By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer
Fred Watson may have been too nice a man to be a great Mayor.
The Community’s 24th Chief Magistrate was popular with voters but, once in office, he had a difficult time dealing with an unruly group of Aldermen.
In fact, according to contemporary newspaper accounts, he just wasn’t a very good Chair.
Born in Sarnia, Watson was a successful banker, a real estate agent and the father of four children.
He was inspired to run for office by the example set by his father, Ebenezer, who was Sarnia’s 19th Mayor.
Elected Mayor in 1899, Fred Watson presided over the Council that began replacing the Community’s wooden sidewalks with concrete footpaths. It was also during his administration that Sarnia’s first paved streets appeared, replacing the muddy roads of the 19th century.
The achievements were fairly modest, but voters gave him a second term in 1900.
Unfortunately, his second year was marred by continuous bickering among Aldermen.
Mayor Watson, tried hard to get Council to electrify the Town’s street cars but the plan was not approved during his time in office.
After that, the atmosphere on Council was so poisoned that the business of the Municipality almost came to a halt at times.
Indeed, The Observer judged his administration to be a failure, mainly because he couldn’t handle a badly fractured Council. “Mayor Watson has had a discouraging time of it in dealing with a body so intractable and unbusinesslike in its ways as the late Council has been”, the newspaper said as he stepped down. It added his Council had left behind a “barren record”.
Watson lived in Sarnia all his life, residing at 272 Christina Street.
He died at age 59 in November, 1918, and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery.