Dixie Watson, clerk of the Division Court, dates his birth in the township of Westminster, adjoining London, Out., November 14, 1842. His father, Dixie Watson, senior, was a barrister, one of the first members of the profession in Huron county, and a member of the first town council of Goderich, where he died in 1856. The mother of our subject was Charlotte Williams, daughter of Judge Rowland Williams, of the London District. She died in 1868.
In 1845, the family moved to Goderich, where young Dixie received a grammar school education, and studied law with Mr. John Bell Gordon, purposing, at one time, to enter that profession; but in 1867 he became official assignee of the county of Huron, and abandoned his legal studies. He held the office of assignee until 1875, when it was made a Government appointment, and the party in power wanted the place for one of its own members. Mr. Watson was councilman and reeve of the town of Goderich four years.
When the new Division court was opened at Wingham, in 1876, he was appointed clerk, and still holds that situation. He is attentive to his duties, obliging and courteous, and hence quite popular. He was connected for several years with the volunteer force of the Province; went through the Fenian raid of 1866, and came out Ensign of the Huron Rifles. The politics of Mr. Watson are Conservative; at one time he was vice-president of the Conservative Association of Goderich; and prior to accepting his present office, was quite an earnest worker in that direction.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the Huron and Lebanon Chapters. August 18, 1873, Miss Louisa Carroll, daughter of John Carroll, of Thorold, Ont., was married to Mr. Watson. They are members of the Episcopal church, and both very fond of music and good singers, he leading the choir in St. George’s church, Goderich, for several years.
Mr. Watson has very dark brown eyes, dark complexion, a stout build; is six feet one inch high, and weighs 250 pounds. He is frank, cordial, and very comeatable; is a man of excellent habits and good taste, and enjoys the more refined pleasures of life with unalloyed and keen zest.