida Cooper, who resides at Walker and who was born and reared in 
Livingston Parish.

Doctor Watson early gave manifestation of his youthful independence and self-
reliance.  He ran away from home when he was a lad of fourteen years, made his 
way to Texas, and in that state he attended school nine months.  He then 
returned to Louisiana, and while finding employment in his native parish he 
also attended the public schools at Denham Springs.  Later he was a student in 
the Louisiana State Industrial School at Ruston until he had partly completed 
the work of his senior year, and his next progressive action was to enroll 
himself as a student in the Louisville Medical College, in the metropolis of 
Kentucky, where he took two courses in medicine.  Insistent on the most 
effective of preliminary discipline for the exacting work of his chosen 
profession, he thereafter took a course of lectures in the Memphis Hospital 
Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, after which he entered the medical 
department of Emery College at Atlanta, Georgia, where he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1906.  After thus receiving his well earned degree of 
Doctor of Medicine he was engaged in practice at St. Amant, Ascension Parish, 
until 1916, when he removed to Baton Rouge.  In the capital city Doctor Watson 
has built up a large and representative general practice, and he is known for 
his determined work in keeping closely in touch with the advances made in 
medical and surgical science.  Thus it is to be noted that in 1915 he took a 
post-graduate course in the New Orleans Polyclinic, and that in the following 
year he completed a post-graduate course in the New York Post-Graduate School 
of Medicine.  In both of these courses he specialized on the diagnosis and 
treatment of the diseases of children, a phase of practice which enlists loyal 
and effective service on his part.  The Doctor maintains membership in the East 
Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society and the 
American Medical Association.  His political convictions place him loyally in 
the ranks of the democratic party, and as a citizen he is liberal and 
progressive.  In the Masonic fraternity his affiliation is with Baton Rouge 
Lodge No. 399, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.  His home place, owned by him, 
is an attractive residence property at 2016 Government Street, on Roseland 
Terrace.

May 29. 1906, recorded the marriage of Doctor Watson and Miss Etta Ellis, 
daughter of Jesse and Susan (Mosely) Ellis, the latter of whom is deceased, Mr. 
Ellis being now a steaming contractor residing at Corbin, Louisiana.  Mrs. 
Watson continued her studies in the public schools until her graduation from 
the high school at Denham Springs, where her marriage was later solemnized.  
Doctor and Mrs. Watson have five children, all of whom are (1924) attending the 
public schools of Baton Rouge, namely: Erline, Mae Delight (both in the high 
school), Joseph Ellis (in the junior high school), Lane Edison and Eloise.


Additional Comments:
A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 69-70, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published 
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.

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