Watson - Harold S.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 2 December 1918 p 1
Lt. Harold S. Watson, 23 years old, and a graduate of Wabash in 1916, was killed while flying over the enemy's line in France on October 18, the dispatch from the war department stating that he had died from an accidental fall. Lt. Watson was editor-in-chief of the Wabash during his senior year and proved to be most capable and efficient in that position. He was a nephew of Mrs. Gilbert A. Eldredge of Crawfordsville and while in this city he was a leader in the social and connected with the college. His mother is Mrs. Carrie M. Leasure of Indianapolis who is visiting friends in St. Paul Minn at the present. Lt. Watson was born in Knightstown, Ind. After graduating from Wabash College he went to New York where he was employed by the American Electric Railway Association. Shortly after the declaration of war by the US he enlisted in the army and went to an avaiation camp at Dallas, Texas, for training. The Lt's wife, whom he married five days before his departure for France in July is Rebecca McCann, nationally known as the creator of the Cheerful Cherub, a feature which made one of its earliest appearances in the pages of The Journal, and which since has become a feature of scores of newspapers in the country. News of the death was sent by the war department to Mrs. Watson in New York, where she has made her home and maintained a studio since her brilliant conceit, the Cheerful Cherub has obtained national popularity. A dispatch from New York says that Lt. Watson and Miss McCann were married July 10, in that city, and after a honeymoon of five days the Lt. took passage for France. The information conveyed to Mrs. McCann Watson in an official dispatch is that he died as the result of an accidental fall while in flight over the German lines. Mrs. Watson's first information that her husband had made the supreme sacrifice came in a letter from one of the lieutenant's associated in France, who enclosed a note entrusted to hiim by Lt. Watson a few days before he met his death.
