Berkeley County, West Virginia Biography of Roger Earl WATSON ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 110 ROGER EARL WATSON, who is engaged in the successful practice of law at Martinsburg as one of the able and repre- sentative members of the bar of Berkeley County, has the distinction of being the only person born in the old home- stead of Gen. Charles Lee, a Revolutionary officer, at Lee- town, Jefferson County, West Virginia, the date of his nativity having been February 10, 1886. The lineage of the Watson family traces back to stanch English origin, and the name has been one of prominence in the history of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, in connection with both civic and material development and progress. From Scotland, via England, James Watson with three brothers came to America prior to 1740, and settled in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He married Mary Greene, who, according to family tradition, was a sister of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, the distinguished Revolutionary officer. James Watson bought land near Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, where he developed the fine estate known as Chestnut Ridge. By marriage the Watson family became related to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, another dis- tinguished figure of the Revolutionary period. Numerous representatives of the family were identified with early Indian conflicts, and members of the family also gained fame as scouts and soldiers of the patriot forces in the war of the Revolution. Among the numerous children of James and Mary (Greene) Watson were three sons, Joseph, Zephaniah and James Greene, and through one of these sons the subject of this review is a descendant of James Watson, one of the three original representatives of the family in America. John James Watson, father of him whose name initiates this article, was born in what is now Jefferson County, West Virginia, August 15, 1836, his father, James Watson, hav- ing been born in Maryland, and who came thence to Vir- ginia and developed a large farm estate in the vicinity of Leetown, Jefferson County, he having been the owner of a goodly number of slaves. He was somewhat more than seventy years of age at the time of his death. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Shaull, and their children were ten in number, namely: Benjamin, George, John J., Ephraim, Charles, Snowden, Joseph, Daniel, Lydia and Elizabeth. John J. Watson was reared on the old homestead, and at the inception of the Civil war he entered the Confederate service, in which he participated in the first battle of Bull Run and many other important engagements, besides which he served for a time as courier between Generals Lee and Jackson. He was wounded in the forehead, and bore the scar until his death. In the last year of the war he was a member of dark's Cavalry, and he was its last survivor. He was present at the surrender of General Lee, his service having covered the entire period of the war. After the war he was for twenty-five years engaged in mercantile business at Charles Town, Jefferson County, and he then removed to Martinsburg, where he continued a few years in the same line of enterprise, and then retired from active business, his death having here occurred November 1, 1921. His wife survives him, her maiden name having been Ella Vir- ginia Rogers. Her birth occurred in Jefferson County, she being a daughter of Isaac and Drusilla (Nicely) Rogers. The only child is Roger Earl, immediate subject of this sketch. In 1904 Roger E. Watson graduated from the Martins- burg High School, as president of his class, and in the same year he entered the University of West Virginia, where he took a course in the department of chemistry. For two years, from 1906, he was engaged as a chemist with the H. C. Frick Coke Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he then entered the law department of the University of West Virginia, in which he was graduated in 1910, he having been president of his class in the junior year. After receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws, with concomitant admission to the bar of his native state, Mr. Watson opened an office at Martinsburg, where he has developed a sub- stantial and representative law practice and gained secure vantage-ground as a resourceful trial lawyer and conserva- tive counsellor. He has been active in local campaign service of the democratic party, and is one of the loyal and progressive citizens of the fine little city that is the judicial center of Berkeley County. Mr. Watson is affiliated with the Pi Kappa Alpha and the Theta Nu Epsilon fra- ternities of the University of West Virginia, and as an undergraduate in that institution he was active in athletic affairs, he having been assistant manager of the baseball team in 1910 and manager of the second team of that year. Mr. Watson married, July 4, 1919, Miss Catherine Mc- Harg, of Boston, Massachusetts, the one child of this union was Roger Edward.