Thomas Hill Watts, governor Of Alabama, was born in Butler county, Ala., Jan. 3, 1819; son of John Hughes and Prudence (Hill) Watts; grandson of Thomas Watts and of Thomas Hill, and a descendant of Welsh and English stock. His paternal grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, who in 1797 removed from Fauquier county, Va., to Greene county, Ga., where he died. His widow became the wife of Governor Rabun of Georgia. Thomas Hill, his maternal grandfather, resided in Clarke county, Ga. Thomas H. Watts attended the country schools and Mount Airy academy. Dallas county, Ala. He was graduated from the University of Virginia, A.B., 1840, subsequently studying law and beginning practice in Greenville, Ale., in 1841. He was a representative from Butler county in the state legislature, 1842, 1844 and 1845; removed to Montgomery, Ale., 1847; was again a representative in the state legislature, 1849, and a state senator, 1853. He was the unsuccessful "Know Nothing" candidate from the Montgomery district for the 35th congress in 1856; an elector at large on the Bell and Everett ticket, 1860, and a delegate from Montgomery county to the state constitutional convention of 1861, signing the ordinance of secession. He recruited the 17th Alabama infantry in September, 1861, and was appointed its colonel, but resigned his commission in Merely, 1862, to become attorney-general of the Confederate States by appointment from Jefferson Davis, serving until October, 1863. He was governor of Alabama, 1863-65, after which he resumed the practice of law, in which he was eminently successful. He served as representative in the state legislature. He was married, first, Jan. 10, 1842, to Eliza Brown, daughter of Wade and Catherine (Carpenter) Allen of Montgomery, Ala.; and secondly, September, 1875, to Mrs. Ellen (Noyes) Jackson, of Montgomery. Governor Watts died in Montgomery, Ale., Sept. 16, 1892.

The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans 1904

Copyright © Christine Walters All Rights Reserved