Fred S. Watt, cashier of the Lovewell State Bank, is a man of exceptlonal ability and widely known in Jewell County, and besides his banking duties is also pastor of the United Brethren Church at Lovewell.
Mr. Watt was born in Webster County, Nebraska, July 30, 1879. He is of English ancestry but the family located in Pennsylvania in colonial times. His grandfather, John Watt, was born in Indiana in 1810 and in 1871 became one of the piommer settlers in Webster County, Nebraska, where he homesteaded 160 acres near Guide Rock. He was a practical farmer, and spent his last years in comfortable retirement at Gulde Rock, where he died in 1891. He married Elizabeth Adams, who was born in Ohio in 1815 and died at Guide Rock, Nebraska, in 1899. Five of their children are still living: James, a retired farmer at Guide Rock; Fred, who follows the trade of butcher at Guide Rock; L. L., a retired hotel man at Guide Rock; Frank Watt; and Addle, who is living at Guide Rock, widow of Charles Ely, who was a farmer.
Frank Watt, father of Fred S., was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1857, and was fourteen years of age when his parents removed to the frontier of Nebraska. He grew up there, and on reaching his majority homesteaded eighty acres of land and had developed some important interests as a farmer. He is still living on his old homestead in Webster County. In matters of politics he is an independent and is active in the United Brethren Church. Frank Watt married Sarah C. Bayles, who was born near Brownsville, Nebraska, in 1862. Fred S. is the oldest of their five children. Charles E. is a farmer near Guide Rock, Nebraska; Alma E. is the wife of Lee Shaffer, a farmer near Guide Rock; Homer died at the age of two years; and Cecile is still at home with her parents.
Fred. S. Watt received his early training in the public schools of Webster County, Nebraska. His life was spent on his father’s farm until twenty-one and for two years he taught school in his native county. In 1901 he graduated from the Omaha Commercial College, did some clerical work in that city and also in Washington County, Idaho, but in 1906 returned to Webster County, Nebraska, and was successfully identified with school work until 1914. In preparation for the ministry Mr. Watt attended the Moody Bible Institute at Chicago and God’s Bible School of Cincinnati. He took up his duties as pastor of the United Brethren Church at Lovewell in 1914, and had steadily looked after the interests and welfare of that church and had done much to build it up into a live and vital organization. Mr. Watt entered the Lovewell State Bank as an employe in 1915, was promoted to assistant cashier January 1, 1917, and had held the post of cashier since June 1, 1917. This bank was established in 1911 by F. B. Warren, president, and William E. Dannifer as cashier. The present officers of the bank are S. L. Myers, president; B. J. Stofer, vice president; and Fred S. Watt, cashier. The bank had a capital of $10,000 and surplus and profits of $1,200. Mr. Watt owned his home on Main Strest and the bank is on the same thoroughfare. In matters of politics he is independent.
In 1914, at Guide Rock, Nebraska, he marrled Miss Jennie Snider. Her parents, L. G. and Ida M. (Beechler) Snider, live near Guide Rock, her father being a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Watt have two children: Homer Frederick, born June 24, 1915, and Melvin Francis, born September 24, 1916.