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- From the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia at Ancestry.com. <<http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=ldsbio&cres=33;1%2c34;82%2c35;72%2c37;2%2c38;72%2c39;1%2c42;8%2cssdi;35%2cpallotm;3%2c1920usfedcen;21%2ccadeath1940;4%2cnews-ny-nyt-1881;4%2c&gsfn=&gsln=rumgay<pop=1&prox=1&yeart=a&ti=0&sourceid=2524&submit.x=32&submit.y=8&gss=angs&GS=RUMGAY>>
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
Volume 2
Biographies
Gillispie, Alexander
Watson, Andrew A., survivor of the hand-cart immigration of 1856, a Patriarch in the Utah Stake of Zion, and a resident of Provo, was born at Kettlebridge, Fifeshire, Scotland, Oct. 13, 1832, the son of Jas. Watson and Janet Rumgay. The family were in humble circumstances, the father working for weekly wages as engineer-tender at the Burnturk Collieries. The position was one of care and responsibility for the safety of his fellow workmen. At eight years of age Andrew moved with his parents to Balmalcoln, another village, where, as at his birthplace, the principal occupation of the people was handloom linen weaving. There he attended the common school, where the Bible was used as a text book and impressed upon his young and tender mind the beautiful lessons of the gospel. He served a two years' apprenticeship at linen weaving, but had a natural liking for mechanism and the supervision of machinery. At his fathers death, in 1850, he took his place. Two years later he moved to Lumphinan's Coal and Iron Works, where he continued to labor as engine-tender. He was religiously trained, led a Godly life, and was acquainted with the Scriptures and the doctrines of different churches, though he joined none until he became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was when he was about twenty-one. He was ordained a Priest Dec. 18, 1853, and an Elder June 25, 1855. During the latter year he was called into the ministry, and labored for nearly twelve months among saints and strangers prior to coming to Utah. Upon leaving his mother's home at Lumphinan April 28, 1856, he received from her the sum of ten pounds, also a suit of clothes from the saints with whom he had labored as a missionary. By way of Edinburgh and Glasgow he reached Liverpool, sailed thence to New York, proceeded to Chicago, and left that city on the 23rd of June for the outfitting camps on the frontier. It was the great hand-cart emigration. Young Watson was enrolled in Captain James G. Willie's company, one of those that suffered most severely while dragging their hand-carts through the piercing winds and heavy snow of the succeeding autumn. He records that on the 19th of October the last morsel of food was served, and that the relief wagons arrived on the 21st, just in time to rescue the starving companies. At Rocky Ridge and South Pass a fierce storm was encountered, and again the heroic little band were thrown into terrible danger. Fifteen died from fatigue and exposure. Bro. Watson himself was thoroughly exhausted, and would have perished but for the kind efforts of some of his companions who encouraged and urged him on. He makes special mention of a Sister Tofield, a Sister Evans, and of William Leadingham, captain of the guard, who proved themselves in that awful extremity devoted and self-sacrificing friends. The date of his arrival at Salt Lake City was the 9th of November. Patriarch Watson settled permanently at Provo, to which place he was sent by Bishop Edward Hunter. He did much pioneer work in that part, and helped to build the Woollen Mills, in which he is still a stockholder. In 1860 (Oct. 16th) he married Jane Allen, by whom he was the father of five children; he has two others by adoption. He married his second wife, Margaret Purvis, in January, 1881, and his first wife died March 21, 1882. From May 17, 1857, to June 20, 1877, he held the office of a Seventy, and was connected with the forty-fifth quorum. He was then ordained a High Priest and set apart as first counselor to Bishop John E. Booth, of the Provo Fourth Ward, serving also as first counselor to his successor, Bishop Joseph B. Keeler, until December 9, 1900, when he was released, owing to age and declining health. Meantime, from 1877 to 1879, he had visited his native Scotland as a missionary. He was ordained a Patriarch under the hands of Apostle Reed Smoot, June 24, 1902. A friend of the subject has said of this good and worthy man: "Andrew Watson's life has been so close an exemplification of the divine injunction, 'Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth' that it would be almost impossible to get from him a resume of his life further than matters of name and date." The writer has seen him in conversation with friends, when his face has became animated and tears streamed down his aged cheeks, as he bore testimony to the goodness of God and the divine mission of Joseph Smith. His boyhood days were spent in an almost constant struggle for the support of himself and his father's family. His greatest joy was that brought by the gospel. His hardships in crossing the plains with, a hand-cart company came very near costing him his life. One of his greatest desire now, as he nears the close of life, is to thank those good sisters, his traveling companions, for the sacrifices they made for him when strength failed and he became stiffened with cold and fatigue. To their kindness and God's mercy he owes his life,—that beautiful life which has been an example of true Christian piety to all who know him. The pioneer residents of Provo remember him as a young man of twenty-five, toiling in a blacksmith shop, where plow-shares were made from wagon tires: again making ditches, grading canyon roads and carding wool at Holdaway's carding machines and the new Woollen Mills, thus helping to make and increase the industries of the growing town. In the "move" from Salt Lake City in 1858 he was a prominent worker, and through many nights of that perilous time he stood guard. Through his liberal contributions the emigration funds were often swelled, though his mother, the dearest emigrant to him, did not live to use the means he provided for her journey to Zion. Through the long years that have followed those pioneer days, whether years of adversity or of prosperity, Brother Watson and his devoted helpmates, Sisters Jane and Maggie, with one accord have held open their hearts and their home for the poor that need aid and the distressed that need comfort. Their home has always been a home for the widow and the orphan and many such have found shelter therein. When the books are opened before the Eternal Judge, Andrew Watson shall not lack for the good testimony of men and of angels. The Father will surely say, "Good and faithful servant, enter thou into my rest."
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1832 - 1915 (82 years)