Watson, George

Born: 1825-04-16 Connecticut

Died: 1858-08-15 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: 1854 to 1858 Illinois

George Watson, railroad official, was born in Canaan, Connecticut. He moved west about 1846 and worked in railroad construction. He was employed on railroads in Ohio and Kentucky, then worked in Centralia, Illinois for the Illinois Central Railroad, of which he was superintendent of the southern division from at least 1854 until late in 1856. In 1857 he was appointed superintendent of the Great Western Railroad, and held this position at the time of his death.

Thomas Watson, John Watson, of Hartford, Conn., and his Descendants (New York: n.p., 1865), 33; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Canaan, Litchfield County, CT, 59; The Jonesboro Gazette (IL), 21 June 1854, 2:1; Complimentary Dinner to George Watson, on the Occasion of his Retirement from the Superintendency of the Southern Division of the Illinois Central Railroad (St. Louis: Geo. Knapp, 1856); Benjamin Homans, comp., The United States Railroad Directory, for 1856 (New York: B. Homans, 1856), 137; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 30 April 1857, 3:1; 16 August 1858, 3:1; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 16 August 1858, 2:2; Gravestone, Mountain View Cemetery, North Canaan, CT.