p1485 ROBERT WATSON: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society Finding aid prepared by Cherl N. Thies Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul MN.

Manuscripts Collection

 Finding aid encoded by Dennis Meisner September 23, 2003Finding aid written inEnglish August 2008Converted from EAD Version 1.0 to Version 2002 by Monica Manny Ralston, Daniel Sher, and Joyce Chapman. OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION Minnesota Historical Society Watson, Robert, 1825-1913. Robert Watson papers. 1850, 1872, 1909, [ca. 1942]. Papers of an early settler in Cottage Grove (1850-1878) and Northfield (1878-1913), Minnesota. Contains Watson's 1850 diary detailing a Mississippi River journey from Ohio to St. Paul and Stillwater, Minnesota, and a trip from St. Paul to Fort Snelling and St. Anthony; autobiographical data; his 1909 reminiscence of his 1850 journey to Minnesota and settlement in Cottage Grove, Washington County; and a typescript of the 1850 diary with explanatory footnotes by G. W. Ackermann (ca.1942). 4 items in 1 folder. P1485 BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT WATSON

Robert Watson was born on September 8, 1925 in Dundee, Scotland, the son of William and Jessie McLeish Watson. He attended the public seminary (district school) in Dundee until 1837 when, following the failure of his father's linen business, the family immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1838 they moved to a farm near Parma, Ohio and he attended the Parma and Brooklyn Center academies. In April 1850 he and his younger brother William traveled to Minnesota, where they each claimed land in Cottage Grove, Washington County. That September he returned to Ohio for their mother and younger brother John, then traveled to Missouri to take a teaching position at the Rural Academy in Carlinville. He returned to Cottage Grove in April 1851. In 1855 he purchased a nearby farm, named it "Evergreen Hills," and moved his family there in the spring of 1857. He also taught school at nearby Stillwater during the winter of 1852-1853 and served in both the Minnesota territorial (1853-1854) and state (1865-1866) legislatures. In 1878 he moved his family to Northfield, Minnesota.

He married Mehitable W. Furber, the daughter of Pierce Powers and Mehitable Winkley Furber, on May 16, 1854. They had five children: Minnie Helen (1855-1931), Olive Alice (1859-1864), Isabella (1862-1952), Florence (1865-ca. 1900), and William Richard (1867-1926). Watson died on April 16, 1913.

Biographical data was taken from the collection; the History of Rice County (Minneapolis, 1882), p. 435; and Watson's The Early Settlement of Cottage Grove (Northfield, Minn., 1924).

 SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE PAPERS

The collection consists mainly of Watson's 1850 diary and reminiscences of his 1850 journey to Minnesota and his early years in Cottage Grove.

 OTHER FINDING AIDS

A print version of this finding aid is available in the repository; filed as P1485.

 CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics: Agriculture -- Minnesota -- Cottage Grove. Congregational churches -- Minnesota. Scots -- Minnesota. Persons: Ackermann, Gertrude W. (Gertrude Wilhelmine). Boutwell, William Thurston, 1803-1890. Hall, Richard, 1817-1907. Places: Cottage Grove (Minn.). Minnesota -- Description and travel -- 1849-1858. Mississippi River -- Description and travel. Document Types: Diaries. Reminiscences. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Robert Watson Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

 Accession Information:

Accession number: none; 1780A1; 4108; 5553

 Processing Information:

Processed by: Cheryl Norenberg Thies, November 1984

Catalog ID number: 09-00024123

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION P1485 Diary: "Notes of Journey from Cleveland, Ohio to St. Paul, Minnesota, April 1850." 21 pp., handwritten.

Contains entries (April 16-18) detailing the Mississippi River journey of Watson, his brother William, and a friend, Reuben Emerson, on board the steamer "Nominee." Watson describes the passing landscape and rafts of rough timber, a stop in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the Winnebago Indians at LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Also included are entries detailing a trip by foot from St. Paul to Stillwater, Minnesota, and a meeting with Congregational missionary William T. Boutwell (April 22), a steamboat trip from St. Paul to Fort Snelling and return overland to St. Anthony, with comments on Minnehaha Falls and Lake Nokomis (April 25), and Watson's journey to Missouri (Oct. 22-31).

 Autobiographical answers to the Minnesota Historical Society's Pioneer Questionnaire, May 8, 1872. 4 pp., handwritten.

Includes biographical data and Watson's comments on the 1850 journey to Minnesota and his early years in Cottage Grove.

 "Early Settlement and First Preaching at Cottage Grove, Minnesota," 1909. 5 pp., handwritten.

Watson's reminiscence of the 1850 journey to Minnesota, events and people of early Cottage Grove, the "Middleton Settlement" located north of Cottage Grove, farming, Reverend Boutwell's biweekly summer sermons, the 1850 arrival of Congregational missionaries Charles Secombe and Richard Hall, Hall's organization of a church for Cottage Grove and nearby Point Douglas, and Watson's poem, "A Prairie Song."

 Ackermann, Gertrude W., "A Land Seeker in Minnesota," ca.1942. 22 pp., typed.

Typescript of Watson's 1850 diary, with explanatory footnotes by Ackermann.