(1865-6 April 1936), physician. (Dr N. M. Watson, spelling also Neil) Born at Williamstown, GC. Parents: Rev. Peter Watson and his wife Margery Monro. In his early days, N. M. Watson was noted as a lacrosse player in Williamstown and Cornwall. He received his medical degree from McGill University, 1891. When he left Williamstown in 1892, he was given a splendid and well-attended banquet, a number of the guests being people who have lives in the present dictionary. At this time he was said to be planning to settle as a physician at Crookston, Minnesota, and he left Williamstown in the company of Alex McKinnon, at that time mayor of Crookston (see McKinnon Brothers). However, perhaps by Crookston the nearby Red Lake Falls, Minn., was meant. In his obituary, Watson was said to have been at Red Lake Falls since 1892; and certainly he spent virtually all of his long professional life at Red Lake Falls. Highly active over many years in the community life of Red Lake Falls, he was mayor of Red Lake Falls for several terms, and served on the local school board for 29 years, being president of the board for 26 of those years. Also, he served several terms on the state board of health. He was a dedicated, hard-fighting Republican Party activist, who is said to have “exerted considerable influence” when his party was in power. In 1924, he was a delegate to the Republican convention to nominate the presidential candidate (President Calvin Coolidge). (Cornwall Standard 13 & 27 March 1924) He died at Red Lake Falls, Minn. He was unmarried. Mason. The burial was at St. Andrew’s cemetery, Williamstown.

Standard Freeholder 15 April 1936 (has repr. of obituary from Gazette of Red Lake Falls, Minn., of 9 April 1936), Glengarry News 17 April 1936 (QF) * article about him in The American School Board Journal repr. Standard Freeholder 13 April 1934 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 173-174 * banquet: DTL SFH 27 Feb. 1943, reprinting in detail from Cornwall Standard 4 March 1892