Don Alonzo Watson

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.

Don Alonzo Watson
Born(1807-06-15)June 15, 1807
Palmer, Massachusetts
DiedJanuary 1, 1892(1892-01-01) (aged 84)
Rochester, New York
OccupationBusinessman
Spouse
Caroline M. Manning
​
(m. 1855)​
Signature

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
  1. 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.
  2. The History of the Genesee Hospital Archived February 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Via Health
  3. Political Scientist Appointed to Watson Professorship, University of Rochester Press Releases
  4. "Don Alonzo Watson". Democrat and Chronicle. January 2, 1892. p. 10. Retrieved December 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.


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