CHARLES WATKINS.
Charles, son of Samuel Watkins, and his wife Elizabeth, formerly of
Halifax county, Virginia, was born in Milton, North Carolina, on July
24, 1847. The Watkins family were residents of Virginia for several
generations. Thomas Watkins, grandfather of Charles, was a justice
of the peace of Halifax county, and by virtue of being the senior justice
of the county was high sheriff. The father of Charles, Samuel Watkins,
was born in Halifax county in 1800, and died in 1868. His mother
was Elizabeth F., daughter of Thomas Stamps, of Halifax county,
whose wife was also of that county, Elizabeth Ragland. Mrs. Elizabeth
F. Watkins, born in 1813, is now living at Milton, North Carolina.
The wife of Charles Watkins, whom he married June 1, 1876, in her
native city, Baltimore, Maryland, is Virginia R., daughter of Gustavus
and Rebecca G. (Kettlewell) Ober. Her mother is living in Baltimore;
her father, son of Robert Ober of Maryland, was born in Montgomery
county, that State, and died in January, 1881, aged sixty-one years
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Watkins have two daughters, Rebecca G. and
Elizabeth F., and one son, Charles, jr.
Mr. Watkins was educated at Milton and Hillsboro, North Carolina.
In September, 1865, he went into business with his father and brother
in Milton, firm of Samuel Watkins & Sons, merchants. In 1870 he
went into the leaf tobacco business with his brother in Milton; in 1875
opened a dry goods house with his nephew at Henderson, under firm
name of S. & C. Watkins, and in the following year added leaf tobacco
to the business. Moved to Richmond in January, 1878, and became a
partner in the house of Hill, Skenker & Watkins, general commission
merchants, in May, 1882, purchased his partners' interest, and now
continues the same business under the name of Charles Watkins & Co.
He is still full partner in the business at Milton, now carried on under
the firm name and style of M. W. & C. Watkins, and in the business at
Henderson, the firm of S. & C. Watkins. He was President of the
Richmond Tobacco Trade from October, 1886 to October, 1888.
During the last two years of the civil war, Mr. Watkins served as a
cadet at the Hillsboro (N. C.) Military Academy, and was with that
body called into State military service in February, 1865, by the governor.
