- JOHN WATSON, a prominent contractor and bridge builder of
Janesville, and a resident of that
- city since 1855, was born in Littleport, Cambridgeshire,
England, on the 16th day of November, 1826. His parents, William
and Mary (SPINKS) WATSON, were also natives of England. At the
age of thirteen years he began working on the railroad, but soon
afterward was employed on bridge building, and was engaged in
that line of work on various railroads in the old country until
1849, when he emigrated from England to America. He made his
home in Chicago for one year, and was engaged in bridge building
and track laying for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
Company on the old Galena division, between Chicago and Elgin.
After leaving Wheaton, twenty miles west of Chicago, he was placed
in charge of the force. In the spring of 1850, during the great
gold excitement, he went to California, going overland by team,
and engaged in placer mining in Placerville. The succeeding two
years were spent in the gold mines with varying success, and
at the end of that time he returned to New York, by way of Nicaragua,
and at once crossed the ocean to this native land. There must
have been a peculiar attraction that influenced his motions,
for we find that he was married that same spring, on the 23d
day of March, 1852, in Spalding, Lincolnshire, to Miss Susan
WILSON, a daughter of John and Sarah (TAYLOR) WILSON, of that
place.
- Within three months after his arrival in England Mr. WATSON
embarked with his bride for
- America, and on reaching this country made his home in Chicago,
where for two and a half years he kept hotel. In 1855 he came
to Janesville, where he spent six months in the same line of
business, and soon after engaged in building bridges and culverts
on the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, between Janesville
and Brodhead. That work occupied one summer, when he began contracting
and building in that city. He built a store for J. J. R. PEASE,
also the JACKMAN Block, and a number of dwellings, and in 1861
repaired the dam across the Rock River above Milwaukee street.
About 1862 he built a railroad bridge and round-house at Janesville
for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, at Racine and Kenosha,
and the smaller bridges on the Lake Shore division for the Chicago
& Northwestern Railroad, also the masonry work for the bridges
on the line between Janesville and Green Bay for the same company,
as well as on the Madison division. He enlarged and straightened
the tunnels at Sparta, Wis., built the masonry for bridges in
Minnesota, and for the Air Line between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee.
For several years he worked by contract, but during the last
eight years of his employment on railroad work was engaged on
a fixed salary. In addition to his railroad work, Mr. WATSON
has done considerable city, town and county bridge building,
where he erected the entire structures. He has done a large amount
of tunnel work,and altogether has employed or been in charge
of a large number of men, more, perhaps, than any other one man
in the State. During the high water of the spring of 1881, when
Janesville was threatened with inundation, he came to the rescue,
and by his experience and knowledge of such work relieved the
city of serious trouble. During that and the following year,
he built the race and lower cotton mill at Janesville, which
was an extensive job. In 1882, when a large portion of the upper
dam was washed out by high water, thus temporarily destroying
the power, he checked the flow of water in a gap more than one
hundred feet wide by fifteen feet in depth, in eighteen days,
while the water was at its height, and restored the power for
the use of factories and mills - a feat hardly supposed to be
possible. At the end of two and a half months he had entirely
restored the dam.
- Mr. and Mrs. WATSON have been blessed with a family of six
children, two sons and four
- daughters. Mary Elizabeth, the eldest, is the wife of Orion
SUTHERLAND, of the firm of J. SUTHERLAND & Sons, booksellers
and stationers of Janesville; Eliza died in infancy; Sue E. is
now the wife of Clinton WILCOX of Janesville; John Harry married
Amelia TEVIS and resides in the same city; Will E. is the husband
of Nellie ROBBINS, and makes his home in New Mexico; Sarah May,
the youngest, is the wife of Will T. KING, of Janesville.
- Mr. WATSON is a Republican in politics, but has never sought
or desired public office. While
- not connected with any particular church, he has yet been
liberal in support of all. Mrs. WATSON attends the Baptist Church,
and is recognized as a good Christian woman, and a highly respected
member of society.
- Mr. WATSON has led a busy and useful life. Possessing a spirit
of enterprise, supported by
- indomitable energy and pluck, he has never hesitated to undertake
a difficult or dangerous piece of work, and has invariably carried
out his undertaking with marked success. While having sustained
some serious injuries in the course of his life, while in discharge
of duty, he has had the good fortune to carry his men through
with but one fatal accident among the thousands who have been
under his charge. The one exception was the death of a man caused
by a rock falling upon him while at work in a tunnel. A man of
broad views, free hearted, and ever ready to do a kindness or
to assist those in, Mr. WATSON, by his upright, manly course
and strict integrity, has won the respect and confidence of all
who know him.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 650-651.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|