Edgar Watson (1855 - 1910)

It's amazing how much, and how little, is known of the life and death of Edgar Artemas Watson.  His father was Elijah  Daniel ("Ring-Eye Lige") Watson, and his mother was Ellen Catherine Addison.  He was born on 4 November, 1855 at Clouds Creek, Edgefield, South Carolina.  He was killed on Monday, 24 October 1910 at the water's edge of Chokoloskee, Collier, Florida.  Thirty-three bullets were removed from his body, but about 15 loads of buckshot were not.  He was known as Edgar A. Watson until his return from the West, when he changed his middle initial to J; one of his common-law wives called him Jack.  He was married three times, had two common-law wives, and was the father of ten acknowledged children.
   Here are two short renditions of his story; the first is from Wikipedia under the topic of Chokoloskee, Florida; the second is from Ed's "Findagrave" spot.
   "Edgar Watson   -   The Ten Thousand Islands Country, including Chokoloskee, had a reputation as being a refuge for outlaws.  The Ed Watson story, as related by Ted Smallwood, is the best known example of that.  Edgar Watson, a native of Ridge Springs, in the Saluda Division of Edgefield District, South Carolina, showed up in the Chokoloskee Bay country in the early 1880s.  He had supposedly gotten into trouble in Columbia county, in northern Florida, to which his parents had migrated sometime after 1870, and had then gone out to the Indian Territory (later known as the Oklahoma Territory) where he allegedly killed Belle Starr,herself allegedly an outlaw.  He then returned to Florida and killed a man in Arcadia, apparently in self-defense.  After that Ed Watson moved to the Ten Thousand Islands area, then a part of Monroe County, where he bought a claim on the Chatham Bend River and began raising vegetables.
  On a trip to Key West, Watson got into an argument with Adolphus Santini and tried to cut his throat. Santini survived, but the incident cost Watson $900.  After that, Watson bought a claim on Lost Man's River, also in Monroe County.  A man named Tucker squatted on the claim and would not leave.  Eventually Tucker and his nephew were found murdered, and suspicion fell on Watson.  After that Watson went back to Fort White in Columbia County.  While there he again became involved with bad company and came under suspicion in the deaths of two men.
  Watson returned to the Chatham Bend area and began making syrup from sugar cane.  Soon Watson had several people living at his place, including a man named Dutchy Melvin, who is said to have "killed a policeman and burned a factory or two."  While Watson and Melvin were in Chokoloskee, a man named Cox and someone identified only as "the Nigger" alledgedly killed an old woman named Hannah Smith and a man named Walker at the Watson place.  When Watson and Melvin returned, Cox and the other man allegedly killed Melvin as well.  Hannah Smith's body was later found in the Chatham Bend River by some settlers and given a burial.
  About this time, on October 17, 1910, a major hurricane struck the area.  Ed Watson went to Fort Myers during the hurricane and tried to bring the sheriff back afterwards to arrest Cox, but the Lee County sheriff would not go out of his jurisdiction past Marco.  Watson then bought some shells at Ted Smallwood's store and said he was going back to his place to kill Cox.  When Watson returned to Chokoloskee a few days later a crowd met him at the landing and, after a brief standoff, killed him.  The sheriff did come down to Chokoloskee after that, and took a number of Chokoloskee residents back to Fort Myers for a court session, but nothing came of it." - Wikipedia

On the FindAGrave website (www.findagrave.com): "Western Outlaw.  Born in South Carolina, he owned a sugar plantation in southwest Florida during the lawless years of the late 19th and early 20th century.  In his youth he got into a knife fight, killed a man and fled to the Oklahoma territories, where he left a trail of murders.  In 1889, he was suspected of killing the notorious female outlaw Belle Starr, was put on trial, but nothing came of it and he was acquitted.  Returning to Florida 1891, he killed a man in Arcadia, over a land dispute allegedly in self-defense.  In 1892, he bought a 40 acre parcel at Chatham Bend and became a successful sugar cane farmer.  Noted for being ruthless to his help, he had several fugitives living on his property, which would keep order and strong arm other land owners into selling their parcels.  He would hire workers for his plantation, then on payday, would gun down his entire crew and dump their bodies in the bay.  After yeras of living in fear of Watson, the local residents of Chokoloskee gunned him down at the Smallwood Store.  He was also the subject of writer Peter Matthiessen's books, "Lost Man's River" and "Killing Mister Watson."  "

  Peter Matthiessen actually ended up writing four books about Edgar Watson.  The first was Killing Mister Watson; the second was Lost Man's River; the third was Bone by Bone; and the fourth was a compiled, edited edition of all three, titled Shadow Country.  I am a little more than half-way through the 897 pages of small print in the last book.  The first part is told through the eyes of twelve people who knew Edgar Watson; the second part is one of his son's search for the truth about his father and family; and the third part is the story of Edgar's life, told by himself.  It begins, and ends with his death - going full circle.  So far, it has been enthralling and amazing.  However, if you don't like reading in the vernacular, or if you take offense at nasty and derogatory words that were in common use at that time and place, the books are not for you. 
   Having visited the Ten Thousand Islands area many times, and Fort White, Olustee, Lake City, and "the Alachua Plains" being near my old home, I can easily take myself back to those times....  It's a very good read!

Native Americans

According to my three DNA analyses, I have less than 0.1% Native American ancestry.  That's fine with me.  I do know, however, that one of my ancestors had a Native American wife (illegally) in Virginia in the 1650s, and I descend from his (unlawful) daughter.  Her grandchildren were placed onto Native American Tribal Rolls, for which, they had to prove their ancestry.  I write the above because I wrote several research papers while in high school and in college about the history and treatment of Native Americans - 10 years before I discovered that I have a teeny smidgen of their blood in my veins.
   Last night, I decided to begin reading Killers of the Flower Moon - The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI written by David Grann.  I didn't turn out the light until I had finished reading the entire book.  When the Osage tribe was moved to what is now Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1870s, the treaty agreement said they would hold that land in perpetuity.  The Osage had watched, with horror and wonder, the Oklahoma Land Rush.  They had seen the US government slowly go through the tribal reservations, taking back the land, and giving each family an allotment of 160 acres, or less.It became their turn, and they fought it for several years.  The chiefs and attorneys finally acceded to the governments demands to allotments - but a knowing leader made certain that the Osage tribe, as a people, would continue to own all of the mineral and ground rights for all of the original territory.  The tribe knew that oil was under this land due to a few seeps into small creeks.
   Once the allotments were made, white people could purchase the rest of the county, and cattle ranchers and merchants moved in.  Then oil - black gold - was "discovered" on the land, and the Osage people, as a whole became rich.
   Of course, the white man decided that the Osage tribe were a simple people, and that they could not manage their new-found wealth.  Almost every single member of the Osage tribe was assigned a white "guardian" to oversee their spending.  If you were an Osage, you paid 50 to 500 times the price that other people paid for simple items.  One "guardian" purchased a new car for his ward - the car cost $250; the "guardian" charged his ward $1,250 for the automobile, and the white man pocketed the difference...
   After 24 Osage people died in less than three years - from strange wasting sicknesses, from bullets, from explosions, some with no known cause - the Bureau of Investigation was called upon for help.  At that time, the the Bureau had just been taken over by a young man named J. Edgar Hoover, and he was "cleaning shop" after previous leaders had made it known that they were easily bought.  The search actually centered upon the deaths of six people - five Osage and a white serving woman.  And the agents were able to catch and convict two of the men who had done the planning of the deaths.
   Near the end of the book, the author talks about the other deaths, and the probable killers of the first designated death.  Then he admits to looking at the records of the tribe - and finding that many more people died than he had supposed....   It's an awful look at humanity...
    I highly recommend this book!

Wind, a Movie, Murders and Beer

We had high winds last night and this morning - currently we're having gusts up to 45 mph, but earlier they were up to 80 mph.  I guess that's when the hastily repaired privacy fence between Harvest Manor Apartments and the Millennium Harvest House Hotel came down again.  I was awaken multiple times by loud noises during the dark hours - and once I saw three panels of the fence were down and twisted, I knew that debris would be hitting my glass wall for as long as the winds continue.  I've been up since 6 this morning, and we've had three snow showers so far, though the snow melts as it hits the ground.  Lovey and Nedi have been happy to stay inside.
  Well, let's see...  a movie made about Mine That Bird, the 50-to-1 long shot who won the 2009 Kentucky Derby, will have it's opening debut show tomorrow at the historic KiMo Theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Mine That Bird competed in all the Triple Crown races that year, finishing second in the Preakness, and third in the Belmont.  Distribution of the movie will spread out through the US from Mine That Bird's home state of New Mexico.
  The Mega Millions lottery is up to $400 million, if there is a single winner, in tonight's drawing.  Boy, what I would do with that amount of money...  It's mind-boggling to those of us who pinch pennies to make it through the month, with food always on the table and all other bills paid promptly.  I know that it's expensive to live in Boulder, but it takes money to move, also.  Just can't do it - yet.
  Back in 1996, little beauty pageant princess Jon-Benet Ramsey was found dead in the family basement, at the age of six years.  That house is once once again for sale, this time with a price tag of $1.98 million, here on 15th Street in Boulder.  -  And, a 58-year-old man is being arraigned on first-degree murder charges today (here in Boulder) for the death of Nathaniel Tallman, who disappeared from Lafayette on 28 January 2014.  Tallman's body was found and identified in Wyoming last week.  Tallman had arranged to meet Russell Britton to purchase marijuana the evening he disappeared. Britton stated that Tallman never appeared, but police found Tallman's blood and DNA in the back of Britton's van.  Tallman's car was found parked in Boulder three weeks after he disappeared.
  Small craft beers accounted for $14.3 billion in sales last year in the United States - that a growth of 20% from 2012.  I know there is a huge market for craft brews here in Colorado.  My niece's husband makes a couple of barrels three or four times each year; and local bars are very proud to sell local brews.  I had never realized how lucrative home brewing could be...  Of course, back before the industrial revolution, almost every single family (in Europe and North America) had their own beer or ale recipe.  Seems odd to me how it's popular again.
  (And it's snowing, again.)