A bridge builder emigrated to America, making his home in Chicago.

The evidence

• “His parents, William and Mary (Spinks) Watson, were also natives of England. At the age of thirteen he began working on the railroad, but soon afterward was employed on bridge building, and was engaged in that line of work on various railroads in the old country until 1849, when he emigrated to America. He made his home in Chicago and for one year was engaged in bridge building for the Chicago & North-Western Railroad Company on the old Galena division between Chicago and Elgin.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34b-biographical-2.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 420 / book p. 911

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources