Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

tion. He was president of an Illinois gas
and water company, and president of the
Fairfield Agricultural Society for many
years.
General Watson made an enviable record
in the Connecticut National Guard. He
enlisted in the old 4th Regiment May 28,
1877, as a member of the staff of Colonel
R. B. Fairchild with the rank of lieu-
tenant. He afterward was appointed aide
on the staff of General S. R. Smith, commander
of the Connecticut Brigade in
1878, with the rank of captain. His next
advancement was to the colonelcy of the
4th Regiment, to which office he was
elected and which he held until March i,
1890, when he was appointed by Governor
Bulkley to be commander of the Connecticut
Brigade, which was composed
of four regiments of infantry, three com-
panies of heavy artillery and a number of
separate companies. His high position in
the State's military establishment was
marked with highly improved efficiency
of the military bodies, a zeal and an en-
thusiasm which were significant of the
splendid morale of the troops. General
Watson received his honorable discharge
from the service in 1897.
In the club circles in which General
Watson moved he was a popular and in-
fluential member. He had served as pres-
ident of the New York Athletic Club, as
commodore of the Larchmont Yacht Club
and as fleet captain of the Atlantic Yacht
Club. He had served as vice-president
and president of the Union League Club
of New York, and was a member of the
Pilgrim Society, the New England Society,
the Sons of the Revolution, New
York Yacht Club, Lotus Club and of the
Brooklawn Country and Seaside clubs of
Bridgeport. General Watson was of
strong Republican faith in his political
preferments and practices, but he con-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
sistently with his policy steadfastly de-
clined to accept the honor of election to
public office, which he might have graced
with rare ability, if he had but given his
word to his large and influential follow-
ing.
General Watson married Alice Cheever
Lyon, daughter of Hanford Lyon of
Bridgeport. To them were born two
children : Arthur Kent Lansdell Watson,
and Alice Lyon, who married Paul Armit-
age.
Out of his varied walks of life there
has departed a figure, stalwart and commanding,
who left the impress of a force-
ful life upon numerous diversified endeavors—the
honors that came to Gen-
eral Watson and the measure of success
that resulted from his own capacity for
hard work intelligently done rejoiced the
hearts of his multitude of friends in the
city of New York and throughout the
State of Connecticut. His life and deeds
comprise another chapter in the illumin-
ated annals of the city of Bridgeport.
KIRKHAM, Thomas Atwood,
Manufacturer.
Long before the New World was discovered
the Kirkham name was a prominent
and honorable one in England. "At
the time of Henry III, and probably much
earlier, they had their residence at
Ashcombe under Haldon Hill, and of
this they were possessed," according to
Prince's "Worthies of Devon," C. 1700.
They continued to be its lords for four
hundred years after the death of that
monarch. Later, in the reign of Edward I
Sir Nicholas Kirkham removed his dwell-
ing unto Blagdon, which was the long con-
tinued seat of this name and family ; an-
other property belonging to them was at
Honiton. The most interesting personage