Joseph Watkins
Mr. Watkins and his wife, Sarah (David) Watkins, with their six sons and three daughters, moved to Shelby County in 1841. They at first took a lease of a piece of land on which they located and lived some eight years. During this time they bought eighty acres of land in Salem Township. They cleared their lease and also their own land, and built a brick house and frame barn. They had not a dollar to pay on their land when they bought it; but by industry and economy they paid for this, and have since that time added farm to farm until they now, as a family, have over 900 acres. What is remarkable of this family is, that there has never been a death in the family except the father, who died in 1866. Thomas J. Watkins, one of the sons, was born in Pennsylvania in 1827. He married Miriam Howell in 1852, by whom he had one child (Lucetta E.). Mrs. Watkins died in 1855. In 1864 he married Elizabeth Hull. From this marriage there have been two children, viz., Naomi J., born 1865, and Mary E. A., born 1868.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883