A. P. Watson

A.P Watson was born in Acworth, Georgia on June 11, 1848.[1][2] Watson joined the Confederate States Army as a teenager and was one of the youngest commissioned officers, commanding a Georgian regiment at sixteen. His regiment fought in the American Civil War in South Carolina.[3] By the end of war he was a colonel. At 19, he moved with his family to Mississippi. He moved to Shawnee in Indian Territory in 1901.[2]

By 1902 he owned a 75-acre potato farm northwest of Shawnee.[4] In 1902, he was elected vice-president of the Oklahoma and Indian Territories Agricultural Horticulture and Irrigation Society.[5] In 1905, he served as the group's secretary.[6] He was sometimes referred to by the press as the "Potato King of Oklahoma."[lower-alpha 1] In 1904, he was the general of the territorial United Confederate Veterans association.[10] He was also a member of the Woodsmen of the World.[11]

He ran in the Democratic primary to be Justice of the Peace for Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1904.[12] In 1907, he was one of the Democratic Party's nominees for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, defeating D.A. Crafton and Roy Hays in the September general election.[13] He was described as a Jacksonian Democrat during his first election campaign.[2] In February 1915, the Oklahoma House of Representatives opened an investigation into the corporation commission.[14] After investigating the commission, the house impeached Watson.[15] In April, the Oklahoma Senate found him guilty of two of nine article of impeachment related to a loan made to his wife by R.K. Wooten which he had endorsed.[16] He was the third Oklahoma politician to be impeached and the second to be removed from office.[lower-alpha 2] W.D. Humphrey was appointed by Governor Robert L. Williams to replace him on the commission.[18]

He immediately launched a re-election campaign for the office.[19] In August 1916, he placed fifth and last in the Democratic primary.[20]