Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/420

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WATSON
WATSON

raand was turning into Pratt street, it was de- railed by the mob. He superintended its righting, and kept the driver of the horses to his duties at the muzzle of his revolver. The mob fired into the car repeatedly, and after one of his men had been wounded severely the order to fire was given by Maj. Watson. Afterward the detachment left the shattered car and marched to the depot, where the main body under the colonel had ar- rived in safety. Several soldiers were injured by stones and pistol-shots during the transit, and this was undoubtedly the first blood shed in the war. Shortly after this Maj. Watson was elected lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and its command devolved upon him. In 1867 he removed to New York, where ne has since practised law.


WATSON, Beriah Andre phvsician, b. in Lake George, N. Y., 26 March, 1836. He ob- tained his education through his own exertion and was graduated at the medical department of the University of New York in 1861, and settled at White House, N. J. In 1862 he entered the U. S. service as contract surgeon, and he was engaged in hospital and field service until the end of the war. At his retirement, on 10 July, 1865, he was surgeon in charge of the 1st division 6th army corps hos- pital, and also acting medical purveyor. He then settled in Jersey City, where he still practises his profession. He was appointed attending surgeon to the Jersey City charity hospital at the time of its organization in 1869, and since 1873 has been attending surgeon to St. Francis hospital, and Christ's hospital since 1885. The passage of the act that legalized the dissection of the human cada- ver in New Jersey was secured principally through his efforts and those of Dr. John D. McGill. Dr. Watson has been president of the New Jersey academy of medicine, of which he was a founder. Rutgers gave him the degree of M. A. in 1882. He has contributed essays and reports of cases to medical journals, including " A Case of Neuralgia treated by Extirpation of the Superior Maxillary Nerve" (1871); ."Pathology and Treatment of Chronic Ulcers " (1875) ; "Cases of Rabies Canina treated with Strychina and Woorara" (1876); " Disease Germs : their Origin, Nature, and Rela- tion to Wounds " (1878) ; " Woorara : its Medical Properties and Availability for the Treatment of Diseases " (1882) ; and an " Experimental Study of Anaesthetics," read before the American surgical association in Washington, D. C, 30 April, 1884. Dr. Watson has also translated medical essays from the French and German, and has published two books, " Amputations and their Complica- tions " (Philadelphia, 1885) and " The Sportsman's Paradise, on the Lake Lands of Canada " (1888), and contributed the chapter on " Pyasmia and Sep- ticaemia " to " Practical Medicine," edited by Dr. William Pepper (Philadelphia, 1885).


WATSON, Sir Brook, bart, English soldier, b. in Plymouth, England, 7 Feb., 1735 ; d. 2 Oct., 1807. At an early age he entered the British navy, but he was forced to abandon his profes- sion, for, while he was bathing in the harbor of Havana, in 1749, his right leg was bitten off by a shark. He then engaged in mercantile pursuits and came to this country. In 1755 he was com- missary with Col. Robert Monckton at the siege of Beausejour, and in 1758 he served in the same ca- pacity at Louisburg with Gen. James Wolfe's di- vision, and was known as the "wooden-legged commissary." In 1759 he became a merchant in London, and he subsequently engaged in business in Montreal, Canada, and afterward in Boston. In 1763, with others, he obtained a grant from the government of Nova Scotia of the township of Cumberland. Before the Revolution he visited Massachusetts, New York, and other colonies, pro- fessing to be a Whig, but intercepted letters to Gen. Thomas Gage proved him to be a spy. In 1774 he went from Boston to England in the same ship with John Singleton Copley, who, in 1778, painted a picture of Brook Watson's rescue from the shark. When Lord North's bill to cut off the fisheries of New England was before parliament in , he was examined by the house of commons. In 1782 he was made commissary-general to his friend, Sir Guy Carleton, in this country. From 1784 till 1793 he was a member of parliament from London, and he was sheriff of London and Middle- sex in 1785, and lord mayor in 1796. In reward for his services in America, parliament voted his wife an annuity of £500 for life. He was agent in London for New Brunswick from 1786 till 1794, commissary-general to the Duke of York in 1793-5, and of England from 1798 till 1806. He was made a baronet on 5 Dec, 1803.


WATSON, Ebenezer, editor, b. in Bethlehem, Conn., in 1744 ; d. in Hartford, Conn., 16 Sept., 1777. His ancestor, John Watson, came from England and settled in Hartford in 1644. For several years Ebenezer was the editor and publisher of " The Courant." It had been established in 1764 by Thomas Green, who took Watson into partnership, and, removing to New Haven about 1768, left him to be manager and editor of this journal. After his death his second wife, Hannah Bunce, conduct- ed the paper and was probably the first woman to edit a journal in this country. — His brother, James, senator, b. in New York city, 6 April, 1750 ; d. there, 15 May, 1806, was graduated at Yale in , engaged in mercantile business in New York, and acquired a large estate. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served in the assembly in 1791-'6, and in the state senate in 1798. He was elected U. S. senator as a Democrat, in place of John Sloss Hobart, and served from 11 Dec, 1798, till 19 March, 1801, when he resigned to become U. S. navy agent for New York city.


WATSON, Elkanah, agriculturist, b. in Plym- outh, Mass., 22 Jan., 1758 ; d. in Port Kent, N. Y., 5 Dec, 1842. In September, 1773, he was apprenticed to John Brown, the Providence merchant, by whom he was sent in 1775 to Cambridge with a ton and a half of powder for Gen. Wash- ington's army. He afterward went to the res- cue of John Brown, who had been captured by the British. In 1777 he went

to Charleston

and other southern ports with more than $50,000 to be invested in cargoes for the European markets. The description of this journey that he subse- quently published is the best extant account of tne principal towns and villages of the colonies at the time of the Revolution. In August, 1779, he was the bearer of despatches from the American