HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Biographical Appendix |
N. B. WATTS N. B. Watts, county court clerk of Madison County, Mo. and a native of the county, was born in 1848, being the son of Reuben and Nancy (Sitzes) Watts. The father was also a native of Madison County, born in 1822, and followed the calling of a farmer and local Methodist minister. His father was born in Virginia in 1791. He was a captain in the war of 1812, and participated in the battle of Horse-shoe Bend. He enlisted in the war while living in Maury County, Tenn. In 1814 he moved to Madison County, Mo., where he died in 1845. Reuben Watts grew to manhood on a farm and was married in 1844. When about twenty-four years of age he entered the ministry, also continuing his work on his farm of 360 acres. In 1874 he organized the Congregational Methodist Church, which was the first church of the kind organized in the State of Missouri. He died in 1879. His wife was born in Madison County, Mo., in 1826. She is a daughter of John and Naomi Sitzes, who were North Carolinians by birth, and immigrants to Missouri in 1815. Mrs. Watts became the mother of nine children, three of whom are living: N. B., Mary J. (wife of B. F. Whitener) and Missouri C. (wife of M. D. Bess). The son, N. B. was educated in the common schools and in 1870 married L. I. Whitener, daughter of John Q. A. Whitener. Mrs. Watts was born in Madison County in 1854, and is the mother of two children: Duty Sylvester and Minnie Bell. In 1870 Mr. Watts began merchandising in Marquand, continuing three years. He then farmed until November 1882, when he was elected county court clerk, and in 1886 was re-elected with no opposition. He is a Democrat, and a member of the Congregational Methodist Church, and his wife belongs to the Baptist Church. |