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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 110
ROGER EARL WATSON, who is engaged in the successful
practice of law at Martinsburg as one of the able and repre-
sentative members of the bar of Berkeley County, has the
distinction of being the only person born in the old home-
stead of Gen. Charles Lee, a Revolutionary officer, at Lee-
town, Jefferson County, West Virginia, the date of his
nativity having been February 10, 1886.
The lineage of the Watson family traces back to stanch
English origin, and the name has been one of prominence
in the history of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia,
in connection with both civic and material development and
progress. From Scotland, via England, James Watson with
three brothers came to America prior to 1740, and settled in
St. Mary's County, Maryland. He married Mary Greene,
who, according to family tradition, was a sister of Gen.
Nathaniel Greene, the distinguished Revolutionary officer.
James Watson bought land near Port Tobacco, Charles
County, Maryland, where he developed the fine estate known
as Chestnut Ridge. By marriage the Watson family became
related to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, another dis-
tinguished figure of the Revolutionary period. Numerous
representatives of the family were identified with early
Indian conflicts, and members of the family also gained
fame as scouts and soldiers of the patriot forces in the war
of the Revolution. Among the numerous children of James
and Mary (Greene) Watson were three sons, Joseph,
Zephaniah and James Greene, and through one of these sons
the subject of this review is a descendant of James Watson,
one of the three original representatives of the family in
America.
John James Watson, father of him whose name initiates
this article, was born in what is now Jefferson County, West
Virginia, August 15, 1836, his father, James Watson, hav-
ing been born in Maryland, and who came thence to Vir-
ginia and developed a large farm estate in the vicinity of
Leetown, Jefferson County, he having been the owner of a
goodly number of slaves. He was somewhat more than
seventy years of age at the time of his death. The maiden
name of his wife was Elizabeth Shaull, and their children
were ten in number, namely: Benjamin, George, John J.,
Ephraim, Charles, Snowden, Joseph, Daniel, Lydia and
Elizabeth.
John J. Watson was reared on the old homestead, and at
the inception of the Civil war he entered the Confederate
service, in which he participated in the first battle of Bull
Run and many other important engagements, besides which
he served for a time as courier between Generals Lee and
Jackson. He was wounded in the forehead, and bore the
scar until his death. In the last year of the war he was a
member of dark's Cavalry, and he was its last survivor.
He was present at the surrender of General Lee, his service
having covered the entire period of the war. After the war
he was for twenty-five years engaged in mercantile business
at Charles Town, Jefferson County, and he then removed to
Martinsburg, where he continued a few years in the same
line of enterprise, and then retired from active business,
his death having here occurred November 1, 1921. His
wife survives him, her maiden name having been Ella Vir-
ginia Rogers. Her birth occurred in Jefferson County, she
being a daughter of Isaac and Drusilla (Nicely) Rogers.
The only child is Roger Earl, immediate subject of this
sketch.
In 1904 Roger E. Watson graduated from the Martins-
burg High School, as president of his class, and in the same
year he entered the University of West Virginia, where he
took a course in the department of chemistry. For two
years, from 1906, he was engaged as a chemist with the
H. C. Frick Coke Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and he then entered the law department of the University
of West Virginia, in which he was graduated in 1910, he
having been president of his class in the junior year. After
receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws, with concomitant
admission to the bar of his native state, Mr. Watson opened
an office at Martinsburg, where he has developed a sub-
stantial and representative law practice and gained secure
vantage-ground as a resourceful trial lawyer and conserva-
tive counsellor. He has been active in local campaign
service of the democratic party, and is one of the loyal
and progressive citizens of the fine little city that is the
judicial center of Berkeley County. Mr. Watson is affiliated
with the Pi Kappa Alpha and the Theta Nu Epsilon fra-
ternities of the University of West Virginia, and as an
undergraduate in that institution he was active in athletic
affairs, he having been assistant manager of the baseball
team in 1910 and manager of the second team of that year.
Mr. Watson married, July 4, 1919, Miss Catherine Mc-
Harg, of Boston, Massachusetts, the one child of this union
was Roger Edward.
Submitted by: Valerie Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
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