HIS ANCESTORS:
John and William, sons of Lucius Watson of Virginia, moved to Edgefield District, South Carolina, in the middle of the eighteenth century. John’s son Michael, who became a renowned Indian fighter and hero of the Revolutionary War, married William’s daughter Martha, his first cousin. Their only son was Elijah Julian (1775-1850), who consolidated the large family holdings and left a plantation at Clouds Creek at Ridge, north of Edgefield Court House, to every one of his eleven children, including Artemas.
HIS PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS:
Artemas Watson (1800-1841) and Mary Lucretia (Daniel) Watson (1807-1838)
HIS PARENTS:
Elijah Daniel Watson (“Ring-Eye Lige”)
b. Clouds Creek, S.C., 1834
d. Columbia, S.C., 1895
Ellen Catherine (Addison) Watson
b. Edgefield Court House, S.C., 1832
d. Fort White, Fla., 1910
EDGAR ARTEMAS* WATSON:
b. Clouds Creek, S.C., November 11, 1855
d. Chokoloskee, Fla., October 24, 1910
1st wife (1878): Ann Mary “Charlie” (Collins) Watson, 1862-1879
Robert Briggs “Rob” Watson, b. Fort White, Fla., 1879-?
2nd wife (1884): Jane S. “Mandy” (Dyal) Watson, 1864-1901
Carrie Watson Langford, b. Fort White, Fla., 1885-?
Edward Elijah “Eddie” Watson, b. Fort White, Fla., 1887-?
Lucius Hampton Watson, b. Oklahoma Territory, 1889-?
3rd wife (1904): Catherine Edna “Kate” (Bethea) Watson, 1889-?
Ruth Ellen Watson, b. Fort White, Fla., 1905-?
Addison Tilghman Watson, b. Fort White, Fla., 1907-?
Amy May Watson, b. Key West, Fla., 1910-?
Common-law wife: Henrietta “Netta” Daniels, ca. 1875-?
Minnie Daniels, ca. 1895-?
Common-law wife: Mary Josephine “Josie” Jenkins, ca. 1879-?
Pearl Watson, ca. 1900-? Infant male, b. May 1910: perished in Great Hurricane of October 1910
EJW’S SISTER:
Mary Lucretia “Minnie” Watson, b. Clouds Creek, S.C., 1857, d. Ft.
White, Fla., 1912
Married William “Billy” Collins of Fort White, Fla., ca. 1880
Billy Collins died in 1907 at Fort White
The Collins children:
Julian Edgar, 1880-?
William Henry “Willie,” 1886-?
Maria Antoinett “May,” 1892-?
ALSO:
EJW’s great-aunt Tabitha (Wyches) Watson (1813-1905), 3rd wife and widow of Artemas Watson’s brother Michael: instrumental in marriage of Elijah D. Watson and Ellen Addison, d. Fort White, Fla. 1905
Her daughter Laura (1830-1894), childhood friend of Ellen Addison.
Married William Myers ca. 1867
Married Samuel Tolen ca. 1890