Van L. Watts, a rising member of the Murray county bar, residing at Spring Place, was born at Fairmount, in Gordon county, Ga., in 1871. In 1881 he moved to Cherokee county with his parents, where he grew to manhood. He was educated in the schools of Cherokee county. He early resolved to prepare himself for the practice of law, and engaged in the study of that science in Cherokee county, where on Sept. 28, 1892, he was regularly admitted to the bar in the superior court of Pickens county, at Jasper. In May, 1893, he settled at Spring Place, where he has since practiced his profession, and is winning a reputation as commendable as it is merited for skill and dexterity in the trial of cases, and for prudence and diligence in the management of the legal business.

In June, 1894, Mr. Watts married Miss Minnie Daly, of Spring Place, daughter of Simon Daly, and they have one son, Roy F., born May 14, 1895. The father of Mr. Watts was Sylvester R. Watts, born in Gordon county, this state, who married Miss Celia E. Stanton, daughter of Hon. J.W. Stanton, of Gordon county. The issue of this marriage was seven children: Henry L., of Cherokee county; Emma L., engaged in teaching at Ducktown, Tenn.; John Q., a student at Young Harris college, Union county, Ga; Stanton P., of Fairmont, Ga.; Martin F., of Cherokee county; Sylvester R., Jr., also of that county, and Van L. He enlisted in the Sixth Georgia cavalry the last year of the war, when but seventeen years old, and defended the cause of the south. He died in Cherokee county in 1883. The paternal grandfather of Van L. Watts was Pleasant Watts, a native of South Carolina, who died in Gordon county in 1856.

Note the above was written in 1895.

From Memoirs of Georgia, 1895

NOTE: The following has been added by MurrayCountyMuseum.com:

The Census of 1900 found the Watts living in Ellijay, Gilmer County, Georgia. The listing: Van L. Watts, age 28, lawyer; Minnie B. Watts, age 26; Roy F. Watts, age 5; Irma H. Watts, age 2.

Some unknown calamity happened to this family during the next ten years but what is unknown. The Census of 1910 listed the two children, living with their widowed grandmother in Ringgold, Catoosa County, Georgia. The listing: Martha E. Daly, age 65, head-of-household; Roy F. Watts, grandson, age 14; Erma Watts, granddaughter, age 12.

 

Murray County Families