Career
Nathaniel Watkins was the son of Captain Henry Watkins (1758-1829) and Elizabeth Clay Watkins (1750-1829) who was previously been married to the Reverend John Clay and was the mother of 16 children including statesman Henry Clay. Watkins studied law at Transylvania College. After college he moved to Jackson, Missouri, in 1819.
During the Civil War, he briefly served as a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guards, the first Confederate unit in Missouri.
Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson appointed him along with Meriwether Lewis Clark, Senior John Bullock Clark, Senior
William Y. Slack. Alexander William Doniphan.
Mosby Parsons; James H. McBride. James South. Rains; and Thomas Beverly Randolph as district/division commanders for the state.
Watkins was appointed brigadier general and commander of the first military district which consisted of the Southeast Missouri. In 1875, Watkins served as vice president of the Missouri Constitutional Convention.
Watkins was married to Eliza Margaret Watson (1810-1878), a daughter of a man named Goah Watson from New Madrid, Missouri.
Their children included Watkins, Junior. (1848-1879), John C., Henry Clay, Washington East., Richard Jones (1843-1913), William B., Amanda J. (1854-1916), and Elizabeth.
