(left) Fred Somervell Watson / (right) Fred and his brother, Fenton Watson
Frederick Somervell Watson grew up in Amity and attended The Amity Academy. He later became a doctor, served in World War I, and married Gelene Nichols in Franklin County, Arkansas in 1922. Fred and his wife moved to Okmulgee, Oklahoma where they raised a family and spent the remainder of their lives. Fred Watson died in 1981.
-Fred Watson was born in Kirby, Arkansas on May 7, 1891, to Willis S. Watson and Mary Etta Palmer.
-Fred's grandfather was Benjamin Watson, a Methodist minister who in 1849 headed the Soulesbury Institute, a Methodist school in Batesville, Arkansas. In 1852, he became the principal of the Tulip (Arkansas) Female Collegiate Seminary, an offshoot of the Arkansas Military Institute in Tulip. Before the Civil War, the two Tulip schools were considered two of the finest schools in the state of Arkansas. By 1860, Benjamin Watson had transferred to the Hamburg Female Seminary.
-Benjamin Watson's son, Willis, became a physician and moved to the Antoine community in Pike Co., Arkansas, where he lived for awhile with the Robert Tolleson family. While in Pike County, Willis met and married Mary Etta Palmer, whose family lived in the nearby Clark Township in Pike County. Later, Willis and Mary Etta moved to Amity, where they lived for the remainder of their lives, Willis practicing medicine and for a short time, running a pharmacy. Willis and Mary Etta Watson raised a large family, among them Fred and Fenton, and two daughters, Edna and Gussie, who taught school at The Amity Academy. Willis and Mary Etta Watson are buried in Jones Cemetery in Amity.
-Fred Watson's mother, Mary Etta Palmer Watson, was a member of the very large Palmer family of current day Amity. Mary Etta's father was Augustus H. Palmer, Jr., son of Augustus Henry Palmer, Sr., who was born in 1806 in Litchfield, Connecticut. The elder Augustus Palmer moved to Georgia after he won land in the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery. He later moved his family to Talladega County, Alabama, and some of those family members eventually emigrated to Amity.
-The elder Augustus H. Palmer, in addition to having Augustus H. Palmer, Jr., had another son named Alexander M. Palmer, who had a son named Patrick Alexander Palmer, who raised a large family in Amity, among whom was Carl Palmer, (1916-1996). Carl Palmer served in World War II, for which he received a Purple Heart and two Oak Leaf Clusters; his children and grandchildren are numerous in current day Amity.