John Emerson Watson was born on February 3, 1852 in Wilmington, Delaware, to Burton Watson and Ann Webb – Watson. John was a traveling salesman selling farm implements throughout the Western United States. At the age of 27 he married 21-year-old Margaret Dolphin on March 26, 1879. Together they had five children. Their second son, Ray Watson died at two years of age in 1885.

 

In 1893 at the age of 41, while still married to Margaret, he married 20-year-old Anna E. Cain in South Dakota. John and Anna did not have children. Anna was 21 years younger than he was and 15 years younger than his first wife, Margaret.

 

Legend has it that Margaret went to her grave in 1935 at the age of 77 in Bellflower, California, not  knowing about John’s second wife. Anna Cain. Anna was 73 at the time of John’s death and did not know that he had been married to Margaret until his death in 1946.

 

After John’s passing, Anna became acquainted with John’s children and it appears that his daughter, Bessie Watson – Gartner, and Anna became friends.

 

Below is a picture from about 1946. Left to right; Bessie Watson – Gartner, John’s daughter, Marilyn Mae (Skip) Gartner – Flora, John’s granddaughter, and Anna E Cain – Watson John’s second wife.

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