Sacramento
County
Biographies
HENRY
WATSON
Henry Watson (in German, Watzen)
was born in Hanover, near Bremen, September 5, 1836, his parents being Albert and Mary (Bohrman) Watson. The
father died in 1877, and the mother in 1879, in Germany, at about the age of seventy; and grandmother
Mary Watson lived to be over seventy.
Henry Watson received the usual schooling of his country from his sixth
to his fourteenth year. Before he was
quite fourteen he went to sea, and suffered much abuse in that service. In 1851, on a voyage from Nicaragua to New
Orleans, a German-American passenger of the St. Louis, promised his protection
and young Watson availing himself of the kind offer, fled from his persecutors,
accompanying his friend to St. Louis, and going to work for him. In 1852, still in his employ, he helped to
drive cattle across the plains, arriving in Sacramento August 12, 1852.
After working a short time on a farm he went to mining that winter in Amador County, and continued at that work for over
eight years. In 1861 he went to teaming
from Sacramento across the mountains to Nevada, and followed that business for three
seasons. In 1864, with a partner, he
rented the 260 acres on which he still resides, and in 1865 they bought it, and
in 1871, the adjoining 240 acres. In
December, 1872, Mr. Watson bought his partner’s interest in the 500 acres, and
in 1887 he purchased the 480 acres adjoining on the west, making a ranch of 980
acres in one body. He raises wheat and
cattle, and does a dairy business of between twenty and thirty cows. November 28, 1872, Mr. Watson was married in Sacramento to Miss Christina Hashagen,
born in Hanover, near Bremen, February 14, 1844, a daughter of Diedrich
and Meta (Brugemann) Hashagen, both deceased, in Germany, aged about seventy. They are the parents of four children: Meta C., born October 15,
1873; Albert H.,
April
17, 1875; George
F., August 30, 1878; Katy M., October 25, 1885.
Mrs. Watson came to Sacramento direct from Germany, in 1869, where she worked until her
marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Watson are
members of Sacramento Grange, No. 12; and usually attend the meetings of the
Methodist Episcopal Church held in the Pacific school-house, on the lower Stockton road, where their children also attend
school and Sabbath-school. They now
occupy a good, substantial, handsome and convenient home, replacing the “cabin”
which so long constituted the residence of the thrifty Mr. Watson in his
bachelor days.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Page 504-505. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.