Exploring History Through Genealogy

The Watts Family

I have little doubt that you have never heard of Watts, California. I hadn't until I began research into this family. Now, it is a little neighborhood in southern Los Angeles. But in the 1880s to the early 1900s it was a big ranch owned by the Watts Family. According to family lore, my sister - in - law's family, who descended from the Watts, founded the city of Watts. The Watts neighborhood is
most notably known for the Watts riots in the 1960s when there was predominantly an African American neighborhood. The Watts family had long since left by then, most off them going to Riverside, California.

When I started my research, I began with looking up what I could on Watts itself. Watts wasn't developed as a city until until after Charles H. Watts built a railroad station in 1904. Watts township was consequently after him. In 1907, Watts was incorporated as a city and in 1926, it was annexed to Los Angeles.

Herein lay the crux of the problem. I did not have a Charles Watts in my database. So, started to do some more in depth research into the Watts Family to find him. The first watts of the family to come to Los Angeles was Rufus William Watts. With him he brought six of his seven children. They came from Davidson county, South Dakota where they had moved to in 1881 from Canada. I am not sure when Rufus came to California, but he is listed in the Pasadena city directory in 1888.

Trying to find more information, I packed my 1 year old son into the car and we made the 3 hour treck to Los Angeles, the Southern California Genealogical Society, to see what they had. I couldn't find Rufus in the 1890 city directory for Los Angeles, but I did find Charles H. Watts, the same one who built the Watts Railroad Station. The directory lists Charles as having been born in 1849 in Ohio and living in San Antonio township. Despite being a Watts, there are a few problems with Charles belonging to our family. Although he is the correct age for being a son, he was born before Rufus' marriage to his wife Julia. I have been able to trace Rufus back to 1861 in Canada through censuses and a Charles is never mentioned. Also, Rufus and his family have never been to Ohio, that I can tell. They left Canada for South Dakota, and from there made their way to California.

Having established that this is a different family, I looked some more into Watts. According to an article written by Eric Brightwell (https://www.amoeba.com/blog/2014/02/eric-s-blog/california-fool-s-gold-exploring...), Charles came from Pasadena and purchased 220 acres of land on which he put the Railroad Station. This leaves little room for Rufus to have bought his own land, unless he helped pay for it.

My next step is going to be another trip to Los Angeles to look through land records, but until then, I must come to the conclusion that our Watts family didn't found the city of Watts. However, I find it very plausible that they could have come to Watts after the railroad station was built. This is when may came to the town and how the town was built up. I find a great argument for that as Rufus' children were all in and around Watts, though not in the town itself according to census records in the 1900-1910s. After this they all, except for one daughter, migrated over to Riverside. Supposedly, Rufus died in Watts, but I have not yet been able to find death or burial records for him.
And the hunt continues!