Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/758

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WATSON.
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first contributions were devoted to the employing of a Bible-reader to the poor and ignorant of the city, and clothing and food to the destitute. She has been prominent in the Woman's Christian ELLEN MARIA WATSON. Association, visiting cities, attending conventions, acquainting herself with methods and plans of work corresponding to that which engaged her mind, and in which she has occupied the highest official position for ten years successively. A home for self-supporting and unprotected young women is a monument to her as its inaugurator. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has in her a most devoted adherent and strong advocate, so far as the Christian basis of organization and of total abstinence extends. The Woman's Foreign Missionary movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church South feels her power in her consecration to the work. She has been the conference president twelve years in succession.


WATSON, Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe, lecturer, born in Solon, Ohio, 6th October, 1842. Her maiden name was Low, which was changed to Lowe by the younger members of the family. Her father was of Teutonic descent, born in New York, and her grandfather, of the Knickerbocker type, had large landed possessions in "Old Manhattan Town." Her mother was of Scotch stock. Her grandmother, Mary Daniels, was a remarkably intelligent woman, with a poetic, religious temperament possessed of psychic gifts, the nature of which was then a profound mystery. ELIZABETH LOWE WATSON. Mrs. Watson was the ninth child in a family of thirteen, ten of whom are living. At the age of eight, remarkable psychic phenomena, of a physical nature, were manifested through her, and a few years later she became developed as an "inspirational" speaker, so-called. At fourteen her public ministry began, attracting great crowds of people to hear tier discussion upon religion and social ethics. She then, as in later years, often answered all kinds of questions from the audiences, and usually the subject of her lecture was chosen by a committee. In 1861 she became the wife of Jonathan Watson, one of the oil kings of Titusville, Pa. She was a devoted wife and the mother of four children, only one of whom is living. For some years after her marriage she discontinued her public work, except to officiate at funerals. Recently she has resumed her ministry of love, and, removing to California, for seven or eight years she lectured nearly every Sunday in San Francisco, for much of the time as the regular pastor of the Religious and Philosophical Society of that city. She lectured in 18S2 through Australia, attracting large audiences. Her recent lectures in Chicago and other parts of the East were successful. Her work is principally devoted to the elevation of mankind morally and spiritually, to moral, social and religious reform, including the advancement of woman in all proper directions. After meeting many reverses and bereavements, she finds herself now possessed of a productive fruit farm, "Sunny Brae." in Santa Clara county, Cal., which brings an annual income of between four-thousand and five-thousand dollars. She superintends the entire business.


WATTS. Mrs. Margaret Anderson, temperance worker, born in a country place near Danville, Ky. 3rd September, 1832. She is the daughter of Hon. S. H. Anderson, a lawyer and orator of distinction, who died while he was a member of the House of Representatives in Washington, D. C. On the maternal side she is a granddaughter of Judge William Owsley, who was the fourteenth governor of Kentucky and a man of the highest order of legal ability. Her ancestors run back to the Rev. John Owsley, who in 1660 was made rector of the Established Church in Glouston, England, in which place he served sixty years. His son, Thomas Owsley, came to the Colony of Virginia, in America, in 1694, and settled