"Preacher-Man"

“Leslie Watson has milked a cow, made sorghum and hoboed on a train, all the things he thinks a man must do before he can say he has really lived.  He has also found time to preach the Gospel and put out newspapers.”

Thus began the newspaper article in the Anniston Star about my paternal grandfather and thus begins my journey into the life and legacy of Leslie Watson.  While I knew him as a sweet man who pulled quarters out of my ears, gave me candy and was willing to play “Ride a Little Pony...” for hours, I always knew there was more than met the eye.  My grandfather came from humble beginnings, and quite frankly, never quite left them.   In his mind, I think he saw himself as a failure.  He never made lots of money or worked for a big name newspaper.  In fact, he never even finished high school....although he never stopped gaining an education.  

To really understand my grandfather, we have to go back to 1913.  Leslie was born on May 5 of that year near the banks of Black Creek on Lookout Mt. in rural Etowah County, Alabama.  He was the second son and third child born to Willie and Lovie Watson.  Willie was a railroad foreman for L&N and the son of mixed blood Cherokees.  He was a tough man in his dealings with the world, but he also had a soft side, especially when it came to his wife and family.  

The Watson Family....Leslie is the baby.

When Leslie was a toddler, his family moved to Village Springs where the L&N had a station.  This community is located in southern Jefferson County near the border of Blount County.  Sometime before1930, the family moved back to Etowah County.  In the 1930 census they are living on Old Keener Rd. in Reece City which was on Lookout Mt., just a few miles from his birthplace.  Leslie and his siblings attended Etowah School.  When he was 15, he got a job driving the school bus.  On his route, there was a pretty little 13 year old girl with dark, curly hair and dimples.  Her name was Ruby Purcell and she was a sweet, soft spoken young woman who captured his attention immediately.  One day there was no room on the bus except the front seat.  It was Leslie’s lucky day.  Their courtship began in 1928 and they were married 2 years later at the tender ages of 15 and 17.    

After their marriage, Leslie had to quit school and make money to support he and his wife.  Jobs were pretty scarce in 1930, so he and his brother-in-law rode the rails from Gadsden to Miami, FL looking for work.  At one point, they were so desperate they ate cold biscuits and clabbered milk and slept on park benches...when they could find them.  Many people were doing the same thing and at one point, there were over 80 hoboes in two small freight cars.  It was just one memory of that time that he would carry for the rest of his life. 

Ruby and Leslie Watson

Finally, things got a little better and he was able to come back home and found work as a "printer’s devil" on a weekly newspaper near home.  It wasn’t much, but it was a place to start.  In the Anniston Star article, he called himself an “all around country editor, a man who could do whatever needed to be done on a small weekly.”  He eventually moved up to being in charge of such a newspaper called “The Bledsonian” in Pikesville, Tennessee.  He “ran the show” there for 3 years in the late 30’s, driving back and forth between his home in Alabama. Over the 40 years that followed, he worked as a compositor, pressman, stereotyper, ad salesman, reporter, editor and publisher at many small papers. He also completed divinity courses via correspondence and was preaching at different rural churches throughout the county, earning him the nickname “Preacher” at the newspaper.  However, he never left Lookout Mt. and never moved from the 2 room house he’d built with his own hands.  Along the way, he and Ruby had 3 boys...Bill, Jerry and Robert, my father. After their deaths, an old shoebox of love letters spanning the late 1920's and early 1930's was found. It was quite enchanting to be able to see my grandparents as teenagers in love. The next several posts will be some of those letters. I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I have.

Leslie and Ruby and their boys.