The subject of this sketch is D.W. Watson, a successful farmer and stockman of Oakland township. He is a son of Thomas Watson, an early settlers of Clark county, Illinois, who died in 1876.

D.W. Watson came to Cloud county in 1870, with a capital of less than twenty-five dollars, built a dugout and for several years barely eked out an existence. In October, 1878, he was married to Clara E. Burkhart, daughter of J.E. Burkhart, of Oakland township.

Mr. Watson's family consists of four children, two boys and two girls; Walter Erwin is married to Florence May Smith, and owns eighty acres of land adjoining his father; Florence L. Eola, deceased; Clarence Eugene, aged sixteen; Ethel May, and Lena Hazel, bright girls of thirteen and five years.

Mr. Watson has a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, but attributes his success to raising cattle and hogs. He keeps a herd of about one hundred head of native cattle. He has been fortunate in all of his shipments and made large gains on all but one. His farm is one of the best in Oakland township, with a stock well that is inexhaustible. He is a quiet, unostentatious man, but a good citien[sic] and neighbor.