John William Clark Watson

Background

John William Clark Watson was born in Albemarle County, Va. , the son of John and Elizabeth (Finch) Watson.

Education

His early education was secured in the schools of his county which, though inadequate, enabled him to equip himself for entrance to the law department of the University of Virginia, where he was graduated with the degree of B. L. in 1830.

Career

After practising his profession in Abingdon, Va. , from 1831 to 1845, he removed to Holly Springs, Miss. , where he formed a partnership with J. W. Clapp, a prominent lawyer of that place. In Mississippi he continued his alignment with the Whig party and was soon regarded as a trusted adviser in its councils. He was a member of the Mississippi state convention of 1851, and concurred in the action of that body denying the right of secession. During the presidential campaign of 1860, he established a newspaper at Holly Springs and placed it under competent editorial charge with the purpose of attempting to stem the tide of disunion. After the election of Lincoln he was defeated by sixteen votes as an anti-secession candidate for the state convention of 1861. He acquiesced in the withdrawal of Mississippi from the Union, however, and accepted various offices in the Confederate government. From Feburary 17, 1864, until the end of the war, he was a senator in the Confederate Congress. He approved the work of the state convention of 1865, of which he was a member, but he opposed giving any aid or comfort to Jefferson Davis, or doing anything to antagonize the victors. He received thirty-three votes for president of the "Black and Tan" convention of 1868, but when it adopted the proscriptive qualifications he resigned and returned to Holly Springs to lead the canvass in northern Mississippi against the constitution, which was rejected. He took an active part in the overthrow of the Ames regime, and in May 1876, was appointed by Gov. John M. Stone a judge of the circuit court. As such he was a "terror to evil doers, " but in 1882, at the end of his six-year term, he resumed the practice of law. He reached the peak of his legal career in October 1885, when having been appointed by Gov. Robert Lowry to represent Mississippi before the Supreme Court of the United States in the railroad commission cases, he secured a reversal of the decision of the circuit court of appeals, the Supreme Court ruling that the legislative act, passed in 1884 to regulate rates and to create a railroad commission, was constitutional. He invited Frances E. Willard to Mississippi and paid her traveling expenses when she toured the state crusading for prohibition in January 1882. Watson died at Holly Springs.

Achievements

• He served as a Confederate States Senator from Mississippi from 1864 to 1865.

Religion

Watson was an uncompromising Puritan in character, an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Holly Springs for more than forty years, and one of the pioneer prohibitionists of the state.

Connections

On September 8, 1831, he married Catherine Davis, sister of Prof. J. A. G. Davis, professor of law at the University of Virginia. To this union were born eight children, only two of whom survived the father; two sons were killed in the Civil War.

Father:

John Watson

Mother:

Elizabeth (Finch) Watson

Spouse:

Catherine Davis