The Tracings, Volume 20, Number 2, November 2002 Page: 27
57 p. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE THOMAS WATTS FAMILY OF KERSHAW COUNTY, SUMTER COUNTY, SC. & ANDERSON COUNTY TEXAS
Main to stop by our house and tell my mother that Day had shot my father. Some of the children
cried and screamed. I ask Carrie Hassell, "what's the matter?" She said, "Mr. Day has killed your
Pa." Although I wasn't 11 years old, but from that day I was older than my age- emotionally.
We, his family, went to the place where he lay dead, and waited for officers to come out and
make a report until late p.m.. They never came. We never ate or drank water all day. When we
got home neighbors, Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Teal and daughters had cooked our supper.
Bob Watts, Ella and Eliza's brother, sent Danna a telegram. She never got it. The first she knew
of it she read in paper.
My father was a Civil War veteran and the government paid for the funeral.
The trial was May 18, 1900. He was acquitted, self defense. He said my father was coming at
him with an open knife, although my father's blue work shirt with two bullet holes in the back
was shown in court.
Day was the son of one of my father's boyhood friends. Several years later I heard that he said he
would give the world if he could change places with my father - the tragedy weighed so heavy
on his mind he almost went crazy.
A number of years, I have no idea how many, perhaps 40 or 50 after my father's death in 1899 my
niece, Electa, was living in Nacodoches, Texas (temporarily), her husband worked there. She and
an acquaintance that boarded in the same hotel were talking about where they were raised,etc.
Electa's parents were raised in East Texas- she was born in West Texas. The friend said her
parents were raised in East Texas but her grand Pa killed a man and worried so, his family
persuaded him to go to West Texas. Electa said both her parents were raised near Palestine. The
woman said," Palestine!! That's where my grand Pa got in that trouble. He shot a man named C.
H. Watts who owned the Watts school. Did you ever hear of him?" He didn't own any school--
it was built on four acres on the Watts farm bought by my grandfather in 1852. It has since been
changed; the students are now "bussed" to Maydell.
27.
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Anderson County Genealogical Society. The Tracings, Volume 20, Number 2, November 2002, periodical, November 2002; Palestine, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth37941/m1/32/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Anderson County Genealogical Society.