Elkanah Watson

John Singleton Copley, Elkanah Watson, 1782, in the Princeton University Art Museum. The ship in the background represents the departure to America of the acknowledgement of the independence of the United States.[1]

Elkanah Watson (January 22, 1758 – December 5, 1842) was an American agriculturist, writer, banker, and businessman. He was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts and died at Port Kent, New York. He worked in Albany, New York for several years, founding the State Bank of Albany. After retiring in 1807 to a farm in Massachusetts, he raised Merino sheep and founded the agricultural fair, first organizing one at Pittsfield.[2]

Based on journals which he had kept since his 20s, Watson started writing his autobiography in 1821. It was completed, edited and published as Men and the Times of the Revolution; or Memoirs of Elkanah Watson (1856) by one of his sons, historian Winslow Cossoul Watson.[3]

  1. ^ Bayley, Frank William; Perkins, Augustus Thorndike (1915). The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley: Founded on the Work of Augustus Thorndike Perkins. Taylor Press. pp. 254–5.
  2. ^ Maschino, Jeannie (19 July 2021). "Eagle Archives: July 19, 1938: County Fair idea originated with two Marino sheep". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  3. ^ "Elkanah Watson Papers, 1773-1884: Manuscripts and Special Collections: NYS Library". www.nysl.nysed.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-17.