Note: Family tradition says that Eva and Niven were first cousins. It appears that Eva's grandfather, John Lee and Niven's father, Lewis were brothers which would make Eva and Niven first cousins once removed.
Gainesville Sun - Wednesday Evening, January 29, 1958
Obituary: William Tell Watkins, 85 {80}, died at his home yesterday in Plant City. He was the father of Marshall O. Watkins, 1115 NE 3rd St, director of Agriculture Extension Service, University of Florida, and of Mrs. H. A. Sparkman, 3611 NW 13th St.
Another son, W. Edmund Watkins, lives in Plant City.
Funeral services will be at 3 pm tomorrow at Knights Methodist Church near Plant City. Wells Funeral Home is in charge. Rev. W.B. Miller will officiate. Buriel will be at Plant City cemetary. The family requests flowers be omitted.
The deceased was a former Hillsborough County commissioner. He farmed and was interested in citrus development.
Pallbearers will be: Pierre Watkins, Palatka; Wayne Watkins, Putnam Hall; Roy Watkins, Keystone Heights. They are nephews of the deceased.
Watkins' Gainesville grandchildren are Joe Watkins, Mrs. Don MacClellan and William Grantham, now in the Navy at Key West. Four grandchildren in Plant City are Linda, Judy and David and Wayne, who attends the University of Florida.
Mrs. Watkins preceded her husband in death last year.
__________________________________________________________________Info from Owen Newsletter vol III, no. 1 August 1993
William "Tell" Watkins taught school in the one room school house in Grandin, FL. His students included his future wife Ruth Owen and her brothers, Martin, Harry, and Roy. Tell also taught his male students to hunt and fish the "Florida Way".
Tell later went to Merritt Island where he taught 3 members fo the LaRoche family and also boarded with the family. He also taught the boys to hunt.
Tell moved to the Dade City area after the 1898 freeze that devastated much of Florida. He was principal at Trilby School, nine miles from Dade City. He would walk the 9 miles to call on his future wife, Ruth Owen. He finally saved up enough money to buy a bicycle and rode that down to Dade City once but left the bike too near the railroad tracks and the first train coming through demolished it.
Tell Watkins and Ruth Owen were married at the home of her parents, M.M. Owen and Lena Martin Owen on Christmas Eve, 1903 in Dade City. They then boarded a train and went for a visit to Tell' Mother's home in Putnam Hall. Tell's mother passed away the following year (1904).
The Watkins family had migrated from North Carolina and built their first home between Putnam Hall and Grandin. Tell's sister (Bessie or Judith?) and her husband Jim Alderman lived in this home until it burned. Nearby in Putnam Hall, Tell's oldest brother Preston built a fine colonial home to house his large family. Preston Watkins was the tax collector for Putnam County for many years. Two of the Watkins brothers moved to Louisiana (Marshall and James).
Tell and Ruth moved to Manatee with Ruth's parents about 1904. It was here in 1908 that their first child, Lena, was born.
About 1910 Tell, Ruth, Lena, Will Martin(brother of Lena Owen), Will's wife, Bess and their two children Betty and Bob all went to Louisana with the idea of settling there near Tell's brothers. They traveled by ship from Tampa across the Gulf to New Orleans and remained in Louisana about a year before returning to Florida.
In 1904 Tell had bought land in the Knights Community (Hillsbourgh County) and when he returned from Louisana, he and M.M. Owen began building the home where he and Ruth and family resided the rest of their lives. It was here in Knights that their two sons were born, Marshall in 1913 and Edmund in 1915.
In 1916 Tell puschased his first car, a Model T. The family made regular trips from Knights to Hawthorne to visit M.M and Lena Owen. It was a full days trip, with just dirt roads with deep ruts. In 1920 the family made a trip there. Lena Watkins, just 12 years old, was recovering from a case of diptheria ans was considered too weak to make the trip by car, so she made the trip by train a day before the rest of the family went by car.
Cause of death
Ruth used her apron as a potholder and reached across a lit burner on her gas stove to the back burner. The apron did not immediatly flame up but smoldered for several minutes. She had third degree burns on her back and legs. She had 5 skin graft operations but died of kidney failure on the day she was to go home.
Served with the Anson County Guards. Co. A 14 Regement.
Represented his district in the SenateDecember 1889 Purchased "a Fine Farm" in Florida and moved his family there
The Civil War had devastated the area around Richmond, where they lived, so M.M hearing about the wonderful opportunities in Florida decided to move his family there.
In 1893, with a loan against the house in Richmond of $29.42 (probably $25.00 plus interest), M.M. Owen brought his wife, Lena, daughter Ruth, and sons, Martin, Roy and Harry by train to Grandin, FL.
M.M. Owen served as depot agent in Grandin for a small railway line that linked Tallahassee and points west to the thriving town of Palatka. Palatka enfjoyed the benefit of not only 3 railroads, but also the benefit of large river boats that ran from Jacksonville to Deland.
The town of Grandin had a school house, drug store, several churches and a boarding house. The area around Grandin was little lmore thatn a wilderness, with lakes, swamps and large stands of virgin pine and hardwoods. Several large orange groves were in the area including the one owned by the Watkins family of Putnam Hall (Culpepper Watkins,Jr &/or Preston Watkins)
It was here in Grandin, that the 3 brothers, Martin , Roy and Harry spent many hours at the depot watching their father work and it was here they learned the skill of telegraphy. Ruth who was 7 years old when the family moved to Florida, began training as a teacher and she and the 3 boys attended the one room school house at Grandin where they were taught by William Tell Watkins (the future husband of Ruth). W.T. Watkins also taught the boys to hunt and fish the "Florida Way"
In 1898 the south experienced a devastating freeze. the cold wave swept in from Canada and remained long enough to wipe out most of the large citrus groves, as well as all other tropical growth, down as far as the middle of the state. The citrus industry in Putnam County was hit very hard and in Towns like Grandin, McMeekin, Crescent City and others, business came to a halt.
M.M Owen moved with his family to Dade City where he began work as an agent for the Seaboard Railroad. HE remained a depot agent for the Seaboard until his retirement in late 1929.
About 1904 M.M. Owen and family moved to Manatee. W.T. and Ruth Watkins (now married) moved with them.
Around 1913 M.M and Lena moved to Hawthorne where M.M served as depot agent for the Seaboard. He built a one story frame house on the edge of town next to a small lake.
In 1920, M.M and wife,Lena moved to Knights where h bought an old house with 5 acres of land.
In 1924 M.M decided to go to Washington and New England to visit his sisters, Helen and Mamie. He took his granddaughter, Lena with him. Lena had to get special permission to miss the last 2 weeks of school.