Robert A. Watt has been closely identified with the business life of Edna for a number of years and is now serving as postmaster of the town. He is widely known throughout Labette County, and had lived there about forty-five years.
He is of Scotch descent and his grandfather, Thomas Watt, was probably the immigrant ancestor. Thomas Watt became a farmer in Belmont County, Ohio, where he died.
It was in Belmont County, Ohio, that Robert A. Watt was born August 7, 1866. His father, John T. Watt was born in the State of Ohio March 10, 1844. Reared in Ohio, he married in Belmont County, and after farming in that state for some years moved out to Kansas and located at Edna in 1879. There as an early settler he acquired 160 acres, farmed it for a number of years, but finally sold out. In January, 1905, the death of this prominent early citizen occurred at Edna. He was a democrat, had served on the school board, and for many years was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He married Amanda Worley, who was born in Ohio May 25, 1845, and is still living at Edna. Her children were: Robert A.; Martin, who died at Edna when a youth; Luella, who first married Barney Armstrong, who was an Oklahoma farmer and her present husband is Mr. Taylor, and they life on a farm two miles west of Mound Valley; Hiram M., a carpenter and a mail carrier at Edna; William O., who farms five miles west of Edna; and May, wife of C. R. Stone, who is employed in a garage at Edna.
Robert A. Watt received his early education in Belmont County, Ohio, where he was born. He attended school after his parents moved to Edna and the first twenty years of his life he spent on his father’s farm. He then engaged in farming for himself until 1899. After that he was teaming for three years, and then engaged in the restaurant business at Edna for eleven years eight months. On July 10, 1913, President Wilson appointed him postmaster of Edna, and he had since given his best time and energies to the careful administration of that office.
Mr. Watt is a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, is affiliated with Edna Lodge No. 345 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Coffeyville Chapter No. 89, Royal Arch Masons, and also with the Knights and Ladies of Security at Topeka.
In 1886 at the old town of Kingston which formerly was a village center located a mile and a half south of Edna, Mr. Watt married Miss Emma J. Graham, daughter of S. H. and Susan Graham. Her father was a farmer and is now deceased and her mother lives in Edna. Mr. and Mrs. Watt have one child: Helen, born February 18, 1899, and now a member of the sophomore class in the high school.