Samuel Gwynn Watt is the next child of Robert and Jane to outline.
Samuel was born 21 August 1837 in 'one of the first frame houses built in Jefferson' (Jefferson, Clinton Co., Indiana). His father referred to him as "Gwinn" in a letter he wrote in 1862.
Samuel attended local schools and the Thornton Academy (I have yet to research this school.) Samuel is listed on the 1850 and 1860 censuses with his father and family. He is also found in the November 1860 Poll Book for Jefferson, Clinton Co., Indiana.
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| Samuel Gwynn Watt |
Samuel was a farmer and lived his whole life in Clinton County.
He and Amelia had the following known children: Genevieve (born 1865), Carrie (born 1866), Bessie (born 1870), Lucille (born 1873), Robert (born 1875), Mabel (born 1878), and twins, Edith and Ethel (born 21 May 1886).
In 1902, Samuel retired from farming and sold the 60 acres his father, Robert, had deeded to him. He bought a home at 301 Armstrong Street in Frankfort, Indiana, where he lived until his death.
On 11 May 1905, he signed his will. He died 28 June 1906. Some information states he died from injuries sustained from an accident involving a run away horse, but his death certificate states he had cancer.
Samuel was buried at Bunnell Cemetery, Clinton Co., Indiana.
His will was entered into probate on 23 October 1906. He left everything to his wife, Amelia.
Amelia McClurg Watt died 15 March 1918 at her home, 301 Armstrong St., Frankfort, Indiana. She was buried at Bunnell Cemetery.
Samuel and his family supposedly had numerous papers regarding Robert Watt, the Watt family, and early Clinton County history. These have not yet been found.
Descendants of Samuel and Amelia (McClurg) Watt:
Samuel Gwynn Watt, b. 21 Aug 1837 at Jefferson, Clinton Co., IN, d. 28 Jun 1906 at
Frankfort, Clinton Co., IN
+Amelia W. Mc Clurg, b. 1845 at IN, m. 28 Apr
1863 at Clinton Co., IN, d. circa 16 Mar 1918 at Clinton Co., IN
├── Genevieve Watt, b. 1865
│
+E. H. Culver
│
├── Mary A. Culver
│
└── Georgia Evelyn Culver
│
+David W. Price, m. 1 Jan 1895 at Clinton
Co., IN
├── Carrie Watt, b. circa Mar 1866, d. 16
Mar 1867 at Clinton Co., IN
├── Bessie Watt, b. 1870 at Clinton Co, IN
│
+William H. Surface, m. 6 Dec 1919 at
Frankfort, Clinton Co., IN
├── Lucille Watt, b. 1873
│
+Harry Lewis
├── Robert Watt, b. 1875, d. before 1913
├── Mabel Watt, b. 1878 at IN, d. circa
Dec 1961
├── Edith Watt, b. 21 May 1886
│
+(--?--) Kendall
└── Ethel Watt, b. 21 May 1886, d. at
Clinton Co., IN
+Elmer Johnson
└── Paul G. Johnson, b. 28 Apr 1908 at
Frankfort, Clinton Co., IN, d. 9 Sep 1923 at Frankfort, Clinton Co., IN
The youngest known child of Robert Watt and his wife, Jane, was Sarah Elizabeth Watt.
Sarah was born 12 December 1841 in Clinton Co., Indiana. She is found with her father's family on the 1850 and 1860 censuses for Clinton Co. The family's nickname for her was "Sat."
On 9 September 1863, Sarah was issued a teachers license in Frankfort, Indiana, but it is not known if or where she taught school. According to her son, Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "... Of Mother's early life I know practically nothing. I think she was sent to school in Lafayette, Indiana, and old records include a teacher's certificate. Presumably, therefore, she taught school for awhile before her marriage."
On 25 October 1865, a marriage license was issued in Tippecanoe Co., Indiana for Sarah E. Watt to Charles Richards. No return was filed, so the exact date of the marriage has not been found. Charles Richards was a son of Samuel Richards and his second wife, Maria Russ. He was a brother of Samuel Kennedy Richards who was married to Sarah Watt's sister, Susan T. Watt.
According to their son, Charles Russ Richards, there were two children born to Sarah and Charlie before him, one named Kenneth and the other's name he did not know; both children died as infants.
Charlie and Sarah are found on the 1870 census in Tippecanoe Co., Indiana.
Sarah and Charlie's son, Charles Russ Richards, was born 23 March 1871 in a log house on the family farm near Clarks Hill, Tippecanoe Co., Indiana. The family called him "Russ."
According to Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "I have a faint recollection that after he (his father) was married, he and Mother went to some place near Uncle Wheeler's at Momence, Illinois, and rented a farm which he worked for a time..." But then, "they returned to Clarkshill, Indiana, and he bought 70 acres of farm land, immediately south of the village, where they lived until he died."
Sarah's husband, Charlie Richards, died 16 March 1876. I have not yet found any details about his death. He was buried at Yorktown Cemetery, Stockwell, Tippecanoe Co., Indiana. He was 33 years old. On 19 August 1876, Sarah and Charlie's niece, Mary "Min" Richards, wrote to her aunt, Laura Watt Braden: "You wanted me to tell you about Uncle C's death, I can't for I feel so bad about it and for Aunt Sat, she sent word to you, but I suppose you did not get it, she feels awful about your not coming. She is living with us now and I guess she always will..." Sarah was 34 and her son, Russ, was 4 when Charlie died.
According to Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "...As I remember it (possibly mistaken) she rented the farm soon after Father's death, and in turn, rented a small house about three blocks west of Rash's General Store and Post Office in Clarkshill. I do no know how long she stayed there, but I judge little more than a year. The only thing I recall about this place was that during a very hard winter, when I could not go out of doors, some one taught me a game of solitaire. I also recall that in the fall, whether after Father's death or the year later, I do not know, I cut and shocked corn."
According to Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "...Since Aunt Sue was not well and since she was mother's favorite sister, we moved to a house on Elizabeth Street in Lafayette in 1877 or early in 1878, so she could be near Aunt Sue. We lived there only a short time, then moved into a small house on North 9th Street, across from the Universalist Church. Both houses were near Uncle Sam's home at Union and Eleventh Street, as I remember it. Much of our time was spent there until Aunt Sue's death, August 1, 1879."
An 1878 plat map of Laramie Township, Tippecanoe Co., Indiana, shows land owned by SK Richards (135 acres), land owned by JW Watt (90 acres) and land owned by Sarah E. (Watt) Richards (70 acres). All was near Clark's Hill, Indiana.
According to Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "...After Aunt Sue's death, since Mother was desperately poor, she decided to go to Indianapolis, Indiana, rent an apartment and let out rooms, to add to the small income from the farm. We must have gone there in 1879. I went to school and after school hours, sold papers on the streets, saving my money to buy a watch which I greatly coveted. ...The Indianapolis experiment did not work out well, so after a year, Mother returned to Clarkshill, where she bought a house and a couple of acres of land on the main street that led to Uncle Sam's farm and Lafayette. Aside from the fact that I was frequently ill, the life there was a happy one. Mother taught me to play cribbage; and we saw much of Uncle Sam and his children..." A letter dated 20 June 1880 from Min Richards to Laura Braden states, "Aunt Sat has come back to L. to live."
According to Charles Russ Richards' Memoirs: "...Since Mother was restless and found it difficult to meet the expenses of living, and since she (and all the Richards girls) were expert at making jellies, jams and preserves, she conceived the idea of moving to Tennessee, where fruit and labor where cheap, to endeavor to establish a profitable business of making jellies, etc. To finance the project necessitated selling the farm and the house in Clarkshill, which I think she did just before she had a serious illness, probably, from my present knowledge of heart trouble, due to angina pectoris, or rheumatism of the heart, as it was called then. While I do not know her reasons, she was probably so ill and had to give possession of the house, so instead of going directly to Tennessee, she moved again to Lafayette in one half of a small double house on Union Street, near were Uncle Sam had formerly lived."
Sarah Elizabeth (Watt) Richards died 20 November 1885 in Lafayette, Tippecanoe Co., Indiana. According to Charles Russ Richards' memoirs, "... I went to school and one afternoon in October or early November, when I came home from school, I found her dead in bed. The autopsy pronounced her death from rheumatism of the heart." She was buried in Yorktown Cemetery, Stockwell, Tippecanoe Co., Indiana. Her son, Russ, was just 14 years old. His cousin, Mary Richards, was named his guardian.
Descendants of Sarah E Watt and Charles Richards:
Sarah Elizabeth Watt, b. 12 Dec 1841 at IN, d. 20 Nov 1885 at Lafayette, Tippecanoe Co,
IN
+Charles Richards, b. 18 May 1842 at IN, m.
25 Oct 1865 at Tippecanoe Co, IN, d. 16 Mar 1876
├── Kenneth Richards, b. circa 1866, d. circa
1866
├── infant Richards, b. circa 1866, d. circa
1867
└── Charles Russ Richards, b. 23 Mar 1871 at in a
log house on the farm, Clark's Hill, Tippecanoe Co., IN, d. 17 Apr 1941 at
Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., MN
+Alida Russell Beardsley, m. 26 Nov 1891 at
Tippecanoe Co, IN, d. 21 Feb 1948 at Tippecanoe Co, IN
├── Lenore Richards, b. 14 Nov 1892 at
Lincoln, NE, d. 6 Aug 1971 at Hennepin Co., MN
└── Robert Watt Richards, b. 2 Oct 1900 at Lincoln,
NE, d. 11 Feb 1963 at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC
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