Henry Watterson

{{Short description|American journalist and politician (1840–1921)}} {{more citations needed|date=July 2018}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | name= Henry Watterson | image=Henry Watterson - Project Gutenberg etext 18422.jpg | state= Kentucky | district=5th | party=Democratic | term_start = August 12, 1876 | term_end = March 3, 1877 | preceded= Edward Y. Parsons | succeeded= Albert S. Willis | birth_date= {{birth date|1840|02|16}} | birth_place= Washington, D.C., U.S. | death_date= {{death date and age|1921|12|22|1840|02|16}} | death_place= Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. | resting_place = Cave Hill Cemetery<br />Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | spouse= {{marriage|Rebecca Ewing|1865}} | children = 8 | signature = Henry-Watterson-sig.jpg | signature_alt = Henry Watterson }}

'''Henry Watterson''' (February 16, 1840 – December 22, 1921), the son of a U.S. congressman from Tennessee, became a prominent journalist in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as a Confederate soldier, author and partial term U.S. congressman. A Democrat like his father Harvey Magee Watterson, Henry Watterson for five decades after the American Civil War was a part-owner and editor of the ''Louisville Courier-Journal'', which was founded by Walter Newman Haldeman and would be purchased by Robert Worth Bingham in 1919, who would end the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's association with the paper.<ref name="ky">{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.kyenc.org/entry/w/WATTE01.html |title=Watterson, Henry |encyclopedia=The Kentucky Encyclopedia |year=1993 |first=Joseph Frazier |last=Wall |editor-first=John E. |editor-last=Kleber |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |pages=936–937 |access-date=August 4, 2018 |archive-date=November 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116203521/http://www.kyenc.org/entry/w/WATTE01.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="tn">{{Cite web |url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/henry-watterson/ |title=Henry Watterson |website=Tennessee Encyclopedia |first=Glenn A. |last=Himebaugh |date=2017 |publisher=Tennessee Historical Society |access-date=August 4, 2018 |archive-date=August 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805022307/https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/henry-watterson/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Early and family life== Born in Washington, D.C., on February 16, 1840, to the former Tilithacumi (Talitha) Black of Spring Hill, Tennessee and her husband, Harvey Magee Watterson, a Shelbyville, Tennessee lawyer and U.S. Congressman. His father was close to President Andrew Jackson, also from Tennessee, and in 1843 would become the publisher of the ''Washington Union'', the main newspaper of the Democratic party of that era. His uncle in Ohio would also become a newspaper editor, lawyer, Union soldier during the Civil War and ultimately Republican U.S. Supreme Court justice Stanley Matthews.

Henry was an only child. He was sickly, with very poor eyesight and that only in one eye, so that his mother home-schooled him in Washington, D.C., and their home in Nashville, Tennessee<ref>1850 U.S. Federal Census for Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee family 528 in dwelling 429 also included two male boarders, a 28-year-old clerk and an 18-year-old trainee barrister</ref> until he was twelve years old. She then sent him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received his only formal education, at an academy run by an Episcopal priest, and he also ran the school paper, the ''New Era'', on a press his father donated.<ref name="ky"/>

After the American Civil War as discussed below, in September 1865, Watterson returned to Nashville to marry Rebecca Ewing, with whom he would have six sons and two daughters. They were able to hire live-in Irish servants, and by 1880 his parents also lived with them.<ref>1880 U.S. Federal Census for district 124, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky family 79</ref> Their sons were Ewing (1868–),<ref>1870 U.S. Federal Census for Louisville Ward 6, Jefferson County, Kentucky family 459</ref> Henry Jr. (1877–) and Harvey W. Watterson (1879–1908) and their daughters were Lady (1871–) and Ethel Watterson Gilmour (1880–1907).

==Career==

Watterson became a newspaper reporter early in his life.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuGCoLRCN-kC&pg=PA104 | title=The WPA Guide to Kentucky | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=1996 | access-date=November 24, 2013 | author=Federal Writers' Project | pages=104 | isbn=0813108659 | archive-date=May 5, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240505011625/https://books.google.com/books?id=IuGCoLRCN-kC&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1856 he moved to New York to work on various publication, and in 1858 he moved to Washington to work on other publications.<ref name="tn"/>

When his father returned to Tennessee in 1861 after the outbreak of the American Civil War, Henry Watterson did too. He volunteered for the Confederate States Army, and was attached at various times to the staffs of Generals Joseph E. Johnston, Leonidas Polk and Nathan B. Forrest. His main contribution to the Confederate war effort, however, was editorial, with the ''Chattanooga Rebel'' and the ''Nashville Banner''. After the Confederacy lost, Watterson edited the ''Cincinnati Evening Post'' for six months.<ref name="tn"/> By September 1865 Watterson returned to Nashville, married, become editor and part owner of the ''Nashville Banner,'' where he began his “New Departure” campaign urging national reconciliation.

Watterson ultimately settled down in Louisville, Kentucky, having met Walter Newman Haldeman during the war, and began editing the ''Louisville Journal''. That paper merged with the ''Louisville Courier'' in 1868, forming the ''Courier-Journal''. This paper soon gained national attention for its excellent reporting.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} Watterson was a leader of the Liberal Republican movement in 1872. By 1876 he was a Democrat; his proposal for hundreds of thousands of Democrats to march on Washington to force the election of Tilden angered President Ulysses S. Grant, who noted that nobody threatened Grant. Watterson was elected to fill the rest of Edward Y. Parsons' term in the U.S. House when Parsons died in office.

Watterson was called "the last of the great personal journalists", writing colorful and controversial editorials on many topics under the pen name "Marse Henry". Hundreds of American papers republished them; they were an early exemplar of the syndicated column which played a significant role creating public support for U.S. intervention in the First World War. Watterson won the Pulitzer Prize in 1918 for two editorials supporting U.S. entry into World War I ("Vae Victis!" and "War Has Its Compensations"), and he remained the paper's editor until 1919, retiring after conflicts with Robert Worth Bingham, who purchased the paper in 1918.

During his tenure as editor, Watterson was a Democratic representative in Congress from 1876 to 1877. He was also a five-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where, in 1892, Watterson received a smattering of votes for the vice presidential nomination. He became widely known as a lecturer and orator. His publications include ''History of the Spanish–American War'' (1899) and ''The Compromises of Life'' (1902).

==Death and legacy==

Watterson died in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida in 1921.

The portion of I-264 from the junction with US 31W to its northeastern terminus at I-71 is known as the Watterson Expressway.

A Jefferson County Public School in eastern Louisville is named Watterson Elementary School.

The World War II Liberty Ship {{SS|Henry Watterson}} was named in his honor.

== References == {{Reflist}} * {{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Kentucky |publisher=Somerset Publishers |location=New York, New York |year=1987 |isbn=0-403-09981-1 |pages=189–192}} * {{cite book |first=Daniel S. |last=Margolies |title=Henry Watterson And the New South: The Politics of Empire, Free Trade, And Globalization |date=2006 |isbn=9780813124179 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGGWN4tO7w0C}}

== External links == {{commons category|Henry Watterson}} * [https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/W000209 Biography for US Congress] * {{Gutenberg author |id=2760| name=Henry Watterson}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Watterson}} * {{cite book |title=Kentucky politicians : sketches of representative Corncrackers and other miscellany |last=McAfee |first=John J. |publisher=Press of the Courier-Journal job printing company |location=Louisville, Kentucky |year=1886 |url=https://archive.org/details/kentuckypolitic00mcafgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/kentuckypolitic00mcafgoog/page/n170 164]–167 |access-date=May 4, 2009}} * [https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/watterson1/menu.html Marse Henry: An Autobiography. Volume I.] New York: George H. Doran Company, c1919. * [https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/watterson2/menu.html Marse Henry: An Autobiography. Volume II.] New York: George H. Doran Company, c1919. * [https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt7ghx15n298 Guide to the Henry Watterson World War I editorials, 1915–1921] housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center {{s-start}}

{{succession box | title=U.S. Congressman, Kentucky's 5th district | before=Edward Y. Parsons | after=Albert S. Willis | years=1876–1877}}

{{s-end}} {{USCongRep-start|congresses= 44th United States Congresses |state=Kentucky}} {{USCongRep/KY/44}} {{USCongRep-end}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watterson, Henry}} Category:1840 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Journalists from Washington, D.C. Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Category:Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky Category:Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery Category:Kentucky Liberal Republicans Category:Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Kentucky Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:Journalists from Kentucky Category:American male journalists Category:Courier Journal people Category:19th-century United States representatives