Watkins, Joseph

Born: 1797-01-15 Kentucky

Died: 1867-05-17 Menard County, Illinois

Flourished: 1833-1834 Menard County, Illinois

After the War of 1812, Watkins accompanied his father in the latter's emigration from Kentucky to Illinois, settling in Clinton County. He married Nancy Green, with whom he had eleven children. In 1820-21, Watkins and his family moved to Sangamon County, settling in an area that would later be subsumed into Menard County. He purchased several tracts of public land in the area and commenced farming. In the 1840s, he also acquired land in Mason County. In 1860, Watkins owned real estate valued at $10,600 and had a personal estate of $3,000.

Gravestone, Oakland Cemetery, Petersburg, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Menard County, 68:23, 68, 180, 181, 238, 69:176, 70:166; Mason County, 70:95, 106, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Robert D. Miller, Past and Present of Menard County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 498; The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 284, 319; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Menard County, IL, 89.