Don Alonzo Watson (June 15, 1807 – January 1, 1892) was a Rochester, New York businessman and philanthropist who, with Hiram Sibley helped found Western Union.
Biography
Don Alonzo Watson was born in Palmer, Massachusetts on June 15, 1807.[1]
He was educated at public schools, and trained as a machinist in Boston. In 1832,he moved to Honeoye Falls, New York, where he met Hiram Sibley. They were partners in a profitable machinery business for eight years.[1]
He married Caroline M. Manning in 1855, and they had three children.[1]
In 1856, he was a major investor in Sibley's new Western Union company.
Watson purchased a building for Rochester Homeopathic Hospital which became Genesee Hospital in Rochester.[2] Watson also endowed a professorship to the University of Rochester in acknowledgment of the college's achievements in political science and history.[3]
He died at his home in Rochester on January 1, 1892, and was buried near Sibley in Mount Hope Cemetery.[4]
References
- ^ a b c Hall, Henry, ed. (1896). America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography. Vol. II. The New York Tribune Company. p. 837. Retrieved December 8, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ The History of the Genesee Hospital Archived February 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Via Health
- ^ Political Scientist Appointed to Watson Professorship, University of Rochester Press Releases
- ^ "Don Alonzo Watson". Democrat and Chronicle. January 2, 1892. p. 10. Retrieved December 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
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This page was last edited on 5 March 2023, at 21:59