Obituary:
REV. ELISHA F. WATSON
Wakefield, RI, Jan 16 - Rev. Elisha F. Watson a retired Episcopal clergyman, died at an early hour this morning. He was 84 years of age, and was during the Civil War was appointed Chaplain of the Eleventh Massachusetts regiment by Gov. Andrews. He was a member of the graduating class of 1840 of Brown University.

REV. E. F. WATSON PASSES AWAY

Descendent of an Old R. I. Family and Was Prominent As a Temperance Man and Abolitionist

GRADUATE OF BROWN IN 1840

Though for Many Years a Clergyman He Had Lately Lived on Farm near Matunuck

Wakefield, Jan. 16, 1900 -- Rev. Elisha F. Watson, a noted abolitionist and Episcopal clergyman of this town, died at his home near Matunuck last night, aged nearly eighty-six years, of neuralgia of the heart.
The deceased was a lineal descendant of John Watson, who, in the early settlement of the Narragansett county, came to South Kingstown and settled on what has since been known as the Watson farm, near Tower Hill. The progenitor of the Watson family married a Miss Gardner, who is said to have been a sister of one of the original purchasers of the Pettaquamscut tract in the Narragansett colony. He died at an advanced age in 1727.
Rev. Elisha F. Watson was a son of Freeman P. Watson, a lineal descendant of Judge Freeman Perry, whose mother was Phoebe, daughter of Job Watson of Jamestown.
The deceased was the second son and was born in Boston Neck, South Kingstown, March 28, 1814. He prepared for college at Amherst, Mass. and Bristol Pa., and during the period he taught school to aid him in defraying his expenses.
He entered Brown University in 1837 and three years later graduated from that institution. Soon after graduating from Brown he took up the study of theology at the general theological seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, and conducted his studies under the direction of Rev. Dr. Francis Vinton of Newport. He was ordained as a rector in the Protestant Episcopal church, and in August 1843, he began his work in the ministry as rector of St. Mathews church at Jamestown and St. Paul's church at Tower Hill, South Kingstown, and conducted here for three years. He was then called to become rector of Christ's church at Lonsdale, and continued his work in that parish for some over three years.

He left Lonsdale in 1861 and came to South Kingstown, where he located on the farm some two miles from this village, where he has since resided except for short periods.
His last parish work was at Otis, Mass. in 1860. In his early ministerial work he became a great student of the slave question and became a staunch abolitionist. He was a sturdy whig and later, upon the organization of the republican party, was a staunch advocate of its principals and followed it all his life.
During the Fremont campaign he took the stump and spoke all over Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts. At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion he was one of the first to enter the service. He was in the army of the Potomac and was appointed chaplain of the Eleventh Massachusetts regiment, volunteers, by Governor Andrews, and followed the fortunes of war with his regiment throughout the war. He was absent from his regiment but for two weeks during the entire period.
As far back as 1834 Mr. Watson became interested in temperance work and joined a temperance society in South Kingstown, and both in theory and practice he was a strict temperance man.
Mr. Watson was deeply interested in educational matters, and was even in his declining years a member of the school committee of South Kingstown, and for a considerable period was superintendent of schools. He was interested to a marked degree in all public questions of the day.
He did not aspire to office, but contented himself to helping others more ambitious than himself.
Rev. Mr. Watson was married on June 6, 1843, to Mary, daughter of John B. Dockray of this town. They had only one son, Arthur Hamilton Watson of Providence, who is manager of the Providence Newport and Fall River Steamboat company and who is closely connected with other enterprises in the state.
The deceased received the degree of A. M. from Brown University in 1843.
A fact of considerable interest to the alumni of Brown is that when the deceased grandson, Byron S. Watson, graduated in 1897, there were three generations of the family in the line of march. The deceased, who graduated in 1840, his son, Arthur, who graduated in 1870, and his grandson in the class of '97. ( 1897)
The arrangements for the funeral were announced this morning. The services will be held at his late home on Thursday at 12 o'clock.