Capt. Greenville Watson
As an honored pioneer of Sonoma county and as a veteran of the Civil war, Captain Watson stands high in the regard of acquaintances, while he also is entitled to consideration as a large land owner and as the head of a large family whose members even to the third generation occupy positions of trust and prominence in their various communities. Born in Greene county, Ind., April 2, 1829, he is a son of Alexander and Susannah (Jessup) Watson and a grandson of Caleb Jessup of North Carolina, in which commonwealth his parents were likewise born and reared. The parental family comprised nine sons and two daughters, viz.: Nathan B., Caleb, James, Thomas, Nimrod, Elizabeth, Greenville, Nancy, Willis, Ambrose and Verlin. Two of the family, Elizabeth and Nimrod, died while young, but all of the others married and reared families.
Captain Watson was brought up on the farm in Green county, Ind. There were no free schools in those days and his educational advantages were very limited, his entire schooling amounting to about six months. He was married in 1849 to Sarah Theresa Snyder, a native of Orange county, Ind. In 1854 he removed to Mercer county, Mo., where he resided until 1856, when he crossed the state line into Decatur county, Iowa, locating at Pleasant Plaine, where he built a store and engaged in the general merchandise business, also as a stock dealer and speculator in lands.
At the opening of the Civil war, when President Lincoln called for three hundred thousand volunteers, Greenville Watson, who was engaged in business, at once responded by organizing a company for the Third Iowa Infantry, but the regiment was full before his company was ready, so they went into the Fifth Kansas Cavalry as Company F., of which he was commissioned captain August 12, 1861. However , they were not mounted in the Fifth Kansas, and shortly afterward the regiment was disbanded and Captain Watson’s company became Company K of the Tenth Kansas Infantry. He remained at the front, taking part in the various engagements of the regiment in guerilla warfare with Price, Van Dorn and Quantrell on the border, until he was obliged to resign, March 18, 1863, owing to trouble with his eyes. A surgeon’s certificate of disability (he leaving the army in a state of blindness) brought him the relinquishment of his military duties and he returned home to recuperate his health, which had been overtaxed by the vicissitudes of the war. Shortly afterward he and his family crossed the plains with wagons and ox-teams, landing at Virginia City, Nev., in September of 1863 and arriving at Petaluma, Sonoma county, in October of 1864. Since then he has resided in Sonoma and Marin counties and from 1871 to 1873 he served as sheriff and tax collector of Marin county, after which he gave his attention to dairying and cattle-raising.
The father of Mrs. Watson was John Snyder, who was born in Grayson county, Va., in 1782, and who married Mary Dickey, a native of the Old Dominion, born in 1775. They were the parents of eleven children, as follows: Reed, who married Asenath Deems and had six children; Hugh, who married Jane Watson and had three children, James W., Mary and Elizabeth; Wiley; William Simon, who chose as his wife Miss Sarah Perkins and had one daughter, Jemima; Rebecca; Jane, who married and became the mother of ten children; Matilda, Mrs. Samuel Moore, whose daughter, Ellen, Mrs. William Glove, had one child, Sarah S.; Nancy who married William Cowen and had three children; Elizabeth, Mrs. Caleb Watson, whose children were Nimrod, Mary, Maude and Theresa; Lucinda and Sarah T., Mrs. Greenville Watson. Lucinda was first married to James Fuller, and after his demise became the wife of James Watson, her children being Susanna Matilda, Alvina and James Reed, and David by the second marriage.
Seven sons and one daughter were born to the marriage of Captain and Mrs. Watson, namely: John Alexander, Nimrod Vernon, James William, Henry Hugh, Greenville Franklin, Charles Nathan, Cynthia Ellen and Harry Elmer. Five sons are now living and all are married. John Alexander in 1869 married Rhoda Ann Barnes, a native of Illinois; they have five children, Marvin Albert, Louis, Alexande4r, Henry and Zoe, the eldest of whom, Marvin Albert, has two children. James William is married and has two children, William and Lena. The latter is married to Walter Roberts and has one child, Zoe. Henry Hugh married Bessie Atterbury and has three children, Eveline, Helen and Franklin. The older daughter, Eveline, is the wife of George Kerr. Greenville Franklin chose Armittie Reed for his wife and they have four children, Hugh R., Lucia, Elizabeth and Armittie. Charles who was born in Iowa and is now a teacher in the public schools, married Jessie M. Moore, a native of Missouri, and they have two children, Charles Bruce and May Theresa. Harry Elmer married Helen Atterbury and of the union six children were born, viz.: Margaret, Cynthia, Lillie, Harriet, Alice and Elizabeth.
Moving to a ranch near Cazadero in 1875 Captain Watson has since devoted his attention to the development of the land, which comprises five hundred acres well adapted for grazing purposes and admirably adapted to dairying or cattle-raising. Forty head of stock are carried on the ranch, including a number of valuable registered Jerseys. The owner has planted and developed an orchard and a vineyard, has erected a neat residence, and built other structures necessary to the work of the ranch. The Watson ranch is located at the junction of the East and West Austin creeks, adjoining Cazadero, and here for fifteen years Captain and Mrs. Watson ran a summer resort and were so successful that at times they could not accommodate all the people. On account of their advanced years they gave it up four years ago to enjoy the rest and quiet they so well merit. The scenery on the ranch is most beautiful; it is studded with native trees, the redwood predominating, some being eight feet in diameter. It is well watered by numerous springs and the owner is now devoting his attention to the raising of beef cattle. He has erected a telephone line so that he can be in quick communication with adjacent ranches and towns, and in every respect has proved himself a progressive citizen, with a large faith in the prosperous future of this section of the country. Much of his land is in timber, the value of which constantly increases, both as to the output of lumber and of cordwood. Farming has been his life work, hunting and fishing his sole forms of diversion and recreation, politics one of his favorite subjects of argument as an upholder of the Republican party, and the Grand Army of the Republic one of his favorite organizations, Ellsworth Post No. 20, at Santa Rosa, for years having received the benefit of his active membership and generous assistance.
History of Sonoma
County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
January 3, 2012 Pages 527-529
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