R918
More about Teddy and Annie Byrd Watson.
(2011) The son of an English merchant, Edward Alexander Watson was born in Mexico City (or England) but spent most of his life in the United States. As a young man he was engaged in the hotel business in Massachusetts, and later in Florida, before coming to Nimrod Hall.
Teddy (33) and Annie Byrd Smith (38) were married in 1892. It is unclear how and when they got together. They were married by A. W. B. Watson, an Anglican Chaplain in the British Army who was to serve with distinction in the Sudan Campaign (1898) and the Boer War (1899), probably an uncle or other relative of Teddy. By then Dr. Smith had died (1888). In 1899 his wife Susan conveyed ownership of Nimrodto her daughter Annie Bird through a Trustee.
Teddy was a passionate sportsman, and he ran Nimrod for sportsmen. However the sporting life is risky, and the venture failed. Kathy Shearer researched warrants for debts owed by the Watsons at the Bath County Historical Society, and found "…40 or more. Also a few for Henry Smith. Some for small amounts such as $35.00 [dollars in 1900], some for $1,000. Most of these were to businesses. Those few [creditors] that used lawyers recovered their money. The rest were out of luck." Kathy notes that A. W. B. Watson and one of Susan's cousins, Harry Smith Rucker, bailed the young couple out on various occasions. Eventually A. W. B. bought Nimrod and let Teddy and Annie Byrd live there for a time before selling it himself, in 1904.
The 1910 census found the Watsons living "along the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail Road Millboro" [S172]. Teddy was a commercial salesman, Annie Byrd was preserving and pickling fruit, and Susan Smith was living with them. Eventually the couple separated (though they did not divorce), and Teddy moved to Lynchburg while Annie Byrd and her mother stayed in Bath County.
Annie Byrd Watson died in 1913, aged 51. Her mother, Susan Smith (83), died in Buena Vista in 1921. Both joined Dr. Smith in the little Nimrod cemetery.
Teddy Watson returned to Nimrod after he lost it; he signed the Nimrod guest register in 1911(?), 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, and 19. He remarried soon after Annie Byrd's death: Hylton Coover [R909] wrote to Elsie Wood ([R561], shown at the time of these visits in Fig. R005e), "Don't you recall that Ted Watson, with a most charming wife from Lynchburg, returned to Nimrod for a stay? You all were there at the time. And we all were amazed at this union. He was an attractive Englishman and a smooth talker." Bath County deed DB28-324 begins "THIS DEED, made this the 10th day of June, 1916, between MAUDE WATSON and E. A. WATSON, her husband, Parties of the first Part, L. E. WOOD, Party of the second Part,… W I T N E S S E T H : That for and in consideration of…" It records the sale of an additional piece of property, containing what would become Camp Nimrod for Boys, by Watson to Lewis Wood [R005]. The fact that Maude is named before Teddy in the deed may be significant.
Twelve years later Watson, 69, killed himself in Lynchburg (Fig. R918d. The Lynchburg News obit writer didn't mince words). Many male friends attended Watson's funeral, including William and Harry Lowen and Andrew Porter from Bath County, who were among the flower bearers; but not Watson's wife. Unfortunately deep scratches in the microfilm mar the portion of the obituary in Fig. R918d that speaks of Watson's next of kin, but with some imagination one can read "widow" and "nee (?) Maude Smith of Baltimore." He was buried in the Spring Hill cemetery in Lynchburg.
Source: [S172]
