Alphretta R "Altie" Willard Prater

Excerpts from a letter written by Alphretta (daughter of James & Zilpha Watson Willard) to cousin, Cecil Paul Watson, regarding the Watson family history.
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"The way I got it from my Mother, when a child, Watson Great Great Great Grandfathers boarded ship in England and sailed to Ireland. When they landed in Ireland, they (Irish) were red Irish and called them (Watsons) the black Irish. I don't know how long they lived there. They sailed from Ireland and landed in Middle Tennessee. Jay Hawker's broke out and a man named Colonel Monks* and a whole Army dressed in Union clothes came and shot her father and grandfather, down in the wood yard, burned their house, took all their food and stock. They (Mary Watson and children) moved to Mammoth Springs, Ark., she (Zilpha) didn't say how. She said they carried water from the spring. She didn't say how they got up around Thomasville and Rover, MO."

• Colonel Monks was a Union supporter and a Jayhawker in and around Oregon County, Missouri. The locals hated Monks, and I've heard many stories that give them good reason. Two of the men Monks killed during the War was Zilpha Watson Willard's father, Samuel Watson, and Samuel's father-in-law, Thomas Trantham. - Mary Jo Freeman* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 6 2021, 22:26:47 UTC