Watkins - Russell B. - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Russell B. WATKINS, farmer and stock raiser, Darlington, is the son of George and Rebecca (KELLY) Watkins. The family is of Welsh and Scotch descent, three branches of it having come to this country at an early period, one of which located in Pennsylvania, another on James river, Virginia, and the third in Baltimore, Maryland . From the latter Mr. Watkins traces his descent. From Baltimore the family came west, his grandfather locating at Maysville Station in the early settlement of Kentucky, and afterward removed to Lexington Station, where his mother was born. His Uncle Charles, who was a hunter and well known Indian fighter, was killed by the aborigines at Frankfort, Kentucky. His father was born at Topseka Falls, Maryland, and here his grandfather, who was a stone-mason, helped to build the Elicot mills, at which the first steel forge was erected. On account of slavery his parents left the South and settled in Montgomery County, Ohio, about 1805 or 1806, where they bought land of Judge Sims, of Cincinnati, the government at that time only disposing of the land in large tracts. While the family were resident in this state the subject of this memoir was born in January, 1826, and the family remained here until 1831, when they removed to Montgomery County, Indiana, settling in Scott township. The party which accompanied them from Ohio numbered twenty-seven persons, and consisted of friends and relatives, among them being Daniel Watkins, who was the pioneer preacher of the Methodist denomination in this County, and conducted the first camp meeting in Franklin township, and was the organizer and first preacher of the congregation now known as Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, of which a full history appears in the history of this township. In 1852 Mr. Watkins removed to this vicinity and married Miss SCOTT, daughter of Mr. Thomas Scott, one of the pioneers of this neighborhood, who arrived here in 1825 and entered the land upon which Mr. Watkins now resides. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. E. A. Hazen, at that time pastor of the Salem Church. The result of this union was a family of two daughters, Evangeline and D. Josephine, both of whom are now married and reside in Crawfordsville. Mrs. Watkins was born in this township, and here her father died in his fifty-seventh year. Mr. Watkins is a member of the I.O.O.F. and has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church all his life, and is a prominent member of the republican party. – transcribed by kbz