My Genealogy Hound

THOMAS F. WATSON, retired, post office Coraopolis, was born in Middletown, County Durham, England, Oct. 5, 1824, a son of Mark and Eleanor (Rennison) Watson, both natives of England, and members of the M. E. Church. They immigrated to South Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1830, where Mark engaged in manufacturing brick for seven years. He then removed to Fayette county, and purchased a large body of land. Two years later he sold out, returned to Allegheny county, and, coming to what is how Coraopolis, purchased 141 acres now included in the borough. He was the first resident Methodist, and did everything in his power to encourage the building up of a congregation here; he gave the land on which the present church is built, and was one of the principal contributors toward its erection. He died Feb. 18, 1856, in the seventy-second year of his age. He and his wife had a family of eight children, six of whom grew to be men and women: Elizabeth, married to William Hannah; Mark, married to Elizabeth Allen; Agnes, married to James Brown; Sarah, married to Rev. Josiah Dillon; Thomas F., and John, who married Amanda McMillon. Thomas F. worked on his father’s farm, and after the latter’s death he and his brother purchased a sawmill, which they operated at Coraopolis until April, 1888. June 30, 1850, Mr. Watson married Mary A. Moore, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., a daughter of Andrew and Sarah (Hook) Moore, and they have had eight children, seven yet living: Mark, an engineer, married to Mollie Hohie; Ella, wife of Charles Scharff; Thomas F., Jr., clerk for the P. & W. R. R., married to Bessie Winn; Charles E., John W., Cora A. and James, all of whom reside at Coraopolis. Mr. Watson is a trustee of the M. E. Church, of which he and family are members.