Rev. Thomas Jefferson Watson (1806-1891)

When looking into Chatham history, the name Watson appears in records going back to before the town was settled and before the county was formed. The expansive family shares an ancestor from Scotland named Thomas Watson who endured the journey across the Atlantic during the first half of the 1700s. A variety of legends have formed around the Watson progenitor, who is sometimes referred to as “The Old Scotchman” by researchers. 

The Watson family settled the areas surrounding Cherrystone Creek and Harpen Creek. Court records from 1767 reveal that Thomas Watson together with Thomas Hardy and Henry McDaniel were “ordered to mark a Road from Hickey’s Road at or near Great Cherrystone to the Pigg River Road across Elkhorn just above the old ffoard [sic].”

Thomas’s daughter Grissell “Giddy” Watson married Richard Joel Farthing and raised a large family with numerous descendants today. In 1772 he was granted a tract of 400 acres adjoining Richard Parsons on both sides of Little Cherrystone Creek. Until the site was chosen to construct early court buildings for the county, the General Assembly chose Richard Farthing’s home as the place to hold court. 

Some of the Watson grandchildren married their cousins which makes the genealogy research a little more complex. The Old Scotchman’s son John Abishua Watson had three children who married their first cousins–they were the son and daughters of Thomas “Cherrystone” Watson. Their other children married into prominent early families, for example, one married a sister of Jabez Smith of Callands (business partner of Samuel Calland) and another married a sister of tavern keeper Samuel Yates. Furthermore, Jerusha Watson married Elisha Jones, an ancestor of the Jones Mill family of Dry Fork and the family of late Judge Langhorne Jones Sr. Two of Jerusha’s grandsons served as postmasters of Chatham including Samuel P. Motley and John W. Jones.

Through Thomas “Cherrystone” Watson Jr. and his wife, former Miss Malinda A. Watson, their descendants remained affiliated with the growth of Chatham during the early days. Ichabod T. Watson served as postmaster of Pittsylvania Court House between 1838 and 1849. His brother Thomas Jefferson Watson became a Methodist preacher and large landowner in town. The local Methodist church expanded in the 1840s and again in the 1870s, during which time the Watsons had developed leadership roles in the church. The 1878 Gray’s Map of Chatham shows how Watson’s landholdings bordered the railroad from the crossing on Depot Street up to White’s Branch. T. J.’s son Fletcher Bangs Watson Sr. worked as a lawyer, was a military veteran, involved with the church, and held several important administrative positions including editor of the Chatham Tribune newspaper and superintendent of county schools (1893-1917). He married former Miss Martha B. “Pattie” Tredway, a daughter of Judge William Marshall Tredway Sr. 

In 1894, Fletcher Sr. built a new house on Whittle Street (previously called Ridge Street) where the family lived for four generations. When the present Methodist church replaced the older one in 1897, it was named Watson Memorial UMC. Two of Fletcher’s sons became college professors: Thomas Leonard Watson served as head of the geology department at UVA for many years and John Wilbur Watson was the head of chemistry at Virginia Tech. Another son F. B. Jr. married Miss Kate Graves Whitehead, whose family had established several successful businesses in Pittsylvania county. The same Watson legacies continued in church and education, and Fletcher Jr. served as the county superintendent from 1921 until 1940. His son, F. B. III stayed on the family farm and married a cousin Elizabeth H. “Bettie” Whitehead, who was well known for her horses. Her obituary from 1995 stated “She owned and operated her own business, Chatham Coal, Wood & Oil Co., for 40 years. A horsewoman who won many trophies and ribbons in Southside horse shows, she rode well after her 80th birthday.” Their son F. B. IV was the last of the Watsons to lead the Methodist church and live in the old homeplace. As a military veteran, attorney, judge, and freemason, he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors until his passing in 2019 at age 91.

Recommended further reading:

Click here to read a great article on Watson Church by late county historian Herman Melton.

Click here to read a guide to the Watson Family of Chatham, Virginia by late county historian Patricia Mitchell.