WATSON, F. M. (Francis "Chick"),
died 6 Oct. 1898, of paralysis, burial lot #52 Rosehill Cemetery, no marker.
WATSON, Narcissa Elizabeth, died 13 May 1898, Age 65, of Pneumonia, burial lot
#52 Rosehill Cemetery, no marker.
FRANCIS WATSON, always known as "Chick". Chick Watson was a cabinet
maker by profession. He worked with fine woods and made coaches, carriages, and
caskets. He had learned his trade in the old cabinet shop at Mount Pleasant,
Tennessee. It was a double log cabin that had housed the first store in Mount
Pleasant. When the store was moved to another location, the log cabin was bought
by Alexander Orr and he and man by the name of Archer used it for a school to
teach cabinet work.
Chick and his wife Narcissa Watson moved to Ashland in Wayne Co., Tn., where her
sister Dorcas and her husband, John Craig Johnston lived. Johnston had a store
there and was in need of a cabinet maker. Chick Watson joined him in the
business. After the Civil War, as it did to many, broke up the relationship for
times were hard, the Watsons moved back to Maury Co. and lived there until their
deaths.
In 1870 Francis Watson served as sexton at Rose Hill Cemetery at Columbia, Tn.
As the sexton, he accepted the task of going to Alabama to bring back the bodies
of the two murdered sons of major Granville Pillow. The editor of the local
newspaper was quick to criticize Watson's private burial of the two young boys,
because of the social stature, the men being related to Gen. Gideon Pillow. The
men who assisted Watson with the burial of the two men were his father in law
Robert O. Smith, J. Bond, D.T. Goad, and Mr. Lamb, the funeral director.
Francis Watson had bought a lot at Rose Hill soon after their marriage, and the
sexton designated it as Lot 52, Rose Hill, Colombia, Tn., and on it are some
twenty graves mostly unmarked in 1969. Yet it is recorded that both Narcissa
Smith Watson and husband, Francis Watson, a daughter, Dorcas A. Bell Watson, and
son William Francis Watson are all buried in this plot.
A page from an old Bible has these notations: "Narcissa Elizabeth Watson
died at age 65 on May 13, 1898 of Pneumonia. Burial at Rose Hill. F.M. Chick
Watson died on Thursday, 6 Oct. 1898 of paralysis.
Buried in Rose Hill Cemetery 13 October 1898".
Mary Bob McClain