Elkanah Watson

Elkanah Watson (January 22, 1758 – December 5, 1842) was a visionary traveller and writer, agriculturist and canal promoter, 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.

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.

Elkanah Watson was born, raised and educated in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In 1774 he was apprenticed to the mercantile firm of John Brown in Providence, Rhode Island. His family business empire included interests in the Triangle Trade, and Brown was a slave trader. Watson was entrusted with increasingly responsible projects and in 1778 at the age of 20, he carried $50,000 sewn into his clothes, to deliver to Brown's southern agents in Charleston, South Carolina. His 1200-mile journey took him 77 days. After delivering the money, Watson set off with two companions to explore Georgia and Florida, and during this journey started keeping a journal, a practice which he maintained for decades.

After completing his indenture in 1779, Watson continued to work for the Browns. During the American Revolutionary War, Watson carried Brown's dispatches overseas to statesman Benjamin Franklin in France, who was working to secure French support. Watson became a Freemason in France during the war, and went into business in Nantes with a Frenchman, François Cossoul. They opened a branch in London before suffering reverses. Later they commissioned a Masonic apron for George Washington.

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