WATTS, DILLARD, M.D.
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Sherry Van Scoy Hall
(View posts)
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Posted: 7 Oct 1999 12:00PM GMT
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Classification: Biography
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Edited: 23 Jun 2001 3:50PM GMT
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Surnames: WATTS, MANN, BOONE, HARBESON, HAWKINS, DOHERTY, GARRITY
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DILLARD WATTS, M.D.
VOL. 5, p. 1897
One of the hardest working physicians in Oklahoma is Dr. Dillard Watts of Laverne. It is said that Doctor Watts has a practice extending over three counties and is almost constantly at work answering the calls of his large patronage.
He represents one of the old families of Kansas, and much of his early experience was connected with farming and other lines of business until he could realize his ambitions by entering the medical profession. He was born on a farm in Johnson County, Kansas, March 15, 1869, a son of Josiah and Sarah (MANN) Watts. Josiah Watts was a notable figure in western life in the early days. He was born in 1820 in St. Charles County, Missouri, and was directly related to the family of Daniel BOONE, the Boones having been among the pioneers in St. Charles County. Josiah Watts was also of French stock, his great-grandfather having been an officer in the Revolutionary army under General LAFAYETTE, with whom he emigrated [sic] to America. Josiah Watts showed his stock by a life of much excitement and adventure in the West. In 1849 he participated in the rush to the West during the gold excitement and spent four years on the Pacific Coast as a prospector and miner. He went out by ox team overland and returned by the Isthmus of Panama. After his return to Missouri he became associated in mercantile business with James BRIDGER, the famous trapper and Indian fighter, and for a number of years was located at the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, at what is now Kansas City. He then homesteaded land in Johnson County, Kansas, prior to the Civil war, and the title to that land still remains in the Watts family. He was one of the prominent men of Johnson County, where he died April 30, 1896. In 1858 Josiah Watts married Miss Sarah MANN, who was born March 20, 1838, a daughter of Samuel Mann, a native of Missouri, and she now lives at Stilwater, Kansas. There are seven children, five sons and two daughters, namely: Banaugh, now a physician at Okemah, Oklahoma; Samuel, deceased; Mary, who died in infancy; Ada, widow of Jerry R. HARBESON of Sapulpa, Oklahoma; Robert B., a physician at Wellington, Missouri; Leo, a farmer in Beaver County, Oklahoma.
Dr. Dillard Watts, the youngest of the family, grew up on a farm in Johnson County, gained a public school education, and worked on the farm with his father until he was twenty-one. For the following four years he was in the drug business at Napoleon, Missouri, and after earning and accumulating the necessary means he entered in 1898 the Kansas City Medical College, where he spent two years. He also practiced under a preceptor for two years, and thus by continued hard work and paying his own way finally graduated from medical college with the degree M.D. in the class of 1908. Seeking a permanent location Doctor Watts came to Oklahoma, and practiced at the old Town of Speermore, where he built up much of the practice which he still retains. Speermore was his home until 1914, in which year he moved to Laverne to be near the railroad, and now has his office and residence in that growing little city.
Doctor Watts is a Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to the bodies of that order at Guthrie. In 1896 he married Miss Jessie HAWKINS, who was born in Bates County, Missouri, in 1872, and who died January 20, 1899, at Kansas City Missouri. To their marriage were born two children: Zoe, wife of Philip DOHERTY, a lumberman at Laverne; and Beulah, who is an elocutionist. On March 29, 1915, Doctor Watts married Emma GARRITY, who was born in Riley County, Kansas.
Transcribed by Sherry Van Scoy Hall, July 19, 1999.
SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1916).
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