Biographical Sketch of Rev. John J. Watts, Pulaski County, Missouri

>From "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas,
 Pulaski, Phelps & Dent Counties, Missouri, Published 1889, Goodspeed
 Publishing Company.

Transcribed by: Penny Harrell (Incog3678@aol.com)

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Rev. John J. Watts, school teacher, farmer and minister, is a native
of Warren, Lincoln (now Knox) County, ME., born on September 27, 1839.
He is the son of William Watts, grandson of Samuel Watts, and great
grandson of John Watts, and great-great-grandson of William Watts.
The latter was born in Casco, Scotland, March 4, 1720, and married
Margaret McLellan, of Casco, Scotland, in 1740, very soon after their
marriage coming to America, and settling in Boston, Mass.  They had
three children, and died there.  Their oldest child, John Watts, was
botn in Boston, MA., November 8, 1742, married Elizabeth McNeal, of
Boston on July 15, 1761, and moved to St. George, ME., in 1764, and
in 1774 removed to Warren, ME.  They had nine children, and he died
August 10, 1817.  His widow died November 4, 1819, aged eighty years.
Their seventh child was Samuel Watts, who was born in Warren, ME.,
October 15, 1777, married first Elizabeth Lermond, December 3, 1797,
and second Nancy Jones in 1812.  He had eight children by each wife,
and died May 1, 1862.  Elizabeth, his first wife, died March 27, 
1812.  His second child was William Watts, who was born in Warren, ME.
April 6, 1800, married Deborah Jones on January 29, 1833, had four
children, and died March 2, 1871.  His wife died December 24, 1860.
Their fourth child was John Jones Watts, subject of this sketch, who
was educated in his native town of Warren, and at the age of twenty
years went to work in a ship yard, but at the breaking out of the war
enlisted in Company B, Twenty-fourth Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry.
October 4, 1862, he received a commission of second lieutenant, which
office he held during service.  Owing to the expiration of his term of
service (nine months' call) he was honorably discharged at Augusta,
ME., August 25, 1863, having served under Gen N.P. Banks in the siege
of Port Hudson, LA.  In the fall of 1863 he started for California.
He worked in a saw-mill on Humboldt Bay for two years, and then re-
turned home, but again went to California in 1868.  At the end of one
year he was called home by the sickness of his father, and remained
until September 8, 1871, when he immigrated to Missouri, and settled
in Phelps County.  Ten years later he located in Piney Township, 
Pulaski County, where he owns a good farm of 160 acres, eighty acres
of which are under cultivation.  In 1858 he experienced religion,
and joined the Baptist Church in Warren, ME., and March 10, 1874, 
joined Beaver Creek Baptist Church, of Phelps County, MO., and in 
1877 was licensed by that church to preach, being ordained two years
later.  He has long been an instructor of the young, and is now
teaching his eighteenth term of school.  He first joined the Masonic
fraternity in 1862 in his native town, but is now a member of the
Spring Creek Lodge No. 347, of Phelps County, MO.  September 1, 1872,
he was married to Miss Mary Jane Woolsey, who was born in Phelps
County, MO., January 10, 1858, and is the daughter of William and
Matilda (Hudgens) Woolsey.  She is a member of the Baptist Church,
and is the mother of three children, one of whom died at the age of
four years.

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