NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

Harry R. WATSON is unusually well equipped for his position as a director and superintendent of the Liondale Works, one of the largest bleaching and dying concerns in Morris county, he having learned the rudiments of that business in his father’s bleaching works at Passaic, New Jersey. Mr. WATSON is a director in the First National Bank of Rockaway, and is an active participant in local politics. He was born at Passaic, this State, November 16, 1868, son of Benjamin S. and Louise (VREELAND) WATSON. The father was born and reared in the State of Rhode Island and as a young man established his home in New Jersey. For many years he conducted a factory for the bleaching, dyeing and printing of cotton goods at Passaic, where his demise occurred. His wife, whose maiden name was Louise VREELAND, was born in Passaic and she survives her honored husband, her present home being in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a member of the First Reformed Church of Passaic, of which her husband was likewise a member during his lifetime. To Mr. and Mrs. WATSON were born three children: Harry R., of this notice; Etta, wife of Warren E. CLARKE; Jean.

After a thorough public-school training, which included a course in the high school at Passaic, Harry R. WATSON attended business college for a time and then became a student in the Cooper Institute, of New York City, in the chemistry department. His first real work was with his father and uncle in the bleaching business at Passaic. Subsequently he entered the employ of the Reid & Barry Company, likewise bleachers at Passaic, and in 1898 he accepted the position of superintendent of the Liondale Works, bleachers and dyers at Rockaway. Here Mr. WATSON is a stockholder and a director in the First National Bank and he also has property holdings of considerable value in and adjacent to Rockaway. In his political convictions he is a Republican and he served as chairman of the local school board for several years, in addition to which he was at one time a member of the Morris county Republican committee. He fraternizes with the Dover Lodge of the F. and A. M., and with his family attends the Rockaway Presbyterian Church.

Mr. WATSON married Eleanor KING, the ceremony having been performed in April, 1897. She is a native of Passaic, New Jersey, and a daughter of Alpheus Livingston and Jane Eliza (ELLISON) KING, both of Passaic. Mr. KING was a cheese exporter by occupation and to him and his wife were born five children: Florence, wife of William S. ANDERSON; John Ellison; Eleanor, now Mrs. WATSON, as already noted; Alpheus Allen; Lillian, wife of George B. Martin. Mr. and Mrs. WATSON have one son, John, now attending school in Rockaway.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)

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