Viola Barton (Burroughs) Watson (1910 - 1986)

Born 1 Mar 1910 in Brooklyn, Kings Co., New York

Ancestors

Wife of Wallace Bowen Watson — married 19 Jun 1936 in Brooklyn, Kings Co., New York

Descendants

Died 16 Jun 1986 at age 76 in Floral Park, New York

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bonnie Nilsen [send private message]

Testimony of Bruce Wallace Watson Jr.:

My paternal grandfather, Wallace Bowen Watson, was born on June 2, 1906, in Denver, Arapahoe County, Colorado. He was the only child of Frederick Wallace Watson and Ella Bowen Watson. In 1912, he moved to Toronto, Canada, where he lived on Jarvis Street. He and his family moved to New York in 1916; they initially lived on 129th Street in Harlem, but subsequently moved to Bay Ridge. He graduated from High School at Brooklyn Tech in 1925. According to his son, Bruce, Wallace was offered a scholarship at a technical college in Brooklyn, but didn’t take it because his father, Frederick, felt that college was an unnecessary expense. Wallace was to remain bitter about this for the rest of his life. He married Viola Barton Burroughs on June 19, 1936 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.

Viola Barton Burroughs was born on March 1, 1910 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Her first son, Thomas, was born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He was hydrocephalic and died at birth. Her second child, Wallace Bruce Watson, was born on October 22, 1942 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Her third child, Donald Barton Watson, was born on September 26, 1944, also in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.

I seem to remember being told that Viola worked as a Physical Education teacher; this is reasonable given her considerable enjoyment of outdoor activities. Wallace worked in a few technical-sector jobs. The most interesting of these was his work during World War II. While employed making minesweeping equipment, Wallace became convinced that his employers, a German-American company, were deliberately sabatoging their products. Given the extreme restrictions regarding quitting (doing so was regarded as treasonous), he felt that he had to maintain his job. However, he also felt that doing so was craven, and didn’t want to contribute to the sub-standard products that his employers were producing. Consequently, he found a piece of stainless steel and spent his time at work milling the steel into a signet ring. He would later give the ring to his son, who would ultimately give it to me.

Wallace and Viola both enjoyed vacationing in the Mohawk Trail area of Massachusetts. Every summer, they would rent a cabin near the “Hail to the Sunrise” park in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Viola would work at a gift shop in the area, while Wallace engaged himself in various projects in the area. His son, Bruce, claimed that he created the “Mohawk Park” letters that appear in front of the statue in the park, and that he constructed “Indian crafts,” which were sold in the shops. These included handmade, hand-painted miniature birch-bark canoes and Indian war shields. Additionally, he took his family on day-trips to various attractions in the area, including the Ausable Chasm, located in upstate New York.

For most of his life, Wallace pursued an intense interest in cutting-edge technologies. He built a very nicely equipped electrical laboratory and workshop in his basement, and constructed numerous tools and machines in that space. His particular specialty was digital clocks, and he made clocks for every member of his family. These clocks utilized both his technical and his artistic ability—they were both attractive and functional. The clock that he made for me featured a green UFO and a red rocket that fired a little stream of LEDs at each other. He also constructed a burglar alarm for his house that would indicate if any of the doors or windows were opened. It was the same model that one often sees used today, but he used it in the 1970’s. Dad used to tell me about the incredible Christmas displays that Wallace made, and I remember his Christmas tree star, which had all of his grandchildren’s names on its rays. The funniest of Wallace’s inventions was a toilet target that taught Bruce how to pee. Wallace later admitted that he didn’t know how dad escaped a painful electrocution with the toy.

Later in life, Wallace and Viola became increasingly eccentric. In addition to keeping a thick, and increasingly yellowed, layer of plastic on all their furniture, they also became somewhat addicted to the Reverend Robert Schuler. Finally, as they became more and more insecure, they resorted to creating battles between their children and their nieces. Consequently, Bruce and Don spent years fighting with each other and with Libby. This became particularly difficult when Wallace and Viola decided that Susan Watson, their daughter-in-law, was money grubbing and hated them. Many of my memories of family events in New York focused on battles between my father and my grandparents, and I still have a letter that my father sent them in which he laid out his numerous grievances.

Viola Barton Burroughs died on July 16, 1986 of, as near as I can ascertain, total systemic failure. Wallace moved to Orlando, Florida, to stay with his son, Donald. This was only to last a few months, as he died on October 18, 1986. They were interred together in New York.

Buried Evergreen Cemetery, Mount Lebanon Section, Plot 141½, Brooklyn, Kings Co., New York

Sources

• History and Genealogy of the John Shepherd Family compiled by R.N. Hodgman, Cleveland Ohio 1913. A copy of the book is in the possession of Bonnie Nilsen who has constructed a website about it at (http://www.johnshepherdfamily.com).