Wood County, West Virginia    Biography of Gilbert L. WATSON

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Submitted by Sandra Reed <sandrar@emwv.com>, May 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 

   Gilbert L. Watson.  Practically all the experiences of his mature career have identified
Mr. Watson with the great industry of oil production.  Oil circles know him as a veteran,
and his activities have extended from the East to the West.  He first became identified with
oil production in West Virginia thirty years ago, and for a quarter of a century his home
has been at Parkersburg, where he is president of the Citizens National Bank.

   Mr. Watson was born at Olean, New York, May 26, 1855, son of Hiram and Melvina
(Freeman) Watson.  The Watsons were an old New England family, coming from Scotland
about 1629 and settling in and around Hartford, Connecticut.  The great-grandfather of
Gilbert L. Watson was Simeon Watson, a soldier of the Revolution.

   Gilbert L. Watson while a boy spent several years in Northern Illinois, but otherwise his
early life was passed in New York.  He completed his education in the Olean Academy,
and from the age of fifteen to twenty he was employed as an operator and manager of the
Olean office of the Western Union Telegraph Company.  In 1875 Mr. Watson opened for
the Enterprise Transportation Company, the first pipe line office for purchase of oil at
Bradford, Pennsylvania.  About two years later this business was taken over by the
Standard interests, but he continued in the producing end of the Enterprise Transportation
Company until 1884.

   In that year he became an oil producer on his own responsibility, his first efforts being
made in the Bradford field.  Gradually his operations extended down through the Butler
and Washington counties, Pennsylvania, and during the Belmont excitement in 1891 he
came into West Virginia.  During the past thirty years Mr. Watson has operated in nearly
every oil producing county in West Virginia, and also in the states of Ohio, Indiana,
Kentucky, Illinois and Oklahoma.  He moved his family to Parkersburg in 1896.  As an oil
producer his endeavors have been attended with a remarkable uniformity of success.  This
has been due no doubt to his long experience and also to his well balanced mind and detail
practical knowledge of every feature of the business.  His interests as an oil producer are
still scattered over five states.

   Mr. Watson is a Knight Templar Mason, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason
and Shriner and an Elk.  He is a member of the Congregational Church and is president of
the Union Mission and member of the Rotary Club, Blennerhasset Club and Chamber of
Commerce.

   April 9, 1884, Mr. Watson married Miss Charlotte Bushnell, and be began his career as
an independent oil producer shortly after his marriage.  Her father, Cornelius S. Bushnell.
lived for many years at New Haven, Connecticut, and was a man of distinction.  He helped
the famous engineer, John Erickson, build the Monitor during the Civil war.  Later he was
actively identified with the construction of the Union Pacific Railway.  Mr. and Mrs.
Watson had one daughter, Emily, who died at the age of nine years.  Their only surviving
child is Cornelius B. Watson, now assistant to the president of the Pure Oil Company of
Columbus, Ohio.